Transcripts For CSPAN2 House Oversight Hearing On 2020 Census 20240713

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] without ox the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. With that ill now recognize myself to give an opening state and mr. Gomez will follow me with a minute and the same will be given to the Ranking Member. Good morning. Thank you to everyone for being here today to discuss a topic which is vital to our democracy, the die sendal sentence. The 2020 census is imminent with counting set to begin in alaska in less than two week, and across the country on april 1. The constitution requires every person to be counted. Eave Single Person living in the United States of mrs. , not just citizens. Not just people of a particular Political Party or race, absolutely everyone. I am gravely concern that the Census Bureau may not be prepared to meet the high bar, and that the 2020 census could leave communities across the country undercounted, underrepresented, and underfunded. The Government Accountability office and the department of commerce Inspector General both agree that the census is not where it should be. Sadly, under President Trump, the are forced to ask whether the failure to address these concerns is due to incompetence or is intentional. The Census Bureau has been plagued by delays in hiring. Thousands of census worker needed to ensure eave person is counted. These delair hard to count communities. The most because outreach from trusted voices and nonresponse followup are essential in these communities. The administrations antiimmigrant policies and its illegal effort to add a Citizenship Question have made an accurate count even harder to obtain by sewing fear and distrust in communities across the country. But this appears to be the point. As republican operative thomas hoff her, the socalled mikele angelo of predistricting put it, adding a citizen ship question would be, and i quote from him, quote, advantageous for republicans and nonhispanic whites, end quote. Ultimately the administrations goal in trying to add a Citizenship Question seems to be to take the hard to count and make them the uncounted. This is why i introduced a bill last year, the census idea act to remove the Citizenship Question, and codify the process by which questions are added to the census form. When the Supreme Court ruled that the attempt to add the Citizenship Question was illegal, the administration refused for almost two weeks to accept the outcome before finally following the law. Even still, the president is trying to use administrative records to collect citizenship data. But this has nothing to do with the 2020 census. The Census Bureau needs to make clear that everyone can participate without fear, that doing so will not hurt them or their family and their personal data will be secure. The Census Bureau faces a host of new challenges, as it executes the largest census in history and the first to be conducted mostly and entirely online. Cyber threats, limited broadband access, reduced language assistance and gaps in outreach effort then the success of the census. Data from the census will determine the apportionment of eave seat in the house of representatives, and the allocation of roughly 1. 5 trillion in federal funding. And undercount means fewer federal dollars for communed that need them the most, including for essential Public Services like medicaid, Childrens Health, insurance, foster care and schools and undercount would also mean less representation for these communities at every level of government. If youre not counted, youre not represented. Some states, including california, and my home state of new york, are trying to fill the gaps in the census bury wrotes efforts to reach hard to count commune. This applaud the efforts and urge every state to do the same. The bureau should coordinate with these states so that limited resources can be used most effectively and efficiently. To be clear i believe the career Civil Servants at the census bury re are working hard to achieve the mission of a complete and accurate census but they need help and they need it quick live. Our Witnesses Today know these hard could count communities better than anyone. We should value their expertise and pay heed to their recommendations and i know i will. In november, 2018, my pred dessore Elijah Cummings vow thats enshourd an cuke, nonpartisan census would be a top priority of the Oversight Committee and he was good to his word, and as chairwoman i intend to honor that commitment. So, i want to thank everyone for coming and i look forward to their testimony and i would now like to call on jumpy gomez for one minute. Thank you, chairwoman malone any. As we all know, todays hearing is not a theoretical exercise. The 2020 census is just days away, and the threat of an undercount is real. The last census failed to count more than 750,000 latinos, more 750,000 africanamericans, and more than 50,000 American Indians and native alaskans. Im very concerned that we will could see an even bigger undercount in 2020. Many americans are fearful and mistrustle of their government and overcoming that fear and mistrust require asthmassive mobilization effort we have never seen before but the census entireow appear to be far behind schedule. An undercount will have an. Pact on the turns available to the people in these communities. Means more people going without health care, fewer resources for childcare, Affordable Housing and less money for local schools. As the committee and congress, our message should be simple. Everyone must be counted. Im grateful to each of our witnesses here today, not just for assisting the committee but youror tireless advocacy to ensure shoot members of your communities are counted fairly and accurately as the constitution requires. With that i yield back. Now recognizes the Ranking Member. I thank the chair. Before getting to my Opening Statement, madam chair, win we last met, i brought up the scathing report that Inspector General horowitz of the Justice Department brought forward last month, report where even former fbi director jim comey on National Television had to say that he was wrong in his defense of the fbi and how they handled the fisa application process in the trump russia investigation youch indicated you would let us know when we are would havemer horowitz in front of the committee, understand what he pointed out. 17 different times i thank the gentleman were still waiting for an answer, madam chair. Id like to give you on answer and this was a purpose of the hearing is on the census, and i appreciate the Ranking Members persistence on this issue, but for the Inspector Generals report was released to the public, all members of the Oversight Committee had the opportunity to read the report, and attend a briefing with the office of the Inspector General. The Senate Judiciary Committee Held a hearing on the Inspector Generals report on december 111th. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security followed with its own hearing on december 18th. The Inspector General testified at both of these hearings and answered numerous questions about the report. So i deeply appreciate the Ranking Members request, and i wrote him a letter on december 6th. At this point i dont think another hearing is necessary, and i look forward to so, madam chair on areas where we can Work Together to improve the lives of our constituents. Madam chairwoman, i wouldnt dont we have a census hearing in the senate, then, if were always going rely on the senate to have these health if publish. The gentleman is not recognized. The gentleman is not recognize he. Then i have a point of order. Ill be glad because russian career it could your point of order. Rule 1, clause 2, j, section 1, actually talks about minority hearings and one of the issues that we have had, madam chairman, is that we believe that this committee needs to be doing their oversight function, and i bring up jack he vans. We have had jack evans resign from the d. C. Council. It was the previous chairman, along with i would say the gentleman from virginia, mr. Conly and i, that expressed concern about proper oversight, and the minority hearing will the gentleman cite your point of record. The point of order is under the rule we have the requirement for a minority hearings of which was not noticed properly and was ambiguous at best and did not get to the heart of the matter because it was not conducted, and if the chairman is glowing to argue fop fer deafblind. May i respond to your point of order . Another point of order. We had a minority day of hearings on the i would youre claiming my time i would appeal the ruling of the chair. There is no ruling. There is no ruling. There is no point of order. My point of order out of order or not. You have not stated a point of order. Violated the rule by not having a minority hearing that we had a minority hearing. I appeal now are out of order. I reclaiming my time. I appeal the ruling of the chair. I have that right. I promise you i have that right. For a minority hearing on a minority hearing that we already had, on d. C. Statehood. Has mr. Evans been here . Mr. Evans was invited to come along with others that were requested didded make a motion we spine crossthey did not come and its not up to me to get them to come. You invited the guests do youre a chairman. I would make a motion that we subpoena jack evans and have him come. In if we want to do pro oversight i make a motion we subpoena jack evans. The gentleman has not stated a proper point of order. The gentleman has stated a proper point of order. Now. Whether she wants to rule on it or not iing a eye shower the parliamentarian ill be glad to go back and forth with her i she wants put on her mic. The par limit tarean its not a proper behind of order. Its not a proper point of order. I appeal the ruling of the chair. Okay. Theres no ruling. Theres nothing to rule on. So the gentleman has not stated a proper point of order. All right. It is the Ranking Members time. The Ranking Member is recognizing for his Opening Statement. Yield. Its your time, mr. Ranking member. Well, let me go back to we have a lot of concerns, madam chair. Let just be honest, and not only with the fact that mr. Evans has stepped town and we have yet to have him in front of the committee and also i rateses the issue of mr. Horowitzs report which again 17 different times the fbi misled the fisa court. Let me just read something. Just read something. That the chair talked about the senate having hearings but i thought this committee, which has oversight for every single Inspector General in our government, and were talking now about the Justice Department Inspector General, this is what the public order from the fisa court jung, judge collier, what she had to say after mr. Horwitzs report last month. The frequency with which representations made by fbi personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by the gentleman excuse me, Ranking Member no, no, the time is mine. Youre recognize he for an Opening Statement on the census. The time is mine. And oh, my gosh. All i know is during your Opening Statement the time didnt even run youch developed me you would give us the same opportunity during our Opening Statement. Let me go back before i was interrupted and read judge colliers statement in her public order after mr. Horowitzs report. The frequency with which representations made by fbi personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information, detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other fbi applications is reliable. Lets put that in plain english. They lied so much to the fisa court that the judge is saying how can be trust other representations you have made to this court. Thats what she said. Of mr. Horowitzs report and to date the chair doesnt even want to have a hearing. The chairmans response was, oh, the senate had a couple hearings, thats good enough. Even though this committee has injury disk over every single inspector gene government. Whats why we want mr. Horwitz hering for a hear. Had one when we republicans were in charge. We brought in the Inspector General after a big report but is guess things are different. Mr. He vans should have been here. Mr. Horowitz should have been here already. Unfortunately obviously the chairwoman wont do that. My remaining tomorrow i want to address the situation of the census. Thank you for convening this hearing. Oversight of the census is a core responsibility. I worry that since last january, democrats have been moretouch more focuses on using our committee to attack at the Trump Administration than addressing fundamental Good Government oversight like predness for the crepitus. The rein tess determines he is a poresment of seat the house and dictates how federal funds are and provides crucial detailed about the side of our population. Theft da tase the Gold Standard for research evers and statisticians to better understand e. Trends in american life. When we were in the majority the republicans healed several hearings but rein cuss predness back to 2015. In 2018 alone republicans convened five hearings or briefings weapon looked at important top yings like Information Technology preparation, Cyber Security prepareness and south to understand how the bureau was getting ready for their fit census that will allow people to commit responses online. Rather than conducting similar meaningful oversight the democrats cement a year trying to stop one simple question, are you a citizen . One question. Since obtaining the majority in january 2019 the drops healed on one hearing on the 2020 census that did not focus on the Citizenship Question. Just one. After all these months still dont forward why democrats do not want to know how many u. S. . Is are living in the United States. Its a question thats been on our census before, question asked by numerous nations around the world and its a question the u. N. Uneven courages countries to ask if you take to constituents and i ask them, should we ask on the census if youre a citizen, the person on the street how would talk to would say, well, of course. Arent we already doing that. You would have to say, yes, we are, we have been doing it for 200 years until now. Drops argue that the question disease signed to assert immigrant and racial tsunamis and an gent downtown count the population is not correct. The Census Bureau conducted a test lost summer to study the traditional effect of selfresponse including the citizenship and found the was no difference in selfResponse Rates between forms with and forms without a citizen ship question. No difference between the selfResponse Rate with forms withand those without the citizenship. Question. In july of 2019 following a Supreme Court decision the Trump Administration removed the citizen copy question from inclusion on the 2020 census, the democrats want you to believe it was because it was inappropriate but Supreme Court held the Trump Administration has the authorized to ask the question bit citizenship on the census but took issue with the process for doing so under administrative law. The founders clotted the census in the constitution to ensure our government is responsive and accountable to the people. Not to aid and assisting in political ambitions. I hope today we can stop playing partisan games and get back to fundamental oversight needed to publishing the crepitus venezuela stated goal to count everybody once, only once and in the right mace. We should ensure census does its best to count everyone. Thank you, madam chair, look forward to hearing from the witnesses and would yield back. Thank you. I would like to introduce our witnesses. We are privileged to have a rich diversity of witnessed occupy our panel today that can testify regarding their hard to count communities. Vanita goop tase the chief tech if the office of the Leadership Conference on civil rights. John yang is the director oasian more than advancing justice. Are tour roar are vargas is the chief connective officer, and kevin alice is the chief executive officer of the manage congress of American Indians. And mark morial is the president and chief executive officer of the National Urban league. Darryl wore is the director of the center for south georgia regional impact at val dose extra state university. And if you would all please rise and raise your right hand, i will begin by swearing you. In [witnesses sworn in]. He witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you and please be seated thankful microphones are sensitive to meese speak directly into them and without objection, youre written statement will be made part of the record and with that, miss gupta, you are now recognized for your Opening Statement. Thank you. Chairwoman malone any, Ranking Member jordan and members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to testify today. And thank you chairwoman for your leadership in calling the hearing to reach hard to count communities in ken 2020 census. The Leadership Conference on civil and human rights believes the fair and accurate census is month the moe important civil rights issues of the day. Not onlyes the census central to apportioning political power, but the data also influence significant federal funding for Services Like schools, fire departments, and hospitals. It is the bedrock of the democracy and has enormous impact on the nations ability to ensure equal treatment under law. The 2020 census likely to be the largest, mose difficult enumeration in our nations history the u. S. Population is diverse, geographically, culturally, and linguistically. The census burrough must meet the growing challenges that threaten to undermine the enumeration and even with careful planning the bureau has historically undercounted certain communities in the census, vote bly people of color, Young Children, people experiencing homelessness and renters and for some populations, Young Children under the age of five, the undercount has grown progressively worse. Now additional populations such as rural residents and Older Americans may experience increased vulnerability because of the first hightech census. Households may not participate in the census for reasons including mistrust of government, limited language access, dat confidentiality concerns and lingering fear following the failed attempt to add a Citizenship Question to the screen census, hard to count communities in every state and district from large urban areas to rule and remote communes including American Indianapolis tribal lands and reservations and thats why the Leadership Conference launched census counts, nationwide campaign to drive strategies, Outreach Strategies to hard to count communities through a network of trusts national and local messengers and to compliment and strengthen screen sunday bureau ifed. Census counts national organization, includes People Networks in communities most at his of being snubbed instant count it. We are Training Community leaders about the cran sunday, translating the crepitus into languages and monitoring the activities. Our campaign States Count Action Network works with coalitions and all 50 states and d. C. , to reach hard to count pop legislation ises and encourage them to participate in the census with are grateful to congressional leaders for your bipartisan effort in 2019 to ensure sufficient funding for the 2020 census. The bureau must update the precisional plan now with incut premier Key Stakeholders in congress. The window of opportunity to ensure a successful census in all communities is closing fast. And we urge the committee and the census borrow to closely track and address the following concerns. First, the bureau has to meet the challenge of the first hightech census by ensuring i. T. Readiness and addressing the Digital Divide, Cyber Attacks and Disinformation Campaigns. The bureau must update congress on the status of system readiness to build confidence at a time when many people are skeptical and even fearful of government and data security. Further our coalition has observed intentional efforts to suppress census participation in social and traditional media. Under premier fro the Leadership Conference other civil writes groups and congress, tech company stared evidence to fight disinformation and misinflammation preying on peoples fears. Both the bureau and Tech Companies must be transparent and ensure the policies strictly enforcement. targettings communicatings and advertising outreach to hard to count communities is credit exactly we have concerns right now. Stakeholder concerned but the bureaus paid media plan it isnt robust enough to do the necessary outreach and encourage full participation. The bureaus 2020 Census Partnership program will build trust, raising awareness and increasing participation in the census and the bureau has to provide more information to help congress in stakeholder determine whether its on track to meet the Program Residents stated goal, including the target number of partnerships and lastly the buryover has to have accessible, physical prince in hard to count communities, staying holders need more information and a deployment man on the bury res proposed mobile questionnaire assistant center initiative. With 90 million provided by congress, the buhleow heeds to hire more staff and create a large irft. , including mobile and fixed locations to be effective. When people when youre constituents are not counseled in the census they remain invisible for the next ten years and irthere nor doovers. The Leadership Conference looks forward to working with all members members members of the committed committee to ensure a fair and accurate census. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Yang. Thank you very much, chairwoman malone any, ranking anybody jordan and thank you for hosting this hearing. Asia americans advancing justice is part of the National Affiliation that has independent affiliate inside there chicago, los angeles, and san francisco. And includes community partners, over 160 in 33 states and the district of columbia. We maintain a permanent Census Program that monitors issues related to the census, outreach to our community regarding these issues and educating policymaker about the important issues. We have also served for the Census Bureau on news reaume Community Advisory committee is since 2000, including a two threeyear term stint on the national Advisory Committee for race, ethnicity and other populations and proud to one of the cochairs no Leadership Conference census task force. I appreciate the opportunity to testify and speak about the asia american native Hawaii Pacific Islander Community win. The next census and the ability of Census Bureau to reach the community. At the outset it is important to talk but why our communes important. It is a growing minority group, the Fastest Growing minority group, growing by 46 since the 2000 census and 2010 and now theyre a model minority miss myth that shame shames largely educated, compete average income the reality is many in our community, especially southeast asians, native hawaiian Pacific Islanderred suffer significant gap with respect to income and education. Only through accurate census data can we forward the rapidly and changing demographic and the need for this community. Now with that Administration Proposed to add the Citizenship Question to the census without any testifies egg we new he had a five alarm fire and we put out the fire through litigation to successfully prevent that question from appearing ton the 2020 census we know that damage has been done. Like any fire, the damage that is done takes time for it to be repaired. Giving merit families the responsibility to the census, understand the census us complicated under any circumstance. The aftermath of the citizen question debackle and the continuing antiimmigrant rhetoric with see tis task has been formidable. Theres significant confusion and distrust about the administrations intent and the Census Bureau has been limited in its response to these challenges. Second, although the Census Bureau made some improvement the Language Support Program theres still severe gaps that need to be overcome. With respect to the online response option the only asia languages covered are chinese, korean, vietnamas, and james. There is no written response as in languages other than english and spanish and there are language assistant guides in additional languages theres no coverage for native hawaiian, Pacific Islander languages and other important asian languages. Third harig for the Partnership Program has been slow and inconsistently inclusive of undersurfed underserved communities and the emphasis on online applications, backlogs on background chengs and infuture outreach to community with respect to job opportunities. Only recently the bureau announced the ability to hire census takers not limited to u. S. Citizens but other people that have work authorizations. Although this is clearly favorable to serve ore demographic the fact it came so lit minimizees the potential benefit this brings. Likewise field officers and Partnership Specialists need to be trained adequately to ensure that they provide consistent responses to different questions about census policy. Thus far we have seen too often inconsistent responses have been provided. For the communications campaign, thats an Important Role. We only recently understood the full media buys its middecember and yesterday the Census Bureau briefed us on the Asian American plans one concern had been the lack of any Media Campaign targeted to the the south Asian Community and chairwoman malone any and others have addressed this concern to the Census Bureau which we appreciate. Just yesterday the bureau announced it would be arriving some outreach to hindi and urdu so we see that as a favorable deep. But need to understand more detailed what that Media Campaign would entail. Envelopes we also remain very concerned by the limbed number of languages provided in the Media Campaign. And the apparent lack of microtargetting of communities other than the five asia languages for which online responses would be accepted. We believe this approach is insufficient to address the Communications Issues especially with communications that while English Proficient would receive messages better than are ethnically and culturally teared inch conversation their numerous challenges challenges that end the community is count. Weapon appreciate the efforted but theres no work to be done. Thank you very much. Thank you very. Mad damp careful. Mr. Vargas. Mr. Vargas is recognized. Madam chairman i have unanimous [inaudible] i just wanted to add something to the record by unanimous consent. Sure. Im sorry. The gentleman can enter whatever head like. I thank the chair. Just have some course between myself and mr. Dillingham on the practice of hiring people especially following mr. Youngs testimony in terms of nonenglish speaker and asked that be entered into the record another the ties. Without objection. I thank the chair. Mr. Vargas is recognize it. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today with regard to census 2020 preparations. Has beens a advisor since 2000 and we are preparing to undertake a massive independent campaign to promote a full count in the 2020 census. We respect the work hoff the Census Bureau and coordinating for a successful census and like to share my growing an antipathy for the term hard to count populations to describe the populations we represent. When in tact what makes people hard to count are the enumb racing strategies the Census Bureau uses. My remarks this morning are a summary of more extensive remarks to the committee, but the . Ii trae addressed in my pointed testimony there are three i would like to underscore. One there has been damage done by the citizen ship question dough backle and a remedy is need he. The 2019 Research Shows there is heightened sensitivity among several groups for a census form with a Citizenship Question. The research top the rhode island tepees from from the past three months also show that the Citizenship Question debacle has created and continues to foster fear and doubt. Many latinos are resistant to participate because they believe there will be a Citizenship Question on the form despite its absence and many fear how the dat would be used. This is exacerbated by a hostile environment toward immigrants propagated by this administration. Our Research Also shows that the Census Bureau has a trusted brand and we believe it should use the favorable perception itself holds to deliver credible messages about the 2020 census form. However, we have observed that bureau staff have been instructed not discuss the Citizenship Question. The send sues bureau staff muss be directed to advise the pentagon that there will be no Citizenship Question on the 2020 census. Having been briefed on the bureaus communications campaign, we are impressed that the bureau and the contractors understand the challenge. Yet we are deeply concern that the Latino Outreach Program is almost exclusively in spanish and there is no specific campaign to reach latinos who Consumer Information in english. The education and others will do all we tech to fill at the gaps but the task of repairing the damage should not be borne with us alone. Two the Census Bureau some prepare for a significant demand for a person form and ensure the Online Mobile response option is effective, and implement an effective assistance program. Our Research Shows that let teen knows prefer no responsible to the census using persons or online. Our end to end sees little shows that manilet teen knows participated in testifies through in person enumeration and the Census Bureau miss be adequately prepared to provide a paper form who prefer this response mode and ensure there is a sufficiently prepared skilled and culturally competent enumerator work force. Many of the latinos we surveyed expressed a preference to participate online and the data shows latinos are more likely to access the internet via a mobile device and the bureau mustsheen schatz the online response mode is user friendly and with the Load Capacity to immediate the demand finally we continue to believe a Census Bureau issue in tonight provide live, in person assistance is essential. The bureau needs to act quickly to stand up a well thought out, mobile Questionnaire Assistance Center program which congress has funded in addition to standing up traditional questionnaire asince stance snaers. Three, the design flaw in the collection of historic origin and race data. When aspect of the 2020 census that has not received adequate congressional oversight is the failure to modernize the data of historic origin and race. Lee reach reveals theres significant confusion how to answer the 2020 census heroics origin and race question. The Census Bureau recognizes the twoquestion approach to directing date to on ethnicity used in 1980 is flaw. Researcher warn evidence that using a question design the 2020 census will show that, quote, some of the race, will be the nation residents second largest racial group, a category owe nb doves not wreck names nearly all thereof he respondents to some of the race will also have indicated they are hispanic. The Census Bureau carried oat a consultation process to develop a bert way for collecting data on race and evidence ethnicity. The bureau recommend a combined question approach for 2020. In early 2018 we learned that he bury overs recommendation had been gathering dusk do to fact of the office of information and regulatory affairs. Congress must investigate inaction some the future collection of race and ethnicity data. Millions merge its will not understand how to answer the 2020 question on hispanic orein and race, and many will leave the question or both questions blank, compromising the quality of data and increasing costs to provide a complete census. The Communications Program must include information on how to complete these questions to overcome the design flaws. Thank you forey opportunity to share our commentthecommittee . I look forward to your questions. Good morning, chairwoman malone any and Ranking Member jordan and members of the committee. Ive kelvin alice, tribal . I of the pottawattamie conference. On behalf of nci i thank you for holing the hearing and reaching hard to count communities in upcoming 2020 census. Im the son of a woman grew up 0 an hard to reach indian preservation in the 40s, 50s and early 60s. The grandson of a chairman of a tribe who ratessed these concerns in the late 50s, and early 60s. And nca was found inside 1944 and hi grandfather interactioned with the organization in the 50s and 60s but this topic and many. And ncai is the oldest and Largest National Organization Serving the broad interests of tribal innings ins and communities, tribal leaders created nyai in response to termination and assimilation policies that threaten the existence of tribal nations. Since then ncai has fought to the sovereign rights and advance the government to government relationship, and remove historical structure impediments to selfdetermination. Theres been much cities, yet there is much more work to do for Indian Country to fully realize the promises they nation made, this body of congress made, and this country owes to Indian Country in its treaty and trust responses. Like all governments tribal nations strive to build strong economies and ensure the health and will being of citizens. A full and accurate count in the send his is vital these itselfs. 2020 census data will do three important things. Whether american anyones and alaska nail advertise have an equal voice and are accurately represented in the american political process, whether theres fair traction of the billion odd dollars of federal funding the tribal nations and communities across the United States and whether the tribal nations have accurate data for programmatic and resource related decisionmaking that theyre tribal leaders make that are central to their status as sovereigns. Given the importance of census data the ross suspect of yet another undercount of American Indians and ange natives i deeply concerning. American indians and alaska native people on reservations and in villages in alaska have been historically underpreparedded and 2010, the u. S. Census bureau estimates that American Indians and alaska natives living on regs sir vacations or in these villages were undercounted by 4. 9 . Thats more than double the undercount of the next closed population group. Its a fact that American Indian and alaska native populations are among the hardest to count not only does the significant portion of our population live in hard to count tracts, we also exhibit many of the factors that contribute to communities being hard to count. Additionally, a Census Bureau surveys in our message testing found issues taking American Indian and alaska native participation to bemy frustration of government, concerns related to privacy, and perceptions that participation would not lead to anything. The Census Bureau has a federal agency has treaty and trust able is goings to overcome the challenges and provide a complete and accurate count for sustain country. Tribal innings ins are concerned we will again see an undercount in 2020. The decision of the bureau focus on online enew hampshire racing is a significant risk. As many communities and individual households in Indian Country do not have access the internet. This strategy along with the need for trust its voices on the ground and tribal communities emphasize how critical it is for the Census Bureau to allocate resources to hire and retain American Indian and alaska native enew hampshire raters and Partnership Specialists are yet with just a few weeks its steer unclear whether this goal has been reached. Moreover, we are also concerned about the delays in the Census Bureaus American Indian and alaska native Advertising Campaign. Recommendations in Indian Country has been working tirelessly to ensure an accurate and complete count. Honever efforts knot are not replace those or absolve the u. S. Census bureau of row of the responsibility to ensure a full enumeration of American Indian and alaska native populations. As such, ncai recommends that census buryover make steps to immigrant met the following action immediately address delays in hiring Partnership Specialists to enhance the utilization of trusted sources for Indian Country population. Reallocate resources to address needs for more communication actioned to ensure a complete enumeration of American Indian and alaska native populations. Increased communications to tribal communities on what resources are available to ensure their participation is complete and increased media guys in more diverse areas for tribal communities, ensure that da at that time checked bit American Indian and alaska nate different houston hods and individual is accurate some accessible after the implement attention of a planned new disclosure avoidance midstologies. In conclusion, in closing, i urge this committee to continue conducting oversight during the Census Bureau implementation of the 2020 census. Hill will help ensure a complete and accurate count for the Indigenous People of the country. Thank you. Who have been here forever. Thank you. Now recognize mr. Moore for five minutes. Morial. Morial, or moore. Morial. Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, chairwoman malone any and Ranking Member jordan. Im mark morial i serve at president and crowe cover oin National Urban league. I served as mayor of new orleans, a Louisiana State senator, and chairman of the 2010 census Advisory Committee. Im proud to be here today and thank you for the opportunity. The National Urban league was founded in 1910. As a nonpartisan, nonprofit Civil Rights Organization dedicated to the Economic Empowerment of africanamericans. We work through a network of 90 affiliate inside 36 states, and the district of columbia. We serve 2 Million People a year weapon say cyst them in finding jobs, becoming home owners, and starting small businesses, and many very important areas. Ry spool speak put be uncount of africanamericans and the challenges in the upcoming census and how the National Urban league is mobilizing to ensure a complete and accurate count. I want to thank the committee and i want to thank the leadership for ensuring that the census 2020 has been better funded. The census has been historic include underfunded for most of the past decade. What has been the significance of this . Its caused operational and i. T. Delay recruitment and hiring challenges, the cancellation of criticaltes to improve the 2020 census count. Your leadership on this issue is in the best interests of all of the american people, and i encourage you to continue to exercise your oversight responsibilities. We have witnessed the browning of america in realtime. From california to connecticut, from florida to alaska, we witnessed the growing need of our communities as a gap between those who have and those who have not has increased. We see the true faces of the undercount every day. Their children, theyre black, theyre brown, theyre the formerly incarcerated, theyre immigrants who are black and brown, the homeless and the gentry field the digital illiterate and the digital homeless. Those with know Internet Access or address. The census is a big deal the Founding Fathers were brilliant in ordaining that all the people in the United States be counted every ten years. 50 years ago. In 1970, my predecessor, whit in the young jr. , executive director of the National Urban league, testified before the then subcommittee on census and statistics, a part of the committee on post office and civil civil service. At that time he spoke passionate nut by the need of full and complete count of black and underserved communities. His testimony but the 1970 census is oddly familiar to the discussion today. He talked about inadequate assistants for completing the forms. Poor community outreach. The lack of Spanish Language forms. Inadequate outreach and education to reach minority populations. He noted the 1960 census, 6 other years ago, missed one in ten black people, including one including one in six black men. Fast forward to 2020. And while theres much to applaud but the 2020 census, the Technological Advancement and operational modernization we and my copanelists see too many parallels to the 1970 census and even more uncertainties. In 2010, a million children disproportionately block and brown did not show up in he done sis, six of 10 issue which win the ages of zero in 4 were committed. The underclown of black and brian children hat grown and the economic and political consequences of this are grave. Africanamerican men are still missed in staggering numbers. The 2010 census fully 3. 9 million africanamericans were completely missed. Approximately 700,000 form ilyen cars rated men and women reenter our communes each year. They must be counted. We must count the Digital Divide in rural and poor, rural and urban poor communities, and those with low digital fluency require a paper questionnaire and an enumerators knock on the door. We have to anticipate disinformation social Media Campaigns designed to mislead communities and communities of color about the census and sow seeds of fear but census participation. Community and outreach in education has been hampered by the failed Citizenship Question which heightened distrust and fear of the census in immigrant community. We worked with the Census Bureau to help achieve an accurate 2020 count and commend the ranking file and those in regional offices and partnership times for the work theyve done. Let me talk but the gaps. Significant hiring disease lays and backlogs are going to impact the doortodoor enumb racing. Let me make this point. The Census Bureaus own research sews that not withstanding the Internet Access and the phone access, 40 to 60 of americans are going to wait until an ename rater knocks on the door. If in fact the Census Bureau does not hire a significant none of enumerators on a timely basis, the enumerator portion of this census will not succeed and the impact will be an undercount in black communities, in brown communities, in asia communities, and in Rural Communities. Those hiring delays will affect indigenous. I want to say a few other thing about the paid Advertising Program and want to make this point we have had an opportunity to look at that Advertising Program. Our concern is that the timing of the Advertising Program is misaligned with the enumerator process. Wrap up. Your five minutes is over if you can wrap up. Eye see 1 37 on the clock. Over. As you all say, i beg your indulgence. My final point is that i encourage in the question and answer period would like to explain and illuminate how in fact the Advertising Program is misaligned with the enumerator portion. Its important that advertising take place while the doorknocking program is ongoing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Moore is recognize it. Chairwoman malone any, thank you and the members members of e committee for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of Rural Americans and specifically rural faaans. Georgia is facing statewide challenges in Rural Communities. Population declines, grain graying population, show ongoing the stressed city. Is one of four georgia recent national and we have a mission to serve a 41 county service area in south georgia, and the 2017 leadership started talking about how they can have an impact on the reoccurring challenges that all of those communes face and can it by business, industry, health care, k through 12 education, city, county government, and they came up with the result they crated the center for south georgia regional impact and start working with that organization in 2018. The mission of the center is to try to work with all 41 counties to identify opportunities and challenges they might have and then go back to to identify resources to help them out. Could be interns, graduate assistants, class projects, research, professors working on projects that just depends on what the need and is it covers all six of our colleges. Were focused on the 41 county service area and its diverse. Many of youve would consider everyone rule but the largest county in our region is lowndes at 1515 noun and counties as mall as 3500. What workness one county wont work in the other, even though they have similar issues and challenges. Our goal is that the communes know what they need best so were trying to fine out what the need and then good back and try to fine resources to help them out. One thing that really helped me out i guess in the transition is ive had a 25 year background in Economic Development, and i had the successful career and spend 21 years in while i was in moultrie we had 325 million in investment and created 3500 new jobs and when i left last year we had 96 million in projects under construction and 3. 1 Unemployment Rate which is strong for south georgia rural community. But one thing that really kind of stuck out is we were look what he were trying to do with the center and a lot of my friend in south georgia, was the Georgia Chamber of commerce had a presentation called georgia 2030 and had been making rounds with presentation for three or four years and you dont have graphics but if you look him that up they have population projections and job projections through 2030 and those numbers are pretty dire for south georgia and for rural georgia. As you would expect, you are projecting strong population and job growth in atlanta and many of our hub sis in. And projecting minimal growth in other counties but many of our counties in rural georgia projecting population losses and job losses and from an Economic Development standpoint, thats death knell. So the census posed a tremendous opportunity for us to get involved. A tremendous challenge for our 41 counties. I mention my career in the county and one thing that tied into what were doing with the census enwhy was there we had a Pilot Program with the after oft georgia called archways and wed a employee that served, we would identity big projects and go back to athens and bring resources back to us and one of our projects was the 2010 census. So we really in 2009 had a complete count committee before we knew was one. We had a great team in place. We had 30 to 40 people. We had representatives or trusted voices representing every different demographic of the community and as a result, we had an 8. 19 in the 2010 census which is pretty strong for a rural community. Our parlayed the information and used that in every request for proposal we sent out for a new industry, retail, commercial, and continued to create more jobs because Companies Want to invest where theyre going to what we have done from support we were local and regional communes and met with all 41 counties and tried to help them organize their complete count committee. Arch is different. What withouts in one county wont work in the eye. Demographics are different and resources are different with assisted with strategies to achieve an accurate count. We have worked with the governors complete count committee, the they hired a marketing firm, and the u. S. Census reps are serving our region. He we have done several focus groups with hard to count populations trying to refine our marketing message and providing free marketing support to the 41 county area. We have got order forms we sent out. We have billboards already in all 41 counties, coloring payments making available through k through 5 systems through south georgia and technically throughout georgia. We have table tents that promote the census on everyone restaurant table, all 41 counties. We currently have order forms for 45,306 table tents, ab that will be delivered at no cost to all our counties. Also doing promotional tshirts to help support and our main goal is to make sure every citizen knows how important it is for them their family and communities to participate in scented senses. On february 12 the director of the Census Bureau doctor Steven Billingham will be appearing before this committee. To answer questions about how the bureau is responding to the many challenges that our panelists outlined today. With so much at stake vigorous oversight of the 2020 census is absolutely essential. I now recognize myself for five minutes, this years census will be the largest and most complex in our nations history. The bureau has a tough job to ensure that every Community Gets fully and accurately counted. Sadly the Current Administration admitted or practically admitted that they dont even want to count everyone when they tried to illegally add the Citizenship Question to this. As a result, many cities and states have stepped up to ensure everyone is counted. Theyve established what is called, mr. Moore talked about it, complete count committees to identify risks, recommend solutions and direct state and local funding to areas of hard to count at risk areas. Its important that states and localities in the case of mr. Moore regional Economic Development organization understand that the success of the census requires a partnership in the involvement of local elected officials. We all have visibility on at this point is how many cities states counties have in fact created complete committees and have operationalized them. One problem with this years census is that census reduced the number of local partnership offices by 50 . These local partnership offices where the connective tissue between the complete come count committees and the census. Its an important strategy and i would encourage it and i would say that in 2000 the city of new orleans spent money and had its own effort underway with people in advertising and resources and i know in this instance there are number of communities and cities who are doing the same thing for 2020 and states. Thank you, my home state of new york is doing that. They created their own complete count commission he pointed out an important point that they reduced to support in this area may be we should get the Census Bureau to do a review of how many complete count committees are out there and that could have a good overview. That would be very helpful. The new york account committee came up with eight risk and challenges which were similar to what you said today language barriers, the Digital Divide, hiring issues and distressed among communities of color very similar to what you are saying and they came up with 18 specific recommendations and also put in roughly 60 million in city state and philanthropic funding to help make sure the census was stronger. We hope other communities can also take the initiative as you have in new orleans. Do you believe the Census Bureau should be engaging with the state and local committees to make the bureaus outreach more efficient and effective . It seems that better coordination would help. Can you elaborate in this area . These complete count committees are incredibly fun, actually the model developed by the bureau at its inception to coordinate state and local efforts around the country to get out the count. States cant just nominally create these committees they have to put significant funding toward them particularly because this is going to be one of the most difficult aso florida created a complete count committee this week but did not allocate any dollars to it. There is mapping over two dozen states of allocated and contributed significant statebased funding to help supplement the federal funding and the work of the bureau but that partnership needs to be really tight and too many states still have not added Additional Resources to really get the partnership trusted messengers of communications supplemental workout into as a part of that. The bureau needs to work much more closely with these committees around the country. I dont have a chance to speak to everyone but if you could place in writing i will let mr. Moore have a last word on how beneficial these complete count committees, did you work them in georgia . Put on the mic please. They been tremendous weve actually had the governors complete count committee since 2017 and honestly, weve had much more emphasis on the census for 2020 than we did 2010. Since 2010 i dont think we had planned or a lot of support like we did this year. Theres partners all over weve tracked i think almost every county. My time is expired but i invite all the panelists to put in writing their experiences with complete and count committees and other ways they need think it needs to be expanded. It such an important challenge and before us. Our constitution requires it, our government relies on it and our democracy depends on it. With that recognize the distinguished Ranking Member. Mr. Gaucher of arizona. Mr. Moore, im from arizona youre from georgia it sounds like you have pretty good expertise here. According to the city the same report estimates 25 of the population in my district lives in these hard to count districts. Have we done anything to combat abwere trying to incorporate that on county by county level or Community Level in all our communities. We have Historical Data we know what the Response Rate was we also have maps that show where you have lower or limited internet connectivity. Weve got several different organizations georgia libraries are putting up stations where people can come back in and get information on the census fill out the census while they are there i had a call with the Georgia Farm Bureau about two weeks ago theyre going to do the same thing weve got family connections, housing authorities, soup kitchens all doing similar items. Our main goal is awareness and education trying to make sure people know why its important and making sure its easy for them to participate. You brought up Internet Access. Roughly 17 percent almost 18 percent of my district has no access real access to internet. It is providing that on the Internet Service actually expanded the reach . Or made it more convenient for those people to actually do it better fundamentally falling through. I think its probably both. You have a younger demographic right now which is hard to count. Millennials do anything on the phone do everything on the computer. We know which areas dont have Internet Access. The first mailing for the census will start going up march 12. Most people that have Internet Access are going to get an internet card and encouraged him to go participate in those areas they know do not have Internet Access will get written form first time. Everybody in the country is good have an opportunity to fill that out. The census has for hard to count categories, these barriers are pertinent to my district, when you look outside the cities of 0 to 60 male return rate was issued. I noticed in your comments its not a onesizefitsall. Can you elaborate a little more. Weve got communities we are serving about 50 counties right now some the city and the county have taken the lead some family connections which is nonprofit Family Services and some is in Chamber Development authority. You got to have trusted voices for everybody in your community. Somebody that lives amy ellison t you and vice versa. Somebody who has implements on 15 or 100 people get them engaged in the complete count committee and let them know why its important and get them to go out and have an impact on the people they have an influence on. Year after year we seen growths and population increase this includes diverse populations different ethnics, tribal antitheses thats what we are trying to develop plans for each community. The u. S. Census and state census has hard to count populations at all those dont apply to every community. Its critical for a community to have robust complete count committee thats very diverse. We got faithbased, business, local media, people feel comfortable writing letters or speaking that might have implements on the general community. Its important you come up with a real plan to get everybody to participate. The gentlewoman mrs. Norton from the district of columbia congresswoman norton is recognized for five minutes. First i want to say i appreciate the testimony of all of you but i appreciate your testimony because it emphasizes the extent to which the census issue has no ideological faith, indeed it is against the interest of every member sitting appear to have their own residence not counted because if for no other reason than them money will not go to them. Understand the money will be appropriated by congress. It only means that your district wont get it because you have supported and undercount. I was amazed to see the Ranking Members remarks evening after a Supreme Court act a conservative Supreme Court ab its not enough to say, look everybody, the question is not on the census, i want to urge every member of congress to undertake actions on the internet and your own district to try to reverse the message that was out there for two years that alarmed people, remembering that its always difficult to get an accurate census and that my friends on the other side have made it even more difficult. Let me ask you mr. Vargas. I understand your Organization Organization has been studying on what anybody there but i understand youve given some thought to this on the impact of the citizens question on the willingness as i speak of citizens to participate in the census. Thank you congressman for that question. In october november and december the educational funded Commission Research to survey 1200 latino adults and immigrants and we held 12 focus groups across the country florida, North Carolina, wisconsin, texas and arizona to try to assess what the current perceptions are for latino immigrants toward the census. The Census Bureau has a positive brand it needs to use and fully educate the public about what is and is not going to be asked. We also learned there are very significant of reasons and willingness to participate by latino citizens and latino noncitizens. Latino citizens express much more likelihood to say they will fill out their census forms, noncitizens less so. Do think the undocumented and every jurisdiction sitting on this panel has in undocumented people, undocumented people going to participate . This isnt an issue of just undocumented immigrants, these are families where they have mixed status household. U. S. Citizens, legal permanent residents, daca applicants, people have varying immigration status and there is a fear of why it might be now. When immigrants are following policy developments day today and they know there is a campaign against immigrants around the country today. Its created an environment that does not help Census Bureau and being able to convince everybody that it is in fact safe and confidential. That is why we need trusted messengers to speak up and the trusted messages we have identified our educators, Healthcare Providers, minority led organizations like the ones here on the panel today. And local elected officials. Those are the individuals we need to empower to speak up and convince their constituents that participating in the census is safe and confidential and any perceived risk actually is outweighed by the damage done by not participating. This is very important i hope people have even heard about this but if any of you have information on on the executive order or the effective executive order to start collecting citizenship data from federal and state administrative records you think this will have any impact on not trying to give it airtime i just want to know if we seen any repercussions. I think its fundamentally important building off of what my colleague just said for people to understand under federal law the bureau is not allowed to release individual data or personal responses they received any other government agency. We know the executive order has created grave concerns that the president is attempting to use that to exclude noncitizens from the population account to redraw district lines. It would be blocking communities across the country and Asian Americans advancing justice have actually filed a lawsuit to challenge executive order. Now we can even debate it. For a year the democrats told us, the Citizenship Question on the census is bad. Its a bad idea even though we been doing it since 1820. Now today even though its not even know when the Census Bureau did a study last summer they saw no difference in self Response Rates tween forms with the Citizenship Question and those without the Citizenship Question but now its even worse they said just the fact we had a debate is harmful. Think how scary that is. Mr. Yang and mr. Vargas both said that in the gentle lady from district of columbia just said the same thing. When not even allowed to talk about it now. That is really scary. The debate itself about a question thats been asked since 1820 lets get the facts straight between 1820 and 1950 was asked on the census between 19 72,000 was Law Enforcement census. Its been asked every single time but now today were not it was posted dated. This is where the left wants to take it. Think of what judge alito previous member talked about the Supreme Court decision this is what judge alito said in his decision concurring in part dissenting in part no one disputes its important to know how many inhabitants of this country are citizens. Hes actually wrong i think hes making a good point but is wrong every democrat on this committee dispute that. Its important under the constitution article 1 section 2 to ensure that all residents are counted under every decennial census. Thats not the question i asked you. If theres anything that the detract from that census in terms of offering fair and accurate count, that is a concern. Do you disagree with judge alito . No one disputes its important to know how many inhabitants of this country are citizens do think thats wrong . Click seating is appropriate to know how many people in this country are citizens . I would offer no further response because we are here to let the record tell the gentleman wont even ask the question between 1820 1950 when our country asks inhabitants of this nation are you a citizen was i wrong . I dispute what your understanding of the history of the question is with respect to the since decennial census. We can offer it. On the American Committee survey should they be asking people the Citizenship Question. Do you disagree with what the Census Bureau is doing today as we speak. I addressed mr. Yang. Im trying to get him to answer a question he refused to answer. I believe i did offer an answer. I ask you a simple question is appropriate to ask citizens to find out how many people in this country are citizens . It is appropriate to ask under the census the census that we are talking about to determine the population of the United States. And anything that detracts from the fairness and accuracy of the account would not be part of the mission. That i followed up and said using its wrong with the Census Bureau on the American Committee survey is asking Citizenship Question. Thats a survey instrument that has been tested in the context of the American Community survey which was previously was the long form. That is different than that 2020 census. If you know can answer my question is it okay to debate the issue or do you stick with what you said in your opening testimony with the gentle lady from district columbia said that we should even have a discussion about it because somehow that might impact what happens on the census. What i said was the fact that this question was introduced had caused damage to the community. That damage continues as demonstrated by the studies in the Census Bureau itself thats what we need to address to ensure fair and accurate trial. Because of that concern you think its appropriate to limit speech in the United States congress we should even have this debate, is that what you are saying . Thats not what i said. I said what we need to do is to ensure that everybody is counted and anything thats done damage to the fact that everybody would be encouraged to participate in this a in your Opening Statement you said the debate that took place over the last year on whether to include the Citizenship Question was harmful to whats gonna happen on the census not being able to count the people across this country thats what you said im asking you you dont think this should have taken place at all . To have that debate in the United States congress about something that has been done in this country since 1820. I believe you are mischaracterizing what i said. I believe you wont answer the question. Madam chair, i yield back. The gentleman from missouri mr. Clay is recognized for question. Thank you madam chair and thank you for holding this hearing. Before i get into my line of question i wanted to recognize abi saw you had something to contribute to the previous line of questioning which would you like to pick it up . The point i was going to make was that the Census Bureau does asking the American Community survey how many citizens, if you are a citizen but the research determines which christians you act and when you asked them has consequences. Asking a Citizenship Question on the American Survey is a different experience than asking the question on citizenship the researchers have determined that the better way to can collect citizenship data of the American Public is with the American Community survey not fit decennial census. The 2010 census missed 2. 1 percent of black communities. Im concerned the current census sabotages efforts of this administration with their failure to hire failures to allocate adequate resources and scare tactics toward immigrants will lead to an unprecedented undercount so i want to thank the chairwoman on shedding a bright light on the issue in todays hearing. You are a veteran of several censuses. What are some of the major challenges that have led to an under talented black and brown communities in past censuses. Historically the undercount has resulted from the failure to count children completely and adequately. The historic undercount of africanamerican men has contributed to the overall undercount in the africanAmerican Community. I think its important on the 2020 census where we are why we are where we are. We are where we are because there has been historic over the last several years underfunding of the census. That underfunding has led to the cancellation of a number of tests the census has done. Its meant that delay and late effort to begin hiring the enumerators. Its been delays in doing the testing necessary to ensure this Online System works well. We dont want another www. Healthcare. Gov with the census. Excuse me. Let me finish. Go ahead. So the undercount, i think if we want to focus this year on whats necessary to ensure a more complete count the enumerated portion in the Advertising Campaign have to be energized, this committee has to do oversight i encourage one the census director comes to get to the bottom line of where they are on the hiring of the enumerators because this is the point, 60 , this is the Census Bureaus research. 60 of africanamericans are going to rely on the doorknocker providing information notwithstanding the internet, notwithstanding the telephone notwithstanding they perform. In the numbers for the overall population are in the 40 and 50 range. The enumerated portion is so critical now the situation is different. In 2010 you could go to Census Office and apply for a job. Now you got to go online. All these barriers we need to get to the bottom line in terms of where it is in order to ensure. I appreciate that response in your opening remarks you mentioned the media play. Can you talk about your concerns. Right now the Media Campaign we had a chance to look at some of the early look at some of the commercials focused on the africanAmerican Community. Some of them are pretty good. However, if the advertising stops when the enumerated followup proportion of the census begins to take place then there is no advertising telling you people could have this perception that the census is over so they need to expand the advertising for another 45 or 60 days so that you have advertising taking place during an entire period that people have the opportunity to respond to the census. This is an alignment issue. I encourage and its also necessary for the africanamerican population that the advertising not overly rely on digital ads that it includes radio it includes Community Newspapers and the like. I encourage you to probe this with the Census Bureau. My time is up but i hope my friend from North Carolina understands that the key is communication with the public i think the gentleman from missouri for his congenial way he communicates. I miss your red glasses i dont see your red glasses. Let me get to the bottom line on all of this and hopefully we will offer a little bit of help. Ive conducted more census hearings probably than any other member of congress in the Previous Administration and this one. What i do want to get is an accurate count. Mr. Alice, from a native american standpoint if you will help us with the roles of a few tribes where we can do sampling to make sure we are reaching those underserved areas i happen to have i believe i had the First Congressional Office on tribal lands in the history of our country if you will do that and get that to us one of the concerns i have, just bluntly, is reaching those underserved areas because internet is not available. If you would do that i would appreciate that. Mr. Morreale one of the areas i think is key is if there is false information thats being put out there in predominantly urban areas thats not something i have an expertise on but if you will get that to us, heres what i would ask, ive traveled under the Previous Administration with enumerators out of the field. I understand the challenges but the other thing is, tv advertising is not going to reach the people we need to reach. What i would ask you to do is come up with something where we can do directx messaging they might not have Internet Service but we spent over 500 million trying to do outreach. Some of that has been misallocated in terms of concentrating in certain areas. Im willing to work with all of you on that particular issue. Mr. Moore youre giving us a great roadmap for Rural America but you not getting any federal funding, are you . How many of you are getting any federal funding either directly or indirectly with your groups in terms of outreach. Raise your hand, anybody. We are spending 500 million in outreach. In my commitment to each one of you is if you will reach out to me ill work with the committee but we will work with the Commerce Department because i met with them more times than i care to mention over trying to get an accurate count. If you will do that, mr. Morreale, i will help you mr. Alice if you will help us with native americans certainly some of the other areas i dont have as much expertise. We dont have a large asian population in western North Carolina but at the same time, im sincere about getting an accurate account when we start to focus on this Citizenship Question we are making drastic errors and mr. Morreale, i think you agree with us, we undercounted in 1970 we undercounted in 1980, we undercounted in 1990 we undercounted in 2000, there was a Citizenship Question then and to suggest that somehow its uniquely 2020 is just not accurate. Im a numbers guy and im willing to work with you but if you will work with us on how we can reach these underserved and hardtoreach communities we will get an accurate count. Are yall willing to do that . Am open. I think when the census director is here i think the expect of their outreach i had the previous census director under president obama here and i expressed great concerns that we were not going to be ready and i didnt want there to be egg on my face because they were not asking for enough money. We have funded the census at levels that are unprecedented. Its not a problem of money, its a problem of allocation and if all of you will agree to help us with that, and willing to call a five alarm fire to make it work. The Census Bureau does not fund a communitybased outreach. I beg to differ. They dont fund organizations. But we find groups to actually be the on part of it i can promise has a line item i actually talk to the groups. We will be glad to clarify that. None of us . I now recognize congressman conley from virginia for questions. Inky madam chairwoman. Welcome to our panel. I want to go back to an associate made earlier and asked particularly you mr. Yang to respond because the Ranking Member would have you believe that for some mystical reason democrats dont like this Citizenship Question and its a piece of data we really need. I thought i heard from your testimony it wasnt democrats who objected ultimately, it was a court of law. It was a federal judge who decided that and he was upheld by the Supreme Court ultimately. Because the Commerce Department in its eagerness to add this question which we now know from the release of emails was politically inspired to depress and suppress cooperation with the census deliberately to create an undercount of minority populations, especially ones you are talking about maybe you represent the Fastest Growing population in my district is asianamerican. In the fastest piece of that is abwe want everyone counted as the chairman said in the Opening Statement, citizen and noncitizen. The constitution requires it. And fairness demands it. I want to give you an opportunity is there some conspiracy by one of the two Political Parties to avoid getting data on what otherwise ought to be a simple analytical tool. A question about your citizenship status. Im proud to be a constituent of yours. This goes to what mr. Vargas was saying. Let me correct the record with respect to the Citizenship Question. Its incorrect to say the Citizenship Question appeared on every decennial census for 200 years. Its actually incorrect. It has appeared on the American Community survey which asked mr. Vargas has testified is a completely different instrument that has been tested. It doesnt go to every household. It goes to three percent of all households. Let me just interrupt if i may to establish your point. Am i correct that the last time it was on the actual Census Survey was 1950. On the decennial survey was 1950. The idea that its just customary and ordinary is flatout false. 1950 is 25 years ago. [laughter] if we could only wish. Thats correct. And again, the concerns we expressed in litigation and all of our groups of expressed was that this question was proposed with no testing and already understanding the Census Bureau itself research had already presented to us that there was a fear within the anger make it immunity about information that was being collected about them. To suggest that this question should be just introduced willynilly without testing causes great concern to us. Certainly during the course of litigation as is public now to have documents uncovered for mr. Hossler that people testified to earlier with respect to the fact that including Citizenship Question could cause be politically advantageous to nonhispanic whites. Certainly for my community, mr. Vargas is community and many of our communities that is deeply troubling fact. You also raise the question of other languages and although clearly an effort has been made to try to expand the number of languages in which the census is presented, given the the pluralistic nature of america and the diversity of so many of our communities including the one you and i live in were over 120 languages are spoken. What do you recommend we try to do to maximize pursuit dissipation and get over the language barrier. I certainly take representative metals up on his offer to work with him with respect to our community. Its ultimately the objective for the decennial census is to ensure we have a full and accurate count of all america. What i would offer is even closer coordination with the Census Bureau we talked about some of the different aspects in which closer coordination can be helpful, one of the benefits of technology is that we will have a really realtime information about jurisdictions in areas that are not responding at a rate that we would want. So at that point immunity organizations should work with the Census Bureau to figure out what is the best strategy to follow up with those communities. And thats not a device that would have been available in 2010 or 2000 two the robust we have now with respect to languages it is with trusted messengers. Mr. Vargas spoke openly about a number of them i would add one more which is a ministers, pastors, churches and ensuring they are part of that trusted Messenger Community that can get Accurate Information and language information for many of these churches to those communities in a way in which. Thank you madam chairman. Thank you mr. Heist, congressman heist of georgia is recognized for five minutes for questions. Id like to begin by thanking each of the panelists for being here mr. Moore, yall are doing a fantastic job in south georgia and im deeply grateful for the leadership you are exhibiting there. Madam chair, i would like to ask unanimous consent to have on record is mentioned a Powerpoint Presentation none of us got to see. Without objection. It is interesting to me that we are all of us on both sides of the aisle agree thats whats most important is to get an accurate count and yet what seems to hijack every one of these census hearings is the Citizenship Question and again, i would assume if everyone in this room would agree, its important for us as a country to know how many people here are citizens. Thats about as basic as you can get its important for us to have that information. How we go about getting it is i suppose theres multiple ways for that to be done. What i get annoyed at is how the issue is used really to attack the president. I think its unnecessary and theres no reason for us to create an atmosphere of attacking the president on something constitutionally based as the census is. I would urge my colleagues on the other side to take the politics out of this and lets try to get to the issue of an accurate count. Mr. Moore, with that, im grateful for the work you are doing in south georgia just from a broad perspective, how important is the impact on Rural Communities of having an accurate census. Is critical, especially for us, 11 we are all working on the same primary goal, large agricultural community, we have a large migrant hispanic population and one thing that really attributed to our success in 2010 was we had a lady named bertha rodas county extension and she did prenatal programs financial programs with a lot of the migrant populations and they trust bertha so she was on our complete count committee and if she told him it was something needed to do, they participated in the census. I think they even learn from that so this year on the committee theyve got representatives from its critical we talked about it briefly early on the census data impacts everything we do from an economic developing perspective. From an Economic Development perspective how does the census impact a i been in development for 25 years if you got it industry thats looking at your community there can want to make sure they have people there that can work. They dont want to but go to communities that are abim extremely competitive i always want to win the deal but i always want to hold my neighbors and everyone around me to do well too because companies dont look at county line, they dont look at city lines we look at market draws. For a workforce perspective we had 21,000 workers in Carver County but we had 185,000 workers within 30 minute drive. Its critical education, healthcare, Economic Development, you grant data for roads, water, sewer, bridges, anything you do ties back. I think its important for all of us to understand that the census has a great impact not only to just our country but on Rural Communities in particular. With that we can move this go around to go more online oriented, what is the absence of broadband in so many Rural Communities kind of impact will that have in getting them accurate count . With us we worked on the awareness and education statewide, we know which areas dont have broadband we already know theyre going to get a written form of that initial mailing that comes out march 12 and they will also get another written form in the fifth mailing that will come back april 8. Weve also made arrangements for citizens we talked about wednesday night suppers at church having tablets they are having computers there that people can fill out forms. Festivals having opportunities to fill out the forms. Library farm bureau city Council County commission, anywhere people congregate. Making it easy for them. I think thats whats really critical if you explain why the census is important to them and their families in their community and tell them what it is what it isnt, most people are going to voluntarily fill it out. I heard some low numbers earlier for the Response Rate before people come to the doors, we got maps on all 159 counties and many of our counties have gotten 80 to 85 percent voluntarily response. Thank you to our panelists for being here. Im so glad that all of you are so committed to an accurate census for 2020. I think one very Important Institution for having an accurate census our local Public Libraries. My family and i are big fans of local Public Libraries with three kids you have to be. 14, 10, 3. I joke with a teenager and toddler are ready for anything and congress. But we have a few Public Libraries in our area gail gordon public library, Bloomingdale Public Library and the schaumburg type township District Library doing an excellent job of going above and beyond to make sure that hard to count communities are actually counted during the census. With that, ms. Kuchta, can you speak to the Services Offered at many Public Libraries that could help hard to count communities respond to the census online such as computers and wifi access. The libraries are all over the country some critical partners and institutions rated local communities to help get Public Education out and providing services to communities around filling out the census. The American Library association has been working with our coalition and members of this Committee Regarding the bureaus plan for mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers and other key issues with expressed concerns about what the bureau is doing around the lack of information we have around where those mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers are going to be. The libraries have been incredibly important and we have a map even shows around the country where libraries are in hard to count communities. We can actually do very targeted outreach the bureau can do very targeted outreach based on mapping within hard to count communities about how libraries can play over the Critical Role that we have to make sure the bureau is actually equipped to do that. Great. In my district libraries leading a census outreach effort there have partnered with local schools where over 100 languages are spoken in our local Public Schools. What are some of the challenges you see in counting people in places like my district whether such a wide diversity of languages spoken and how do libraries help facilitate . Certainly libraries have been you absolutely right Public Schools play an Important Role oftentimes Public Schools because School Districts because they know the composition of their students which is the emerging population for our entire country will be able to tailor their language needs even more specifically. So my School District offers many languages that are not offered by the Census Bureau. Working with those schools i like you have Young Children are rely on what we call thursday folder. I will Read Everything that comes from my child. Provided by teacher. If they have statistics in schools classes and other programs that allow the census information and i know the bureau is working with the school to do things along those lines. Mr. Vargas, abmaybe immigrant communities might be more apprehensive or fearful of using the local Public Libraries in light of all of the discussion around the Citizenship Question. I have not seen any data about immigrant perception in the Public Libraries but i have seen data where immigrants do find credible messengers among School Teachers Healthcare Providers local Community Leaders faith leaders so we need to engage those leaders in our communities as census ambassadors as well. How are we doing that . We are doing it ourselves through the efforts that each of what these organizations represent here are launching their own campaigns in our communities are closely coordinated with the Census Bureau. What we need also is for the Census Bureau itself they have the resources we dont. They have 500 million they are allocating toward campaign that campaign should clearly educate the American Public about what will not be asked on the census so that we can help them overcome the fear about providing the government with information that they perceive may be used against them. We need the power of the Census Bureaus resources to do a much more thorough education job of the American Public so that they can be confident in participating in the census. Mr. Como from kentucky is recognized for five minutes for question. Thank you, before i begin my questioning about my concern for undercount in Rural America especially rural kentucky, with all due respect, i wanted to correct an inaccurate statement that you made with regard to the president wanting an inaccurate count, thats not true. The president represents the majority of working tax paying americans who simply want to know how many citizens reside in the United States who are not legal american citizens. It has absolutely nothing to do with the final count. Every person residing in the United States will be counted in the census and that will apply to leo victoria college. I wanted to correct that inaccurate statement and i also want to shift gears and talk about my concern for undercount in Rural America. A 2016 American Community survey showed my Congressional District the first Congressional District of kentucky is having the greatest share of households with no internet subscription or only dialup connections. Im sad to say 29. 5 percent of the households in my Congressional District, which is extremely rural have either no internet restriction or dialup connections. Thats an unfortunate situation i place a lot of blame on the last two kentucky gubernatorial administration. Its something my office is working really hard on. abthat is something we strongly support in my Congressional Office but as the 2020 census approaches i echoed the concerns that others have raised about constituents being reached in hard to count areas. Especially Rural America. The 2020 census is the first time americans will be able to respond using the internet. I want to ensure those with lack of internet and Broadband Connectivity are left out. I think we would all agree that Rural America where the overwhelming majority of lack of internet is overwhelmingly republican. Weve heard a lot of people express concerns about an undercount in different communities and i just want to echo my concern about an undercount in Rural America. Also ive learned that the most difficult population to accurately count our children under the age of five. Mr. Moore, why do you believe children are undercounted in Rural Communities . I think it could be any community. And this isnt the real example but its one that is realistic. You may have a single mother that has three children in her household and her landlord may think theres only one child in that house so when they get that question and it asks how many people are living in the house they may either not answered all or not be accurate on it. You get an undercount in that situation. Where it really impacts us from a Community Development level is our schools use that census data for planning. So theyre looking at that census data and expecting 100 kids to show up for kindergarten the first day and because we dont have an accurate census count 200 children showing up the first day and then you got class shortages, teacher shortages you dont have enough books you dont have the materials. Thats one example. That something we share with other people so they can try to address that question if it comes up. Why is important for me to list everybody household. Thats why its critical that you very diverse large complete count committee that can work with different demographics in communities that have influence and do their answers to the questions and i think weve all set it if people know what it is and what it isnt, most people are going to voluntary fallout consensus. Its the fear that keeps them from participating. You mentioned in testimony the efforts that you made in georgia about recruiting census workers and i just had someone in my District Office in thompkins will trying to recruit more workers for the census. My last question in my time is running out, whats being done to prevent fraud from census takers. Either intentionally over counting or intentionally undercounting residence because i know there are a lot of groups in america that are really doing their best effort and we are too to try to get every slow person counted for obvious reasons. A u. S. Census workers are credentialed and i cant necessarily or accurately address that question but i will tell you something ive shared with many smaller communities and briefly i know we are over time. In 2010 thats not a good thing because theyre not familiar with the community and the neighborhoods anonymously theyre not best invested. What we did in 2010 and doing throughout georgia right now is encouraging all of our complete count committees to come up with a list of potential employees and volunteers that can apply for those jobs that weve got somebody local thats vested they know how important it is for their community they know the neighborhoods better i think somebody mentioned not going into a neighborhood because they didnt feel safe. You have a lot higher Response Rate if you get local people hired in those positions. I agree completely. Thank you very much, madam chair, i yield back. Mr. Raskin of maryland is recognized for questions for five minutes. Madam chair thank you very much thanks for calling this important hearing. Successful voter turnout in an election depends on public trust the peoples vote will be counted fairly. A successful civic turnout in the census also depends on public trust specifically trust that our information will be kept secure and that nothing that we write down, no information we provide will be used against us. This trust challenge is a difficult one in an age of social media driven conspiracy theories and Russia Propaganda Campaign to so distrust among americans in our society and just the general background levels of paranoia folk about government and politics. And it is why all of the organization sitting at the table have done so much Public Education but we need to do more about the existing federal laws that talks about the confidentiality the law is clear as day that as my colleagues have said that the Citizenship Question they have grave mistrust for the motive of the census and that is what we are all seeking in our local communities and campaigns and there are very good answers but the federal law could not be clearer. So the survey focuses on the hard to count communities which found 28 percent of respondents were very concerned their answers were not kept confidential and those that were truly concerned so as you are pointing out none of those things could happen and to send a message to people that no information could be used against you or go i ask your consent for the report of the consensus bureau. Without objections. With the confidentiality concerns which do you think might keep your constituents from filling out a census form . Confidentiality in the age of the internet and are elevated because of what occurred in the election and what they hear about hacking its very important that we push back through Public Education to assert it is the law and it is kept confidential and it is a violation to expose that. Its important that the census be vigilant and we will be closely watching and report anything untoward we might sense and as to what the law is because it does come to my peoples willingness with the census. Can you describe how trust levels in the federal government might affect. And everybody knows. Given the way the government has treated it was impacted negatively and to educate with the native population understand the purposes of the census what it can do and what it cannot do. And even more important is the communicators that interact with Indian Country. Are they knowledgeable enough to communicate and navigate with the population. And those that dont have that familiarity they are not trusted voices. And with their own background we have yet to see we are concerned about the proper resources when it comes and if they are prepared to go out there and accurately to interact with the community. And that applying for these jobs has become much more difficul difficult, its all mine and a longer process and we are not certain. I back. The first point i would like to make and i am a little bit offended, one of our witnesses said the president is anti immigrant we have 756,000 people sworn into this country legally which is the highest in several years so to call the president anti immigrant is a ridiculous partisan slap and not true. I believe Mister Vargas said it. I am not sure. In my district at least i know those that are pro immigrant do not want them to break the law so as you feel you present the National Association i just want to make it clear to anybody else listening that in my district people with a sense of the border do believe in oh by one obeying laws of the object to the idea that President Trump is anti immigrant because he is for enforcing the law. My next comment is that seeing the groups before us today and never in this country to permanently divide a one america and people obsessed with their inch one ancestry there are conflicts in this building good owners are always under account one attack. And with that ongoing conflict between taxpayers but then it creates a false narrative this disagreement by racial background i disagree with that but thinking about that, over time due to intermarriage is a more apparent there is a conflict so when somebody else fills out the census form how they should fill it out exactly with the background. Several people here that are one half latin and one half direct european plant one ancestry. The census allows you to self identify around racial and ethnic background. I will give you an extreme example. Elizabeth warren right now held a press conference she is h native american. Apparently she use that when she applied for a job so is that appropriate she would fill out the form . I believe that is self identification i think it should be Accurate Information. So to be a member of the tribes you have to be at least one quarter in the background of that tribe if three quarters of Something Else if somebody is one quarter native american ancestry and three quarters european ancestry , would it be appropriate to fill it out european or native american or how do they fill that out . My tribe is located just north of your district. I know if you are a member of a federally recognized tribe you have the right to present yourself as a native american. As my colleagues have accurately stated in the number of complications has conducted or has hosted with the Census Bureau when the question has come up within Indian Country audiences the answer has been you self identify in a manner you think is appropriate. That causes some level of confusion. But its a statement made at the us Census Bureau. With a particular question and i will make an adjustment. That the average american if you have a friend that is three quarters european ancestry one quarter native american . Let me just clarify you can check as many categories as you want. It is self identification you can check multiple categories if you identify. Let me say one thing about that. There is a lot of quarter blooded American Indians in this country. Most of the roles that you have to trace somebody as far back as the late 18 hundreds so that is three or four different generations. One quarter blood over five generations is a significant amount of American Indian blood in any particular person. If they are one quarter indian or three quarters Something Else that is an interesting way to look at it to question how someone what identify. In many respects with empowerment and justice and dignity and respect. Use here a lot when you testify at the Leadership Conference to have fundamental advocacy on these issues of empowerment. We had the opportunity working closely together and especially relating to Voter Suppression and it occurs to me that Voter Suppression in attempts to reduce census participation are two sides of the same coin. Often times minority communities when we need to be pulling them into our democracy. If you think about it the two most fundamental ways or opportunities people in this country have as empowerment are to be counted at the polls in the census that so somebody can stand up to say here i am. My voice is important. So im very concerned about something that you referenced in your written testimony at least which is the potential for census related disinformation efforts. And then it comes to the census process. To be deeply concerned about census related information and then not to participate and that is usually pushed by bad actors and then to scare people from participating. And who to participate or when to participate. And that countless people with that federal representation with the state districts and to be counted for schools and hospitals many groups have been actively working and that they are developing policies to prevent that senses interference and i can tell you about that. Last month facebook announced a new policy on census interference of any information spread on the platform they will not allow those misleading post to reduce census information talk about that policy if it is Strong Enough or if others can be invited to take that similar action on these digital platform. The Leadership Conference and other civil Rights Groups push very vigorously at the very highest level of the company to ensure to give input on what would be required to have a rigorous and robust policy. We commended facebook when they announced their policy which is to date the most comprehensive to combat census interference and we havent been commending them for much recently but that would be a significant achievement facebook announced any content that violates census interference policy will not be allowed to remain on the platform as newsworthy even if posted by a politician and that was a pretty significant fact for the company they had created enforcement and we want to make sure they would engage with stakeholders in meaningful ways to complement the internal efforts and we asked the company to share information they are getting about the particular Disinformation Campaign so that they can flood the zone with Accurate Information to make sure nobody is harmed as a result. And that facebook has come out and then to be very active to push that. And it might be a good point to have a hearing with census interference. Well follow up on it. I have one point of clarification. I think earlier i talk about federal funding and it was taken out of context. I dont want any witness to perjure themselves so just get with the committee to make sure you make disclosure on federal funding a thank you answered what i intended it to be so you may want to clarify that. Thank you for holding this hearing this year on a topic thats very important to oversight duties as a key function of the republic by and for the people with Representative Government i appreciate the fact everybody has the understanding its important to count every individual and we argue Due Diligence to make that happen. I come from texas 191 of our counties are rule the vast majority is rural including where the population 2918 people i have the privilege that i appreciate all the effort you have done in good home cooking. Do you have anything to reach world counties or the differences . There is a substantial segment of the United States is rural. The substantial part that is suburban perhaps more africanamericans living in more suburban than urban. We have convened 60 organizations under the banner of the black census roundtable and through those efforts to include people that reach urban communities Civil Rights Organizations have extensive backgrounds in Rural Communities so to use this communitybased activation strategy to publicly educate the importance of the census and the purpose of what it is for and why its all right for people to participate. Do you have any more practical nuggets . I endorse all of the above we need to identify when a local government and its resources put behind the fed that is essential of the work of local government states and cities and counties in Economic Development agencies if we are encouraging local affiliates to participate in these local efforts, its an effort to do that. I need to move on. And anything beyond that and to deter from the mandate. It only requires the enumeration. And gender or race or ethnicity. Of race and housing status. Is a little too late in the game. But that just counted what the constitution required . And that headcount is used by policy makers and you need to know how many people are men and women what that uses for what purpose . And what is the purpose of the American Community survey . And you say it has been anti immigrant in the vital need to secure the border and communities like mine with the immigration policy. And that article deportation and it was lower under bush than clinton. And then to stop the rhetoric it would go far to dissuade the fear that we are two years out we still have displaced individuals and housing still being built do you have a way to deal with that . And hit in the panhandle we have several more communities with residents back in their homes. And then plan to identify where they are but definitely trying to make sure those we displaced those families. How do you do that . Working through churches and schools and different organizations to make sure they dont fall through the quex. Just reflecting after Hurricane Katrina the Census Bureau made special efforts to count Homeless People and they sent enumerators to where people are. Is important the Census Bureau work in those areas that are displaced whether texas or puerto rico or where we have had hurricanes or fires those local officials know where those displaced citizens are and the displaced people the only way they would be counted is the use of enumerators if thats where they are so it requires a special effort by the senses with sophisticated Knowledgeable Society we know where these events are taking place we know are displaced people could be to some extent. Again i encourage you to talk to the Census Bureau director when he comes here in a few weeks. Your time is expired. I now yield to mister meadows to further clarify his point of clarification. I want to come back to all of you it was not the i gotcha question you all answered it trying to answer it honestly when i was talking about federal funding i was talking about because some of you receive federal funding. We know that. So my question would have been accurately do any of you receive federal funding directly or indirectly in support census work then you can answer as you did for answer truthfully. The Leadership Conference does not. We receive no federal funding. No we did not receive one sent from the federal governmen government. We do not receive any federal funding for census work it. We do not receive federal funding for census work spec i think the chairwoman for allowing us to clarify that. Now i yield for five minutes for questions. Thank you chairwoman for attending on this topic. Clearly the proper census channel is a suburban and urban issue we want to make sure we count everyone i am from california Orange County by the 48th district and in the 48th district we have an area known as Little Saigon which is parts of westminster santa ana and garden grove. Its a community thats an example of hard to count places so what i want to talk about is the goal to help out with the efforts that we do get an accurate count in all communities these Partnership Specialists tend to be trusted local voices serving as a critical liaison serving between the Census Bureau and the local communities but yet it has reportedly failed to meet its own deadlines for partnerships specialist to raise the questions of the effectiveness of this program. Why these are so important to increase participation. The partnership is reflective of the local communities often made up of people from local communities who are much more trusted messengers as well as door knockers as well as anyone from the federal government to self identify that so historically to rely on its ability to have a robust Partnership Program for that reason and now because of escalated fears not only the Citizenship Question but the climate in the country right now that we have those partners in every community. With that Advertising Campaign with that significant information to recognize and agree that they provide a role elaborate on that. They are doing much more than just providing Public Education. They are actually in community in language and my colleagues speak directly to those chance on to those challenges for the robust Partnership Programs. But they are much more engaged at the local level to interface with members of the community in a way no amount of media or communications. It is vital that wont have the same reach. The role the partnerships specialist play to make sure we get an accurate census count the Census Bureau is supposed to have 1500 by june 3h 2019 they missed their deadline and their understanding from the gao is they miss that again in december so what concerns do you have of the delay of hiring of these partnership specials . My major concern is that there would not be sufficient time to make sure they are adequately trained. The Census Bureau immediate Campaign Begins in january in just ten days we need specialist on the ground, not just hired to know whats going on. One of the challenges we have had to encounter specialists so if i could use this opportunity to make a recommendation to the congressman from texas my advice would be you should look at where in your district would people not receive mailings . Many Rural Communities do not get any mail. They are hand delivered the census form with an operation called update. So understand what that operation is in your district because not everybody will get mail. And specialist need to be informed about that so not only are we behind in the hiring that they accurately form the community. We have to make sure not only do we hire in a timely manner but make sure they have the appropriate skill set but equally important the proper training so they can do their job. Thats correct. I yelled back. I yield back for a unanimous consent request. Thank you for your thoughts i ask unanimous consent and article from the hill. Without objection so ordered. I now recognize the chairwoman from west virginia. Thank you all for being here today. I heard a lot about what constitutes hard to kill population so i would like to offer a different perspective from my state of west virginia. It is extremely rural and filled with beautiful hills and colors that contain many communities where people have probably lived for generations reaching out to these communities often multiple times ensures they are counted in the right places no easy feat behind me is a map of my district four of the 18 counties have 100 percent of the population living in hard to count neighborhoods. I spent last year visiting each one and i can tell you from firsthand experience how were all the communities are. First the additional five counties have 60 percent of the population living in hard to count neighborhoods that is half. Many also have lower percentages of those who mailed back there census forms. To require a costly in person followup. It is important this committee consider how to address populations as we do take Rural Communities into account. I have enjoyed listening to your testimony today for how to engage the role community. And with the mobile food pantries all over our state so that might be a good way as well to spread the news about the senses we also have those that go around that are the unique way. Im not familiar with your district or state so i dont know why they would be. I never thought we had a Homeless Population but we do so in 2010 we had a soup kitchen and we made it available to participate at the senses there at schools and churches and several families have said when we were doing when we asked people where they got their news and information and who they trusted in their sources , then he came back to their pastors and the teachers are guidance counselors. I would use those as options to get outreach. But every community is different what works in one will not work in another thats why its critical you have a complete count. So that government takes the lead but we had a very successful counties because they work with a lot on the daily basis. That is my perspective may be a little bit different and working with committees. So you have to come up with ideas and suggestions to put together a plan. Because of the hills in the mountains and geography we are without the internet. Since this is the first time and with the adequate internet. So if you are in an area that doesnt have internet and then the fifth will also have a written form they can fill out. And then try to promote that so anything of people setting up tents to tell them what it is or what it is and to fill out the census. And to advocate a Million Dollars and with these Promotional Materials and those that dont have internet available. And some of them are homeless. Soup kitchens and churches or anything. Thats a good point. People have said theres only 50 people but if they have input than they need to be engaged. You want to count everybody that you can. I like your trusted sources. I yield back. I want to comment you brought a lot of information about Rural America and how to address it. The theme of libraries i represent urban areas but we are using our libraries for the homeless for those that dont have internet and thats the real resource we need to build on in our Rural Communities. Thank you for bringing that information. Thank you for being here and for your patience. I know how important the census is illinois lost a congressperson every decade for five decades and it looks like we will lose another. If people dont fill out the census we could lose to. We take it upon ourselves to do census meetings all over my district urban and suburban and rural. Because those of my constituents dont have access. Also there is a lot of concern about the Citizenship Question from my population because they talk about it a lot. Because people are concerned about their privacy. And the gao issued a report of the 2020 census operation to find as of august 2019 many that technology had a missing critical deadline to add uncertainty over the next seven months. Is the bureau ensuring . What concerns do you have about it with this senses cycle we are reaching out in the 2010. There has only been one to have a lot less data how to shore up it. Technology is important but it brings cybersecurity threat and the bureau has to do everything with private and federal and state partners. We have been pushing the bureau to take necessary steps how those systems will affect the communities that we have worked on the partnership. And the bureau should update congress from the status of all of these activities in a manner that congress was directed and to ensure the it systems are secure. And the level of details , 21 due to the Partnership Program it does the internet response and to understand the process more to make sure cybersecurity is strong. Does anybody else want to add anything quick. Please explain the Legal Protection quick. Under title 13 of the census act, nobody is allowed to provide individualized data coming from the census form. That is subject to a penalty of 500. 6 months in jail. , five years in jail. But our experience with the line level, they take that protection seriously. That is what we talk about to be a trusted messenger of sorts. So those protections are absently in place and we need t to. If there is one thing you can tell the Census Bureau of what could be done better, what would it be . Just go down the line. Broadly . Yes. Well, we have been pushed very hard by the bipartisan leadership to get the funding levels that we needed. We are gravely concerned how they are using and allocating as the census is about to start with all of the various programs and the strategies. It is census that is back to back risk whether they hire at a fast enough pace for Partnership Programs or the communication communications, it security and cybersecurity and many of us address these issues and i think with all of these questions because they have funding now to do everything to ensure that everyone has been counted. Broadly, transparency. We know there are gaps they let us know what they are realistically we can all help to fill those gaps. For 72 years one thing when i talk to small groups that is not extremely personal information there is no Social Security numbers are nothing like that. Thats what you have to address because there is that misconception that they will hide the essences database and to ruin their credit thats not the case with the data collecte collected. Thank you very much. Thank you madam chair with 24 percent of my constituents are considered hard to count. For the last census. My friends was dead and always spoke well of your family. We will move a little fast and i assure the panel its a positive direction for the purpose of a hearing but i will ask you to answer couple of questions with yes or no. So let me clarify i support a totally accurate count regarding the essences it is crucial for the representative republic with direct mail and online and census Data Collection and it is the responsibility of all of us to determine what is the best way to have a 100 percent accurate count. So by show of hands, have any of you ever worked for the Census Bureau, on the stree street, collecting census data door to door . Let the record reflect no panel raised their hand. By yes or no. [laughter] thank you for your service. [laughter] this is not a gotcha i just wanted genuine answer. Do you recognize that some communities and demographic groups just by tradition and are hesitant to interact. Yes or no quick. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes to interact. Yes or no quick. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes let the record reflect all panelist responded yes. Here is an interesting question how to move forward with a 100 percent accurate count. Do these American Communities that have a cultural or traditional hesitancy to communicate and census Data Collection efforts do they have the right to determine their own level of interaction with government or outside their community quex do they have that right . Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes does the American Community to provide data to the senses researchers do they have the right to resist that quick. They have a right but i have the responsibility. They have a moral responsibility. They have a right. They have the right to resist . It would be incumbent upon us to do outreach and communication to encourage participation to seek their census data. I was a patrolman on the street in 2010 and it was a common call on the census collection of a suspicious person. This was 2010. Sometimes we have multiple calls a day on the same census worker. There has been an overwhelming number of scams steal money online, email, telephone and has increased exponentially largely targeting the elderly. I believe this will influence a greater number of American Communities and individual families to resist the efforts to collect their data. There is a great deal of emphasis placed on the Citizenship Question that we have allowed to come to manifest in our nation and environment to encourage our citizens if you dont know the person calling you then dont answer the phone. This is the delayed manifest over the last ten years we have to get her head wrapped around this because i believe the largest demographic not counted in the summit one dash coming census is the elderly. There was the that on the threat from scanning the id theft. Your time is up. This is a relevant point if anybody would like to respond. I will make this brief in the information received the elderly is generally a population that is more inclined to voluntarily respond to the census because theyve done it before and they see it as their civic duty. With your concerns of going online but traditionally that has a higher Response Rate than other parts of the population. So you speak to resistanc resistance, thank you for your service. One size does not fit all looking at different areas in different districts why a group of people may resist or may not be transferable to the other vet your suggestion and then to have a right to resist with the security concern with fraud on the internet and other locations it has been transferable to all of these existing communities to be a primary cause is dubious at best. If it is a resistance for a whole different reason that has nothing to do with what you spoke to. But a historical mistreatment through a couple hundred years. Periods when they were not allowed to vote or when they tried to determine American Indian ancestry. So why we may be a little hesitant but it has nothing to do with that but to properly communicate educate and connecting with the culture and tradition that exist on the individual indian reservations to understanding what that is. So in response to pigeonhole to recognize certain things with a yes or no answer and then to extrapolate. Your time is expired but that is an important issue to raise. I dont find it not shocking the panel would identify a member of congress as dubious because most of america considers us dubious. [laughter] i think the questions my colleague poses gives more of a drive and a responsibility to be sure we educate and in address the concerns and ensure the outreach is inclusive. Members of congress i must ensure that the communities are included in the upcoming census. The president s continue mission of the Citizenship Question has incorrectly sparked fear in the communities. Today we have an opportunity to help correct that in justice. My home detroit notoriously undercounted. With a large minority population who expect one speaks dozens of languages that it takes every step that it can to ensure the population is reached. After the 2010 census the bureau reported that undercounted africanamericans by 2 percent and hispanics by one. 5 percent in American Indians and alaskans by 5 percent according to the 2010 census my district alone is home to over 400,000 africanamericans, 34000 have hispanics in 1500 American Indians which equates to a district that is seriously at risk to be undercounted. Of those trends continue my district will see hundreds if not thousands of individuals not counted in the 2020 census. In addition to that , 10 percent of my district is born in another country. Eastern europe, iraq, banglades europe, iraq, bangladesh, mexica and yemen and the list goes on. My home state of michigan stands to lose 30 billion for infrastructure and we are already rated one of the worst in the country. And access to clean drinking water. You all know the story of flint. s education and more with the 2020 census is not properly done. I am concerned because the Census Bureau had fallen behind they may not have had the manpower with operations to ensure everyone fills out the census form. And november 2019 at the Inspector General at department of commerce to raise concerns about hiring delays and the ig found the Census Bureau it system used , failed several test and to present a risk. Do you have concerns of the pace of the hiring today quick. Yes i do prick i think all panelist do for the very reason that you said that this program is vitally important to secure an accurate count. In fact it has acknowledged it is behind just this week it has issued a press release to state the Census Bureau needs more applicants in all 50 states. Do you believe the Census Bureau is doing all it can to recruit to hire enumerators . And the question we should be asking members of congress, what can we do . We must act do you have recommendations. Thank you for your focus. It is time to reading the alarm bell on the enumerator program. They are behind. There is no strategy to catch up. They have to hire 500,000 peopl people. Black or asian or Indian American is overly relied on the success of the enumerator program. What they need to do is hold emergency hiring fairs with that total reliance and to do what anyone would do in an emergency that we have fallen behind and to see why people change and if they continue along then they will not hire enough people. But this congress appropriated 90 million for mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers. We have no information to the program and to add on this to reduce the number of local partnership offices meaning those specialists are far behind in here on dash with a broader geographic area. So we should go into these areas to set up Emergency Partnership offices. So what those first letters to go out in 60 days we need to start ringing the alarm bell and demand there are adjustments in their approach or the result will not be what we want. Your time has expired. Thank you madam chair. I just want to get into the census information. We know it is used for the boundaries of Congressional Districts. It was designed for that purpose and also use to distribute more than 600 billion per year in our communities. It was very important for the panel to discuss this issue. In many rural areas the census is a hard to count population they have a population of less than 1000 so looking back but we have been able to accomplish to put a man on the moon and returning safely to earth doing that in 1969 in 2020 and we need to look that it is essential for proven strategies and the use of that technology weve been able to get over the years to ensure the Rural Communities are properly counted in the 2020 census. And we know they are set to begin in a few short months. Look at what happened with your work in georgia prior to 2010 is an example to reach hard to count communities. What word do you say more about your efforts and how they count with the use of technology . Is that a part of what we can do quick. You mean sharing information . So with certain things we can pinpoint. We all use gps so we have incredible mapping to know where people live. And talk about hard to count populations and most of it is under five. So how do we use the technology to make sure we reach all the households quick. There is great Data Available from the 2010 census for the current numbers. We also have a lot of different options but we recorded every address in georgia to have the highest Participation Rate and where that would go and that was at risk. And the 1000 person community. I would suggest they are more familiar where people go or who they trust for those different segments and why it is important when they get that first mailing in the mail. So to realize how important it is it is the first time they get a mailing. The enumerators going doortodoor with everybody we are dealing with is to have a High Percentage of people voluntarily fill out the census as possible. I did not answer it directly but i can share with you some suggestions and ideas we have had with other communities to help them out. I appreciate that because we all seem to find out where people are to mail them things and i find it very shocking we dont have a uniform that live in the United States. I think theres some things we could do but how do we get that shared best practice . We have a plan for all 41 counties. And those outside of the service area. Your time is expired. He raises an important point of the best practices that we could use we could try to get the businesses to pull together for all of us for the testimony that is a very important point. I would ask the people at the table if you share best practices and i would encourage you if you have not already done it to look what other people are doing and put together a best practice. Thats an excellent idea. Thank you madam chairwoman and to all the witnesses for coming. We have had several hearings on the census you have come and offered your expertise and we thank you for that. I think after the past year of so many developments going on particularly when it comes to the question of undocumented status and a lot of havoc and confusion has been reached in the electorate which we know has created a lot of fear with one of the most constitutional operations we have to conduct. So lets clarify, will the 2020 census ask people about their documented status quick. It will not. It will not. Is filling out the census safe . It is safe and confidential. With that confidentiality will the personal information be shared . Federal law prohibits the sharing of census information with any other government agency. It is illegal for any of your individual information to be shared by the census. That is right. How serious of a crime is it . Is it a misdemeanor or very serious. Very serious federal law is very robust in part because the consequences are grave. Very very serious crime. Lets talk about the potential outcome. So lets say i want to manipulate peoples ability or their willingness to return. Why would i want to do Something Like that quick. To encourage a swath of community that are perceived to vote for one or the other or to stay out for political gain. You may want that to happen because you dont believe those fragments of the community are deserving of the same social services but its the duty of the federal government is to count every Single Person regardless of status. So there is a political motive as to why someone would want to undercount those communities . Yes the citizenship litigation and the Supreme Court found to keep it as a motive for that question was motivated motivated by partisan gain and those that were discovered without litigation revealed there was the effort to weaponize the census are partisan gain but that should be a core Government Institution that is free from politics. We have seen the documented paper trail the desire to scare the immigrant communities out of the census is to help of political gain to the Trump Administration. We do have some concrete evidence of that being the case look no further than the memo for the advocation of the Citizenship Question to non systemic whites. Let me move on. I understand your organization issued a report to the latino commission. What did this report find about trust with like the census respondents in the Latino Community quick. That was a Bipartisan Committee and chair by a member of the miamidade board of education and her testimony from Community Leaders overall not just latinos or immigrants but the public that there is a growing mistrust with contact government to submit online this is that the Census Bureau understands they are facing which is why the resources they needed for the Communication Campaign is so essential. Very quickly if we dont answer the census does that impact our School Funding . Absolutely. Money for roads quick. Yes. Resources for communities . Yes. So if you dont answer the census our kids will not have textbooks, teachers at the ratios that they need, schools that are built. One of the most undercounted districts in the country but also represents one of the most overcrowded districts when it comes to schooling. Im sure that is connected as well. Yes. There are broad implications for any School District with hospitals, roads, infrastructur. It has very real impacts on Living Communities when people are rendered invisible or not counted in the census. Thank you very much. Next congressman from north dakota. Rural communities are not monolithic. They are very different and diverse so i cannot talk about georgia with any degree of accuracy but i can talk about north dakota and the native american reservations. Outside of all the historical stuff, which i do agree there also challenges because of the location of how we deal with this. It defines hard to contact hard to persuade and these are the Biggest Challenges and when we talk to Rural Communities there is a big distinction from the town of 200 people versus all of those that live around that town of 200 people. Eleven what is the Biggest Challenges when counting Rural Communities quick. It is the diversity to find sources and to every day on the panel. You may have people you trust and they may not listen so to have a Diverse Group that can address everyone in the community has the greatest impact. Through research and to find out why it is effective or not. And you all have that census data and to find those trusted voices. So how do we recruit more people to work on this . I have done a lot of work on reservations in north dakota and the efficiency to have somebody from their doing it. We have 30000 open jobs we have negative unemployment when you bring somebody from the outside to work to do the census work efficiency will go down exponentially let alone frustration and skepticism in dealing with those issues. There are challenges in the real nature. As simple as that we take for granted. And so look at your normal methods of communication so enumerators interacting get counted. So that is toward filling these positions through online networks. And to have a major impact on the number of people to do that. So we strongly suggest, it is crunch time. When the congressman was speaking about the specialis specialist, they start in alaska in two weeks and there are no native alaskans that are in partnership. Zero at this point. Which is very shocking and alarming. Because of the wait time and how long it takes to become badged through the us Census Bureau. We need to consider that. That is an additional pylon. Have we ever looked at the number of census workers with rural areas . The efficiency has decreased. This isnt just my perspective and to talk about those Partnership Specialists and thats not the only solution. And then to get together on a more frequent basis to follow that model you need more people in a geographic area. So we take for granted 911 addresses gps locations and land lines i can tell you in north dakota those dont exist in certain places and they are more exasperated than our traditional rural areas. Thank you very much. Thank you for raising interesting points. Thank you madam chair for being here. One of the things we have been distracted to understand is what it means and the crisis that we have is the fact it has to rely on access to Broadband Internet. Community and Rural America and so much emphasis investing having us all the online and if we go online we dont need that many folks on the ground. And said they are reducing the offices by 50 percent because they are going online primarily. The last census one out of three did not return the responses on the initial round. One out of nine dont have access to internet. Not only that, combined with the fact they will hire 125,000 fewer people to actually try to get people counted. All that combined, thinking about the communities we think about here, we are underestimating that this is the First Time Ever in the history of our country we will go completely online for the initial touch. I know this dont use the Broadband Internet in this chamber or at home. Try to fill it out on your own when you dont have access to that. Because some cannot even afford the Internet Access. It is the affordability issue not only access if it is even available. So the critical importance that resources are down 50 percent and we are very fearful. There is a coalition to raise money with the foundations and the Wayne County Community and our executive is really taking a lead to say we have to count everybody. I appreciate his leadership but why it is worrisome to me is that unless i have those with ipads at the bus stop or outside of schools trying to explain you will not get anything in your mailbox. You have to go online to do it right there. The majority of my residence use their phone. That will not work. Not only that it is not safe and secure. So i want to hear from all of you in regards to that but this is a major change how we are counting folks this year. That i could start you made a very important distinction it is not the first online census is the first in which they are available. Thats we have to educate the community that it is not the only option. You can still get a written form or by the fourth mailing if you have not responded you will get a written form in the mail. But that option is still available. Likewise the 1800 number you can call to provide responses for the education for Asian Americans they are reluctant to use Online Survey data shows paper form is still preferred. That is the education. And it is coordinating and they are starting to understand that more and they would be wonderful. But we need to continue to emphasize how that all fits together. I would invite congress to make sure the Census Bureau has a vote capacity to intake the millions of americans going online all at once to provide census information. I believe we need a plan b and to have an adequate supply of paper forms. And i would just add to that and to know which communities access higher connectivity. It is the shortages of the bureau as advocates to make sure that cities and states will engage to put money toward the account networks that are locally based. And shockingly some that have not set up. We have several states have refused to put any dollars toward the census when we know the very unique challenges of the 2020 census are facing but to put a positive piece there are cities and states and ngos that are stepping up to the wifi centers but that is not a constructional answer to those issues that you talk about and we talk about the cybersecurity concerns as well that we are very mindful of. Chairman i would like to submit for the record an article titled the Internet Access. This community have government programs. Bad i wanted to talk about how important fair and accurate census is used for the private sector to create opportunity for all. And for capitalism to create opportunity and we need an accurate count and to serve all their communities way of brief businesses and organizations on the census changes by the president. Those that have submitted come from a wide variety. For example the Los Angeles Chamber of commerce, ben jerrys and lift and those that say cormack without accurate census data on which to base decisions this is crucial to businesses survival and growth. They also said mistakes where to place a store or warehouse is only with the business overall outlook what the community does not need. Is not just the risk of what is on the shelf the homeowners use the census data to help provide Housing Market information with renters in home values and also demonstrates the need for more housing like in Orange County. As a leader in this area what partnership could you develop with businesses to be charge account communities . The Leadership Conference at this table have been working very closely with trying to get more Corporate Partners prickle we have seen a number step up for the very reasons that they articulated in their amicus brief with the concern of the Citizenship Question Companies Understand and they rely on it for location decisions and to have some success to get Big Companies with huge footprints to get more engaged in the effort they are using the platform for marketing and advertising and to get employees with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands but also we need more companies to be engaged you hear from all of us this is all hands on deck. We have to pull the alarm right now. This is happening we are days away from the account. Have you had to partner . We have engage a number of businesses for that. They can do several things. To encourage their own employees to participate and convince them to make sure everybody within their sphere of influence and network also participates but also incorporate as they reach out to customers. It is all hands on deck. To use this to create in my district people in other districts have been receiving things, things that sang their post selected to participate in a census. And they have been given a voter number and a deadline and questions that look very similar to the census. But these are actually political tools. Rewritten to the postmaster general and the attorney general of california, i tried to shine the light of that. I have not received yet any responses. Im in a followup on this with the census director when he comes. But i want a flag for you that education as you do your outreach. In my time is expired. I want to chec recognized from new mexico. Thank you so much for taking the time to be hearing your hard work for the underrepresented in our country. Thank you in for your integrity in the face of opposition for higher purposes of equality and justice which is what all of you are doing when youre doing this work. I need to mention something for the record because it was raised earlier by one of my colleagues. But i like to say is that this entire country was once Indian Country. This entire country. And federal recognition is a process that has been established because of colonialism, and for no other reason. So regardless of whether an indigenous person is enrolled in a federally recognized tribe, there are tribes that have been denied that status by this government. It doesnt mean they are not indigenous, they are in fact indigenous and they should answer the census in that way. If that is have they identified. Their state recognized tribes and there are tribes that are not state or federally recognized. However they have a Family History that says they are indigenous to this continent, and they should respond the way that their Family History requires them and obligates them to. And so now on to some questions. The Census Bureau has had ten years to prepare for the 2020 census and to address the severe undercount of native americans in the last census. They know the vast majority of responses will have to be done by in person and numerators on tribal land. Keeping in mind that our state of new mexico has largely navajos, plug blows and apaches and several large divers indian urban population. Not only is the Census Bureau behind on hiring staff, but it took congressional intervention and my home state of new mexico to get the regional Census Office to order printed translation guides in the navajo language. The navajo population is the largest indian population in my state. And not only that, but they have a language that is tough on Rosetta Stone for example. I am directing this question to mr. Ellis, but i encourage all of you to submit your answers in writing as it pertains to the communities you are working with. Mr. Ellis, from your experience, do you believe that the Bureau Officials understand the unique challenges for remote tribal nations and language needs . And if not at this point, what actions do you think the bureau should prioritize to ensure a full count . And second, mr. Ellis, please give us an idea of just how important it is for us to count urban indian population . Thank you congresswoman and two great questions. I do recognize that 78 of the native American Community in new mexico, your state, isnt hard to count area. Significant population. So does the u. S. Census bureau really understand our needs . Thats a tough question to answer. I dont know if its a yes or no answer or if its fair. We work with them, its important we need to work with them and get along with them. They have taken strides to try to address some of our issues, and some of our concerns we have articulated through the years. However, as it was mentioned earlier, this is not a complaint about funding. Congress has done a job in correctly funding. This is about the operational decisions they have made. Any fee look at some the things they have made we do have to question whether they fully understand the needs and problems exist and the hurdles and byway of how they are stopping their team and putting that together. And also not necessarily communicating with any of us on the mobile questionnaire program. How is that going to work . Who is gonna do that . What is the vision for that . All of those that they have identified the barriers. Theyve taken the time to i densify, self identify those various privacy concerns, trusted voices general lack of knowledge. An improper messaging. Its questionable whether the operational decisions have gone to address those. How important is this to us . You know we are very unique. We are a political group. We are a political body. And also, a lot of this country doesnt understand we are one of three sovereigns of ticket late in the constitution. Federal government, states, and tribal governments. What is the lifeblood of any sovereignty . Its tax base. Its being able to get resources from its tax base. We dont have that option. That does not exist. We dont have that lifeblood. Our lifeblood is the federal funding that is for education, Economic Development, infrastructure that has been promised to us entreaties and trust responsibility. And that funding is directly impacted by the census. And if that does not come off right and we are not properly counted, our lifeblood is cut right off. Whether you are tribal sovereign government whether your state or federal government, whether you are human being, you stop your lifeblood, you die. And said that is how important it is and thats the really unique distinction that separates Indian Country from our other partners that i think people really need to understand. Now id like to recognize ms. Presley of massachusetts for questions. Thank you mr. Chair, boston makes up the bulk of my district. As one of the 100 largest cities in the country. It is ninth and being hardest account. Thats a vibrant, diverse district at one of the most unequal in the country. And thats certainly true when it comes to health outcomes. And so census data is used to allocate dollars for federal funding programs. Most people are not aware that includes medicaid and chip. Period the Childrens Health insurance program. These programs help to provide millions of families that make and meet in the United States. Can you explain how census data decides medical spending for medicaid and chip . Census data is why these really large settled programs are able to allocate programs. Person. So literally and undercount of people in your community will result in smaller block grants being given through these programs for kids to get the healthcare they need. And of course we know also about Health Care Disparity already so the consequences of an undercount in communities, the healthcare consequences are going to be that much more dire. And could you just elaborate a little bit more on that how failing to count hardtoreach communities in the 2020 census will already cause issues with systemic barriers. There is a wealth of information showing the degree to which healthcare disparity hits low income communities, communities of color, and a highly disproportionate rate. When you think about, if youre thinking about structural issues like the allocation of federal dollars to support programs that are specifically targeted to address those gaps, and close the issue, if there is an undercount of those very communities because of this judicious cycle and the undercount of those communities, the dollars allocated to the programs to reach them are then also diminished and reduced. And will become structural vicious cycle. Thank you at mr. Vargas what is his need for latin communities which are already disproportionately higher rates . The irony is when the community suffers an undercount, the services that are based on census data then, are even delivered the last two those same communities. So take the example of latino children. They are the most frequently undercounted population in the country. 400,000 young latino children ages zero to four were not counted in the 2010 census. So all of the data, all the programs that are designed to benefit very Young Children are off. Because the numbers are wrong. If your numbers are wrong, your decisions and your funding allocations are wrong. Cf. Inky mr. Vargas and distance disproportionate lillian the black community with mortality and other Health Disparities . All across the board, every Single Health disparity with the exacerbated by an undercount. Because the list and range of programs that rely on census data for the allocation of done funds is long and deep. I think it is approximately 800 billion in the federal budget is allocated based on the data collectio collected in the census. So it stands to reason of its medicare medicaid, childrens programs, headstart, you could go down the line, its so essential we have to communicate that to our communities. But thats why we have to hold census accountable to do the right thing and make sure everyone is counted. Because the impact is political when it comes to reapportionment, every Single Office in the country for home the people are elected by districts, the impact is economic. Because it in fax over 800,000 it goes beyond that because one of the questions someone asked earlier was the entire framework for marketbased data used by the private fact sector sector is based on census data. Thank you part of my remaining time i would just like to know if any of you have thoughts and 20 seconds as to whether or not incarcerated men and women should be counted and included in the census . According to the Home Communities therefrom and not where they are being mostly warehouse. Yes, yes, and yes. Let me say this we had the Census Bureau on the brink of reversing this just before the 2016 election. The 2016 election impacted this. So the Census Bureau was on the verge, because we have advocated for many, many years that they change where those are incarcerated are counted to their home districts. And it changed with the election it impacted this. It is not fair, it is not appropriate to allow those counties that happen to house correctional facilities, to get a disproportionate share of resources as well as political power because they just happened to be the place where incarcerated people are. This is, and i urge congressman clay got a bill that would reverse this. Hes not here buddy seated there. I think we need to make a priority to push that one to go through congress so its not the case. Thank you, i think time is frozen in time. Thirteen seconds for minute. I like to recognize florida for questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Recently, and welcome to our panelists thank you for being here for your work every single day. Recently the Census Bureau had a paid Media Campaign for hardtoreach hard to count communities so we can increase messaging around the census. That will obviously increase participation and make sure more best funding is available will we know how many people weve not been able to reach. This culturally sensitive advertising is essential in diverse district like mine which includes latin americans, migrants his trust in government has seriously eroded due to the Trump Administrations attempt to propose a Citizenship Question. Specifically i represent south florida which are considered the hardest account counties in my state. According to the City University of new york. So there are Major Concerns about gaps in Media Coverage of my own community and many places just like it on the country. Its hard to count groups are not properly engage on the importance of the timeline of the census that could leave to a significant undercount. For example theres a . In florida over whether or not we will have one seat or two seats to our congressional delegation. And this Media Campaign could make a very significant difference in whether its one or two. And then if you have more elected officials representing your state theres more advocacy and more resources to say nothing of the allocation with the formula for federal and state funding. Its really good to see you, im glad to hear one of the things that im concerned about is there is likely a gap in the outreach budget that the administration has announced to account africanamericans. What about the gap in media and communications have in the black community . An undercount means that Political Representation is going to be affected and an undercount means the allocations for federal funds is good to be infected. And it goes all theyre down the line. It affects city council seats, county Commission Seats justice of the peace seats. Not to mention members of the state legislature and members of congress. And in the 40 states that elect judges, some due from districts. All this can be affected by an undercount and it is particular concern for africanamericans. I know other communities where our population is growing. We want the census to capture the growth in our populations. And thats we translated into the reapportionment process, that can be how general funds are allocated. To be clear specifically the africanamerican population is growing. So if theres an undercount because of the way the redistricting works, you have decisions made about where in the states or in a community a new district would be added. If you undercount the population that has grown, then that community is less likely to get representation they otherwise would have gotten had the community counted them. It that leaves to vote dilution and when you add that the fact that we dont have section five for the Southern States at this point in time, the risk is grave, and that is why we are so, all of us here united and saying to you as the house Oversight Committee, the power is in your hands. The whole census accountable, and mr. Vargas talked about a plan b. I talked about state of emergency, whatever is required between now and march or april, the Census Bureau has to step up its game, its got to fill up these gaps, it has to respond to the what weve raised today, or the risk of the nation, and our communities is grave. And as i heard you say earlier, specifically having a Media Outreach campaign in between, the enumerators began going doortodoor so that there is awareness they are coming, i know when i go doortodoor into my districts if i send a mailing announcing im coming the open rate of the doors more significant because they are less fearful. They also think theyre going to trick us saying nonresponsive followup in primary, so Advertising Campaign has to run all the way to the end. So the final dates when people can fill out a form or respond to the census. Thank you so much in my last few seconds i recognize a seminal tribe of florida and clearly native americans a be a population that is usually undercounted. Theres a lack of trust, a lack of confidence in the official government of the United States. So what kind of outreach are you aware of that is been included by the administration to make sure there is not an undercount of the native americans . Thank you congressman for that question. As congresswoman holland asked me to it mention where was the Census Bureau during what it needs to do to connect to the Indian Country, and over the course of the last ten years, they have self identified barriers and hurdles and things that do need to be addressed. That includes language, includes knowledge about why, whats the purpose of the census . How do you fill the thing out . In all of those kinds of things. Our concern is even though they have been properly funded, a lot of that stuff just has not happened correctly. And theres a shift in how they want to hire people and maneuver people around. And set up their infrastructure, it does not align with addressing those particular. Its not just throwing money at it . Now youre talking about Media Outreach. There are issues there. Alaska starts in two weeks. The goal was that this Media Campaign would have started five months ago. It started in middle december. And when it started in middle december, there were mispronunciations of the villages and of the tribes, and it was just not clean. And thats not connecting the dots. Thats them not doing their homework. And working with injury country and preparing an awareness and the visibility that understands who the community is that its trying to target. Would have a president of the United States even today continues to align native American Committee by disparaging a democrat or public decisive there is the lack of respect for the native American Community. I yield back. Votes have been called and theres about nine minutes on the clock, so after i am done with my questioning, we will adjourn this hearing. So i recognize myself for questions, first let me thank all the panelists were coming. This is an issue that i studied the census when i was in grad school back in 2001 and 2002. So yes i was that dork who studied the census. But i also understood what it means in the history of this country. What it means when it comes to either the marginalization or what goes on the communities. And what it means for drafting policies that reflect that changing demographic. Where people live, how they live, what they look like, what issues are they impacted by. That is what the census is all about. I want to encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that the census is not, shouldnt be used to marginalize communities to silence voices. Because the changing demographics that are occurring in this country, i believe ive been seeing it for the past 2030 years, its inevitable. His sisters the sun rises in the east and sets in the west that will occur. They are brown latinos that lived in rural georgia, asians that live in the midwest, as well as africanamericans that lived in the northeast. Country is just changing. So we want to make sure everybody is counted because that is how you have a truly representative democracy. So with that i want to kind of ask a few questions. Mr. Vargas, you are familiar with my districts. Because im a constituent. [laughter] i just have a question a lot of people talked about Partnership Specialists. What have you been hearing on the grounds about effectiveness of the Partnership Specialist within the Latino Community . Theyd generally float in spanish and are sensitive . Seminar and they have hired some very excellent Partnership Specialist across the country that we have had the opportunity to work with. But thereve also been other partnerships and specialists that in our opinion have been not well deployed in defense that they dont have the skill sets, the language to work in the community where they are being deployed by the Census Bureau. And in other cases the timing and rush to hire enough people, they are not adequately trained. So they are misinformed about the full range of the census operation so those are the concerns we have this point. Thank you. Another issue that is becoming extremely urgent in california is just the growing homelessness population. Is that something i know that theres a hundred and 30000 plus Homeless Individuals in california. 58000 in l. A. County alone. What do you see is the way to count the Homeless Population . And you think the Census Bureau has a strategy to ensure that there counted . They are among the most vulnerable population because of their transients and communities and the like. I think the bureaus really didnt need to work with direct Service Providers mobile units, shelters, soup kitchens and the like, as well as enumerating out to locations and some 24 hour businesses to get an accurate count. The beer does have some strategies that put in place that we have been urging them to do more with direct Service Providers in the way that i just mentioned. And also to coordinate really intensively with hard to count Community Leaders to prepare. A lot of Community Leaders that are running these direct services, soup kitchens and the like they know are the Homeless Populations are. Seasonally in their districts and so having a very close knit coordination will will be very vital to ensuring the Homeless People are counted. One of the things i would just like to point out is that homelessness is not just occurring in california but throughout the country and thats going to be a challenge for blue states as well as red states. Urban analysis wears rural areas. So thank you so much for all the witnesses for being here and testifying on this important issue. Now its time to make sure that we get the account that we need. Now before i end with some announcements, i would like to live there leave the Ranking Member a few seconds to thank the witnesses. I think the chairman we had a debate at the front end and i didnt get to thank you all for being here. Appreciate all you do in your testimony here today. Thank you. This is a first in this series that will be having on census oversights this year will be sure to raise these points that you have made with the director of the Census Bureau. When he comes before the committee on february 12 as mentioned earlier. I just want to thank everybody for their hard hard work. Without objection, all members will have five days to submit additional questions for the witnesses to the chair. Which will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. I asked witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able. Thank you for participating in this hearing is now adjourned. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] hello and welcome. On behalf of the association of counties in the appalachian region, i want to welcome you to opiates in appalachia capstone event. I am boone county kentucky judge executive perry more. I am also the cochair of the