Transcripts For CSPAN2 House Oversight Hearing On 2020 Census 20240713

[inaudible conversations] without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess for the committee at any time. With that i will now recognize myself to give an Opening Statement and mr. Gomez will follow me with a minute in 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 for this census. The 2020 census is imminent and accounting set to begin in alaska in less than two weeks and across the country on april 1. The constitution requires every person to be counted, every Single Person living in the United States of america, not just citizens, not just people of a particular Political Party or race but absolutely everyone. I am gravely concerned that the Census Bureau may not be prepared to meet this high bar and that the 2020 census could leave communities across the country undercounted, underrepresented and underfunded. The Government Accountability office and apartment of commerce Inspector General both agree that the census is not where it should be. Sadly, under President Trump we 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 workers needed to ensure every person is counted in these delays hurt hard to count communities the most because outreach from trusted voices and non responsive followups are essential in these communities. The administrations anti immigrant policies and its illegal effort to add a Citizenship Question have made an accurate count even harder to obtain by sowing fear and distrust in communities across the country but this appears to be the point. As a republican operative thomas toffler, socalled michelangelo of redistricting put it adding a Citizenship Question would be and i quote from him,te advantageous for republicans and nonhispanic whites. Ultimately the administrations goal in trying to add a Citizenship Question seems to be to take the heart 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 codified 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. Ak the Census Bureau needs to make clear that everyone can t participate in the census without fear and that doing so will not hurt them or the family and thatil their personal data will be secured. The Census Bureau also faces a host of new challenges as it executes the largest census in history and the first to be conducted almost mostly an entirely online. Cyber threats, limited Broadband Access reduce language assistance and gaps in outreach efforts all threaten the success of the census and data from the census will determine the apportionment of every seat in the house of representatives. And the allocation of roughly 1. 5 trillion in federal funding. Undercount means bureau fewer federal dollars for communities that needed the most including 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 you are not counted you are not represented. Some states, including california, and my home state of new york are trying to fill the gaps in the Census Bureaus efforts to recharge the count communities. I applaud these efforts and urge every state to do the same in the bureau should coordinate with these dates so that limited resources can bee used most effectively and efficiently. To be clear, i believe the career Civil Servants Census Bureau are working hard to achieve the mission of a complete and accurate census but they need help and they needed quickly. Our Witnesses Today know these hard to count communities better than anyone and we should value their expertise and pay heed to their recommendations and i know i will. In november 2018 my predecessor, our beloved chairman, elijah cummings, vowed that ensuring a fair, accurate and nonpartisan npcensus would be a top priority of the Oversight Committee on his watch and he was good to his word. 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 jimmy gomez for one minute. Thank you, chairwoman maloney. As we all know todays hearing is not a theoretical exercise but 2020 census is days away and the threat of an undercount is real. The last census failed to count more than 750,000 latinos, more than 750,000 africanamericans in moree than 50000 American Indians and native alaskans. Im concerned that we will or could seeee an even bigger undercount in 2020. Many americans are still fearfur and mistrustful of their government and overcoming that fear and mistrust requires a massive mobilization effort that we had never seen it before but the Census Bureau appears to be far behind schedule and undercount will have an impact on the opportunities available to the people in these communities and it will me or people going without healthcare, fewer resources for child care, Affordable Housing and less money for local schools. As a committee and congress are message should be simple, everyone must be counted. Ot im grateful to each of our witnesses here today, not just for assisting the committee before your tireless advocacy to ensure members of your community are counted fairly and accuratelyat as the constitution requires. With that, i yield back. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member. I think the chair. Before getting to my Opening Statement, madam chair, when we last met i brought up the skating report that Inspector General horwitz in the Justice Department but forward last month a 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 Russian Investigation for you indicated you would let us know when we would have mr. Horwitz in front of this committee and to understand what he pointed out, 17 different times i think the gentleman. We are still waiting for an answer, madam chair. This was the purpose of this hearing is on the census and i appreciate the Ranking Members on this issue before the Inspector General report was released to the public that 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 11 and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security followed with its own hearing on december 18 and 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 6. Ecat this point i dont think another hearing is necessary and i look forward to madam chairman on areas to Work Together to improve the lives of our constituents. Madam chairman, why do we have a census hearing in the senate to then if we are always going to rely on the senate to have these hearings. I i mean,. The gentleman is not recognized. Well, then i have point of order. May i have a point of order . Recite your point of order. Rule 11, clause two j, section one actually talks about minority hearings. One of the issues weve had, madam chairman, is that we believe that this committee needs to be doing there oversight function. I bring up jack evans. We had jack evans resigned from the dc council and it was the previous chairman, along with, i would say the gentleman from virginia, mr. Conley and i, expressed concern about proper oversight and the minority hearing judgment needs to recite his point of order. Point of order is under that rule we have a requirement for a minority hearing of which was not noticed properly and ambiguous at best and did not get to the heart of the matter because it was not conducted and if the chairman will argue [inaudible conversations] we had a minority day of hearings on the dc. [inaudible conversations] there is no ruling. That is my point of order out of order or not . Oi you have not stated a point of order. He violated the rule by not having a minority hearing that was properly we had eight minority hearing. You are out of order. I appeal the ruling. [inaudible conversations] i appeal the ruling of the chair. R. I promise you i have that right. For a minority hearing on a minority hearing that we already had on dc statehood. Has mr. Evans been here . Mr. Evans was invited to come along with others that were requested. Have we subpoenaed they have not, and its not up to me to give them to convict you invited their guests. You are the chairman. Ha i would make a motion that we subpoena jack evans and have him come in for it if we want to do proper 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. Whether she wants to rule on it or not, i can assure the parliamentarian i will be glad to go back and forth with her if she wants to go ahead and put on her mike. Is not a proper point of order. I appeal the ruling of the chair. The gentleman has not stated a proper point of order. The Ranking Members time and the Ranking Member is recognized for his Opening Statement. It is your time, mr. Ranking member. Well, let me go back we have lots of concerns and lets be honest. Not only with the fact that mr. Evans has stepped down and weve yet to have him in front of this committee but also as i raised earlier the issue of mr. Horwitz report which again 17 different times the fbis lead the pfizer court and let me read something. Let me read is 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 we are talking now about the Justice Department Inspector General and this is what the public order from the pfizer court judge, judge collier, what she had toto say after mr. Horwitz report last month the frequency with which representation made by fbi personnel turned out to be unsupported, or contradicted excuse me, ringing member. No, no,. You were recognized for an Opening Statement. The time is mine. Oh my god. During your Opening Statement the time did not even run and you told me he 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. Horwitz report. The frequency with which representations made by fbi personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possessionm and with which they withheld information detrimental to their calls into question whether information contained in other fbi applications is reliable. Lets putd that in plain englis. They lied so much to the pfizer court that the judge is sayinge how can we trust other representations you made to this court . That is what she said. After mr. Horwitz reportow and o date the chair does not even want to have a hearing. The chairmans response was oh, the senate had a couple hearings and thats good enough even though this committee has jurisdiction over every single Inspector General in the government. That is why we want mr. Horwitz here for a hearing. Republicans were in charge we broaden Inspector Generals after a big report but i guess things are different. Mr. Evans should have been here mr. Horwitz should have been here already and unfortunately the charwoman will not do that. In my room anytime i want toth address the situation of the census. Thank you for convening this hearing and oversight of the census is one of the course once bullies however i worried that since last january demarest had been much more focused on using our committee to attack the Trump Administration then addressing fundamental Good Government oversight like preparedness for the census but the census determinescr the apportionment of seats in the house and dictate how federal funds artist abated to the states and localities and provides crucial detailsvi about the size, vitality and mobility of our population. This data serves as a Gold Standard for researchers to better understand trends in americands life. When we were in the majority we held several hearings about the preparedness and mr. Meadows chaired many of those. We convened five hearings or readings about the census and look at them for topics like Information Technology, preparation, cybersecurity preparedness and we sought to understand of the bureau was t httirready for the first census that will allow people to cement responses online. Rather than conducting similar, meaningful oversight that immigrants have spent a year trying to stopen one simple question, are you a citizen. Since obtaining the majority in january 219 they have held only one hearing on the 2020 census that did not focus onoc the cens Citizenship Question, just one. After all these months i still dont understand what democrats did not want to know, u. S. Ee citizens are living in the United States. Its a question been on our census before and asked by numerous nations and a question the nine nations encourages countries to ask and finally, if you talk to our constituents and asked them should we act on the census if you are a citizen the person on the street that you talk to would sayk of course, arent we already doing that and you would have to say yes we are, we been doing this for 200 years until now. Democrat argue that the question designed to scare immigrant and racial communities two on account and that is not correct and the Census Bureau conducted a test in the summer or last summer to study the operational effects on self response and including the Citizenship Question and found there was no different in self Response Rates between forms with and forms without a Citizenship Question but let me say that again there was no difference in sulfur sponsor rates between forms with and forms withoutns a citizenshp question. July 2019 following the Supreme Court decision the Trump Administration remove the Citizenship Question from inclusion of the 2020 census, democrats want to delete this was because the question was on a mentally inappropriate and the court indicated their position but in fact the Supreme Court held the trumphe administrationt the authority to ask questions about citizenship on the census but took issue with the ministrations process for doing so under administrative law. Founders included the census in the constitution to ensure our government is responsive and accountable to the people, not to aid in assisting political ambitions but i hope that today we can stop playing partisan games, get back to the final oversight that is needed to compost the census and state a goal to count everyone ones, only once and in the right place as we examine hardtoreach population today we should insert census does its best to count everyone. Thank you, madam chair. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and yield back. And cute. I would like to introduce our witnesses but we are privileged to have our rich diversity of witnesses on our panel today that can testify regarding their hard to count communities. Bonita cuba is the chief executive officer disorder of the Leadership Conference on civil and human rights. Ea john yang is the president and executive director of the Asian American advancing justice. Is the chief executive officer of educational funds. Kevin alice is the chief executive officer of the National Congress of American Indians and market is the president and chief executive officer of the National Urban league. Darrell is the executive director of the center for south georgia regional impact at valdosta Faith University and if you would all please rise and raise your right hand i will begin by swearing you in. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god. Let the record show the witnesses answered in the affirmative and thank you and please be seated. The microphones are sensitive so please speak directly into them and without objection yourat written statement will be made part of the record and with that, ms. Geoduck, you are now mechanized for your Opening Statement. Thank you. Chairwoman maloney, ranking jordan, thank you for the opportunity to testify today and thank you, chairwoman maloney for your leadership in calling this hearing to reach out to communities and the 2020s census. The Leadership Conference on civil and human rights believed the fair and accurate census is among the most important civil rights issues of our day. Not only is the census essential to proportioning plug power but the data also influences significant federal funding for Services Like schools, fire to varmints and hospitals. Asit is the bedrock of our democracy and has enormous impact on the nations ability to ensure equal treatment under law. The 2020 l census is likely to e the largest and most difficult in enumeration in our nations history and the u. S. Population is increasingly diverse, geographically, culturally and linguistically. The Census Bureau mustus meet te growing challenges to undermine or threaten to undermine the enumerations. Even with careful planning the bureau has historically undercounted a certain immunities in the census notably people of color, Young Children, people experiencing homelessness and renters and for some populations for example Young Children underde the age of five and 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. Inhouseholds may not participate in the census for reasons including mistrust of government, limited language access, data confidentiality ndconcern and lingering fear following the failed attempt to add a Citizenship Question to the census. Hard to count communities are in every state and district from large urban areas to rural and remote communities including unAmerican Indians, tribal lands and reservations. Sh that is why the leadership confidence counts nationwide campaign with Outreach Strategies too hard to count committees and to complement and strengthen Census Bureau efforts. Census counts nationall organizations and consumer representatives here today include people and networks who live and work in communities most at risk of being missed in the census. Together we are training and educating Community Leaders about the census translating materials into languages that the bureau will not as well as Monitoring Bureau activities to ensure that they are best serving hard to count populations. Our campaigns states counts Network Works with coalitions in all 50 states and dc to reach hard to count populations andar encourage him to participate in the census. We are grateful to congressional leaders for your bipartisan efforts in 2019 to ensure sufficient funding for the 2020s census. The bureau must update its Operational Plan now and input Key Stakeholders in congress to use the additional funding to meet the goals set by congress. The window of opportunity to ensure successful census in all communities is closing fast. We urge the committee and the Census Bureau to closelyol track and address the following concerns. First, the bureau has to meet the challenges of the first hightech census by ensuring it readiness and addressing the Digital Divide, cyber attack and Disinformation Campaign. 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 pressure from Leadership Conference other civil right groups and congress Tech Companies have started to fight disinformation and misinformation about preying on peoples fears. But the bureau and Tech Companies must be transparent about their plans to counter a sentence interference and ensure the policies are strictly enforced. Targeting communications and advertising outreach too hardtoreach communities is also critical and we have concerns that now that stakeholders are concerned about the bureaus paid media plan that it isnt robust enough to use the necessary outreach and encourage full participation against how to count publishing groups. The bureaus in 2020 Census Partnership program will play in essential role in building trust,ar raising awareness and increasing participation in the census and the bureau has to provide more information to help congress and stakeholders determine whether its on track to meet the programs stated goal, including its target number partnerships. Lastly, the bureau has to have accessible, physical presence in hard to count communities. Stakeholders urgently need more information and a deployment plan on the bureaus proposed mobile questionnaire center initiative. 90 million provided by congress the bureau needs to hire more staff and create a larger footprint, including mobile in six locations to be effective. Edwhen people, when your constituents are not counted in the census they remained invisible for the next ten years and are no do overs. We have to get it right first time. The Leadership Conference looks forward to working with all memos of the committee to ensure a costeffective secure and above all fair and accurate census and every one of our nations committees. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Yang. Thank you, Ranking Member jordan and thank you for hostina this hearing. Asian americans [inaudible] that has independent affiliates in atlanta, chicago, los angeles and san francisco. Includes Committee Partners over 160 in 33 states and the district of columbia prayed we maintain a permanent census that monitors, issues related to the census come outreach to our community regarding this issue and educating about these important issues but we have also served for the Census Bureau on Numerous Community advisory communities since 2000, including most recently a two, three year term stand on the National Advisory committee for race, ethnicity and other populations read were proud to partner with muskoka and mr. Vargas who are one of the cochairs for the Leadership Conference and the task force. Appreciate this opportunity to testify and speak specifically about the asianamerican native Hawaiian Island communities. With this next and the ability n of the Census Bureau o reach this community and at the outset its important to talk about why our communities are important in a growing Minority Group but the Fastest Growing Minority Group growing by 46 since the 2000 census in 2010 and growing by a similar rate since 2010. Although there is not Asian Americans uniformly are largely educated and exceed average incomes and the reality is many in our community especially southeast asia, native Hawaiian Island pacific ors supper significant gaps in education. Ed its only through accurate census data commander santos rapidly into changing demographic in needs for this community. Now when the initiation proposed to add this question to the 2020 without any testing we knew right away that we had of five alarm fire. Although we bought out that fire through litigation to successfully prevent that question from appearing on the 2020 census we know that damage has been done and like any firee damage that is done takes time to be repaired. Using immigrants to respond to the census understand that its comp negated under any circumstance. The aftermath of the Citizenship Question debacle and the continuing antiimmigrant rhetoric we see this task has become formidable. Significant confusion and distrust about the ministrations attend and theyve been limited in its response to these challenges. Although the Census Bureaus made some improvements to their language programs there is still severe gapsgr that need to be overcome. With the online response program, [inaudible] significantly there is no written response option in linkages other than english and spanish made although there are language assistance guides and provided additional languages there is no coverage for native Hawaiian Pacific islander languages and other important languages. Third, hiring for the Partnership Programgu has been slow and inconsistently inclusive of underserved communities. Among the barriers that have been encountered as the online application backlog on back on checks and insufficient outreach to our communities with. To job opportunities. Only reason why the bureau announced that building a higheo census taker that would not be limited to u. S. Citizens but other have work authorizations. Although this is clearly favorable to serve our demographic fact that it came so late minimizes the potential benefits that this could bring. Likewise field officers and Partnership Specialists need to be trained adequately to ensure they provide consistent responses to requested census policy. Too often inconsistent responses have been provided paid the Communications Campaign that muskoka alluded to is an Important Role and we only recently understood just yesterday the Census Bureau briefed us on the specific asianamerican plans in this respect read previously one concern have been lack of any Media Campaign target in the Southeastern Community and chairwoman maloney and representative manning and others have addressed this concern to the Census Bureau which we appreciate and just yesterday the bureau announced they would provide [inaudible] nevertheless we also we remain concerned about the limited number of languages that are provided and the apparent lack of targeting other than the five asian languages with online responses will believe that this approach is insufficient to address these can indication issues especially with communities that while English Proficient would receive messages better than our ethnically and culturally tailored in conclusion there are still numerousen challenges to ensuring the asianAmerican Community is fully counted and there is more work to be done. Thank youp very much. Mr. Vargas is recognized. I have a unanimous im sorry the gentleman can enter whatever he would like. I think the chair. I have correspondence between myself and mr. Billingham on the practice of hiring peopleng especially following the testimony that [inaudible] i asked them to be entered into the record. Without objection. I think the chair. Mr. Vargas is recognized. Thank you, chairwoman. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today with regard to census 2020 preparations. Its been an advisor to the Census Bureau since 2000 and we are preparing to undertake a massive independent campaign to promote a full count in the 2020 census. Id like to stress we respect the word that the Census Bureau and the National Partner are partnering with the census and i like to share my growing into the be for the term hard to count populations. To describe some of the populations we represent when in fact what makes people hard to count is the enumeration strategy that the Census Bureau useded and my remarks this morng are a summary of more extensive remarks for the committee and his issues are addressed there are three and i would like to underscore today. One, there has been damage done by this is a ship question and [inaudible] the bureaus 2019 Research Shows there is heightened sensitivity with a Citizenship Question. All the research [inaudible] for the past three months also show the Citizenship Questions debacle is graded and continues to foster peer and doubts. Many latinos are reluctant to participate in the census because they believe there will be a Citizenship Question on the forum despite its absence. Many fear of the data would be used. This is exacerbated by a household environment toward immigrant propagated by this and ministrations and it also shows that it is a trusted brand and we believe it should use this perception to deliver credible messages about the content oner the 2020 census. However, we have observed that they have been instructed not to discuss the Citizenship Question for the Census Bureau must be directed to advise the public that there will be no Citizenship Question on the 2020 0census. Having been briefed on the bureaus Communications Campaign we are impressed the bureau and the contractors understand the challenge and yet we are deeply concerned that the latino approach is almost exquisitely in spanish and theres no specific campaign to reach latinos to consume information in english. We will do all we had to fill these gaps for the task of preparing damage and reaching all latinos does not know what to, Census Bureau should prepare for significant demand for a paper form to ensure the Online Mobile response option is affective and implement an effective assistance program. Our Research Shows latinos prefer to respond to the census using paper or online. Our end to end showed many latinos participated in the past through person and enumeration paid thus the Census Bureau must be adequately prepared to provide a paper form to all who preferred this response mode and in short there is sufficiently prepared skills and culturally competent enumerated workforce. Icny of latinos we surveyed expressed a preference to participate online and data showed latinos are more likely to access the internet via mobile device. Thus the bureau must ensure the online response mode is userfriendly and with Load Capacity to meet the demand. Finally, we continue to believe a Census Bureau initiative to provide live, in person assistance is essential. The bureau needs to act quickly to send up a wellthoughtout mobile Questionnaire Assistance Center program which congress has funded in addition to standing up traditional questionnaire assistance there is a design flaw in the collection of the data. One aspect of the 2020 census that is not received adequate congressional oversight is the failure to modernize the collection of data and hispanic origin and raised with our Research Revealed the series of significant confusion among latinos but how to answer the 2020 census hispanic origin and raise questions. The Census Bureau recognizes that the two question approach based on ethnicity used in 1980 is flawed and researchers have warned that using a two question design the 2020 census will show that quote, some of the races will be the nations secondlargest racial group, aeg category not even recognize. Nearly all of the respondents to some of the race will also have indicated that they are hispanic. The Census Bureau carried out a company as of research and f consultation process to develop a better way of collecting data on race and ethnicity. The bureau recommended a combined question of 2020 and in early 2018 we learned that the bureaus recommendation have been gathering dust due to an retion by omb office of information and revelatory affairs. Congress must investigate an action in the future of collection and race and ethnicity data. It is americans will not understand how to answer the 2020 questions on hispanic origin and race in many will leave the question or both questions blank and compromise the quality of data and increasing costs toas the sentence. It must include information on how to complete these questions to overcome design flaws. Thank you for the opportunity to share our comments ofi committee i look forward to your questio questions. Good morning, chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member jordan and members of the committee. Im kevin alice and im a tribal citizen of the community in wisconsin with him also cheap exec of officer of the National Congress of American Indians and on behalf of an cai i thank you for holding the hearing and reading hard to count communities in the 2020 census. Im the son of one who grew up on a hard to reach indian reservation in the 40s, 50s and early 60s and the grandson of a chairman of a tribe who raised these concerns in the late 50s and early 60s. Nca was founded in 1944 and my grandmother interacted with this organization in the 50s and 60s about this topic and is the oldest and Largest National organization and the i believe they created an cai in response to determination and assimilation policies that threaten the existence of tribal nations and they sought to preserve the treaty and to advance the government relationship and remove historical structural impediments of selfdetermination and theres been much success yet there is much more work to do for any country to fully realize the promise this nation made in this body of congress made in this country owes the Indian Country and its treaty and trust responsibilities. Like all other government travel nations strive to build stronger economies so that they receive a full and accurate accounte that is vital to these efforts. 2020 census data will do three important things whether American Indians and alaska natives have an equal voicee and are accurate represented an applicable process and whether they are spared distributional of the billions of dollars of federal funding across the United States and whether the tribal nations have accurate data for programming and resource related decisionmaking that their tribal leaders make that are central to their status as sovereigns. Given the importance of census data the prospect of yet anothes undercount of American Indians and alaska natives is deeply concerning. Alaskan native people especially on reservations and in villages in alaska had been historically underrepresented in the sentence. In 2010 the u. S. Census bureau estimates American Indians and alaska natives living on reservations or in these villages were undercounted by 4. 9 , more than double the undercount of the next close to population group. Its a fact that reagan indians and alaska native populations are among the hardest to count, not only does the significant portion of our population live in these hard to count tracks but we also t exhibits many of e factors that contribute to communities, being hard to count, additionally a Census Bureau survey in our own message testing found issues affecting American Indian and alaskan native census participation to be including mistrust of government, concerns related to privacy and perceptions the participation would not lead to anything. Th the Census Bureau is a federal rcagency has treaty and trust obligations to overcome these challenges and provide a complete and accurate count and as it stands today tribal nations are concerned that we will again see and undercount in 2020 and the decision of the Census Bureau to focus efforts on online enumeration is a significant risk. As many communities and individual households in Indian Country do not have access to the internet. This strategy along with the need for trusted voices on behalf emphasis how critical it is for the Census Bureau to allocate, resources, to hire and retain alaskan renumeration ors and partner specialists but before a few weeks its still unclear whether this goal has been reached. Moreover, we are also concerned about the delays in the Census Bureau american industry and alaska native campaign. Recommendations in Indian Countrys work tirelessly to ensure an accurate and complete count however our efforts are not to replace those or absolve the u. S. Census bureau of its responsibility to use its staff to ensure a full enumeration of American Indian, populations and as such, and cia recommends to the steps to implement following actions. Immediate address delays in hiring less canadians in numerators and Partnership Specialists to enhance the utilization of trusted sources for indian countries to rely upon and re locate and allocate resources to address needs for market munication, actions to ensure complete enumeration of American Indiann alaska native publishing. Tions 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 a plan disclosure and the avoidance of mythologies and so in conclusion, in closing, irises committee to continue conducting oversight during the Census Bureau take tatian the 2020 census. This will help ensure a complete and accurate count for the Indigenous People of this country. Thank you. I now recognize for five minutes. Thank you. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, Ranking Member jordan. Im ceo of the National Urban league. I previously served as the mayor of new orleans. And chairman of the advisory committee. I am proud to be here today and thank you for the opportunity. The National Urban league was founded in 1910. It was a nonpartisan, nonprofit Civil Rights Organization dedicated to the economics involvement of africanamericans. We worked through a network of 90 affiliates and 36 states and the district of columbia. We serve 2 Million People a year. We assist them in finding jobs, become homeowners and start small businesses. Also other important areas. I will speak today about the undercount of africanamericans and the challenges in the omupcoming 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 historically underfunded but for most of the past decade. What is the significance of this. It is called operational and it delays, recruitment and hiring challenges, cancellation of critical test to improve the 2020 census count. Your leadership on this issue, is in the best interest of all of the americanth people and i encourage you to continue to exercise the oversight responsibilities. We witness the running of in real time. From california to connecticut, from florida to alaska, we witnesses the growing needs of our communities is the gap between those who have and those who have not. This is increased. We see the two faces of the account everyday. They have children, they are black, they are brown, there the formerly incarcerated, there immigrants who are black, who are brown, and of other races. The homeless, they are the digital illiterate in the digital homeless. Those with no internet address for access to speak up. The census is the big deal. The Founding Fathers were brilliant and ordaining that all of the people in the United States be counted every ten years. Fifty years ago, in 1979, my predecessor when a young junior director ofutive the National Urban league testified before the then the subcommittee of census and statistics, a part of the committee of post office and civil service. At that time, he spoke passionately about the need for a fullmp and complete count of black and underserved communities. His testimony about the 1970s census, is oddly familiar to the discussion today. He talked about inadequate assistance for completing the forms. For community outreach, the lack of spanishlanguage forms, inadequate outreach and education to reach minority populations. He noted that the 1960s census, 60 years ago, missed one intent of black people included one in six black men. Fastforward to 2020. While there is much to applaud about the 2020 census, the technological advances and operational modernizations, we and my co panelist seek too many parallels to the 1970s census and even more uncertainties. In 2010, a million children disproportionately black and brown, didnt show up to the sentence. An alarming six out of ten black children between the ages of zero and four, were completely missed. The undercount of black and brown children has grown exponentially. In the economic political consequences ofre this are grav. Africanamerican men are still missing and staggering numbers. In the 2010 census, only 3. 9 million African Americans will completely missed. I proximally 700,000 formerly incarcerated men and women, reenter our communities each year. He must be counted. We must count the Digital Divide in rural and urban poor communities and those in low digital influencing who require a paper questionnaire and an a knock on the door. We have to anticipate this information of social Media Campaigns designed to mislead communities and communities of color about the census. And so sees fear of sense of participation. Community in outreach and education hasn been handled by the failed Citizenship Question which heightened distrust and fear of the census in immigrant communities. Now we have worked for the Census Bureau, to help achieve an accurate 2020 count, and we do come in the ranking file and those in Regional Office partnership for the workers and the work that they have done. Let me talk about the gap. Significant hiring delays and backlogs are going to impact the door to door commemoration. Let me make this point. The Census Bureau owned Research Shows that notwithstanding the Internet Access on the phone access, 40 to 60 percent of americans are going to wait until someone knocked on the door. If in fact, the Census Bureau does not hide a significant number of enumerators, on a timely basis, the enumerator portion of this census will not succeed. In the impact will be undercount in black communities, and brown communities and asian communities, and in Rural Communities. This hiring delays will affect the indigenous. I want to say a few other things about the paid Advertising Programsm and i want to make ts point. Weve had an opportunity to look at that Advertising Program. Our concern, is that the timing of the Advertising Programs is misaligned with the enumerator process. So right now. Twomac your five minutes is ov over, please wrap up. Over. [laughter]. As you will say, i beg your intelligence. I encourage and in the question and answer period, would like to explain and illuminate how in fact the Advertising Program is misaligned with the enumerator portion. It is important that advertisers take place while the doorknocking program is ongoing. Thank you. Mr. Moore is recognized. Chairwoman pallone, thank you and the members of the committee for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of Rural Americans and specifically rural georgia guns. Georgia like many others are facing statewide challenges in Rural Communities. The population decline, grants populations, slow job growth and distressed cities. Our State University is one of four georgia regional universities and we have a mission to serve a 41 county service area primarily in south georgia. In 2017, leadership started talking about how they could have an impact on the reoccurring challenges that all of these communities face. In the Business Community help there. Government, and the retainment that was the result that they created a center for regional impact. And i am working with that organization in 2018. The mission of the center and trying to work with all 41 counties to identify opportunities and challenges that they might have, and i go back to that and try to identify resources to help them out. I could be interned, graduate assistants, class projects, research, professors working on projects that really just depends with the natives. And it covers all. We are focused on 41 service area. Its a very diverse area. Many of you y would probably consider everyone rural the largest county in our region news hundred and 15000 and we have counties as well as 3500. So what works in one county is not going to work in the other even though they do have similar issues and challenges. Oural goal is the communities ne with any mess. So weo try to find out what they need and then get back to try to find the resources to help them out. One thing that really help me out a guest in the transition is that i have had a 25 year background in Economic Development. I successful career and is for the last 21 years and accounting. While i was in this county, we had about 325 million in investment and created 3500 jobs and when i lived last year, we had 96 million in projects that were underro construction at 3. 1 percent Unemployment Rate which is pretty strong for south georgia rural community. One thing that really kind of stuck out is that we were looking at what we are trying to do at the center and what we are trying to do with a lot of my friends in south georgia was the chamber of commerce had a presentation called georgia 2030, the been making rounds with the presentation for probably three or four years. You dont have the graphics but if you look back, they have population p projections and job projections for 2030. Those numbers are pretty dire for south georgia and for rural georgia. As you would expect, we are projecting strong population and job rates and enlightenment and many of our propensities and Savannah Augustine and columbus. They are predicting minimal growth in and some other counties as well. Many southern rural county georgia are projecting job losses and from an Economic Development standpoint, and looking back at the mission of the senses. They producing tremendous opportunity for us to get involved. It is a tremendous challenge for 41 counties. As i mentioned, my career in this county and one thing that really tied into what we are doing the census right now, was when i was in calvert, we had a Pilot Program at the university of georgia. Its a similar premise, we had an employee that served in all three and they would identify big projects. There would be resources back to us in one of our projects, was a 2010 census. So we have really and 2009, had a complete count committee before there was one. There we had a great team in place. We had 3040 people. We had representatives and many voices representing all the demographics of the community. As a result, we had an 8. 19 percent in the 2010 census which is again, pretty strong for rural south georgia community. I correlate the information and use it in every proposal that we set out for new industry, retail and commercial and continue creating more jobs in our communities because the Companies Want to invest with are going to grow. What we have more from this, we support and we are local and regional communities, we have met with all 41 counties. We try to help them organize their complete committees. And again everyone is different, what works in oneor county will not work in the other. The demographics are going to be different than the resources will be different. Weve assisted the strategies to achieve an accurateav account. We work with governors, complete count committee and many other committees, uta, and of course the u. S. Census reps. They are serving our region. Weve done several focus groups but hard to countpu populations. Were also providing three or free marketing support to her 41 county area. Weve got forms that we fill out, we have billboards already up in all 41 counties, with god coloring pages that we are making available for assistance throughout south georgia and technically throughout georgia. Weve got table tents, that promote census that are going to be on every restaurant table all 41 counties will have them. Weve got posters the target how the census impacts business and industry how it impacts your family and how it impacts children. How it impacts and right Foreign Workers in agriculture and how it impacts you from Community Leaders template. All of these media are available in english and spanish and we also have the ability to provide them another language is necessary. The order came back in and november, and we currently have order forms for 45306 table tents about 65757 posters that will be delivered at no cost. This will go to all of our counties. Eventually, we are also doing vendors for tshirts and other media. My main goal is to make sure every citizen knows how important it is for them and their family and their communities to participate in census. Its to my thinking so much, thank you for all of your efforts. I commend all of our panelists. I would like to announce today, that on february 12, the director of the Census Bureau, doctor steven billingham, will be appearing before this committee. He will answer questions about how bureaus responding to the many challenges that are panelists outlined today. It was soli much at stake a vigorous oversight of the 2020 census, is absolutely essential. I now recognize myself for five minutes. This year are since this will be the largest and most complex in our nations history. The viewer has a tough job. The bureau does. To ensure the Community Gets accurately counted. Sadly the Current Administration admitted are practically admitted, but they dont even want to count everyone when they tried to illegally add Citizenship Question to the census. As a result, many cities and states have stepped up to ensure everyone is counted. Theyve established what is called template count committee. This will identify risks, recommend solutions, and direct state and local funding to areas of hard to count at risk areas. Mr. Mario, you served in new orleans on the complete count committee. I believe that was in 1990. Anyone that committee as mayor. Would you agree that establishing these committees is the right move and would you recommend this practice to other states and localities . Is important that states and localities and the Economical Development organization understand that the success that this requires a partnership and involvement of local elected officials. We dont have visibility at this point is how many cities and how many states, how many counties, and in fact created complete calculating and have operationalized them. One problem with this year news census is that the senses reduce the number of local partnerships offices by 50 percent. In his local partnerships offices work with connecting tissues between the complete count committees and the census. Yes, it is 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 the people in advertising and resources. On this insincere, the number of communities are doing the same thing for 2020. Thank you. My home state of new york is doing that. Created complete count commission. He pointed out an important point that they do have some support in this area. We should get the Census Bureau to do a review of how many complete count committees are out there. That could have a good overview. Speemac that would be very helpful. They came up with eight risks and challenges. They were similar to what you said today, language barriers, the divisible divide, distrust among communities of color, very similar to what you are saying. Then they came up with 18 specific recommendations. Also put in roughly 60 million in city state and traffic funding to help make sure that the systems were stronger. We help another communities can also take the initiative as you have in new orleans. Speemac deeply the Census Bureau to be engaging with these state and local communities to make bureaus outraged more efficient and effective. It seems the coordination would help. Can you elaborate in this area period. Is exempt pleat account committee. Their incredible. The model was held by the bureau. This will help efforts around the country together count. We know that actually most states have indeed created them. There are five states that have not. Thats louisiana, nebraska, south dakota, and texas florida. They created one but one of the challenges in that state just cant normally create these committees. They also have to put significant funding towards them particularly because its going to be one of the most difficult enumerations. Supported created a complete count committee this week. But they did not allocate any dollars to it. There is mapping, over 2006, contributed significant state based funding. This was to help supplement the federal funding. In the work of the bureau, but that partnership needs to be tight. They still have not added Additional Resources to really get a partnership to the messengers and thehe communications supplemental workout as a part of that. So the bureau needs to much work much more closely with these committees around the country. Speemac i dont have a chance to speak to everyone but if you could place in writing i will let mr. Moore have the last word on how beneficial these counts committees are. Did you were with them in georgia. May have been t tremendous ad weve actually had a Governor News complete count committee since 2017. And honestly, weve had much more emphasis on the census for 2020 than we did in 2010. In 2010, i dont think we had planned or a lot of support but we do this year. Thank you. Speemac those partners however, we have attracted think, almost every. My time has expired. I invite all the panels put in writing their experiences of complete and committees and of the ways they think it needs to be expanded. Its such an important challenge before us. An accurate census and our constitution requires it. Our government relies on it. And our democracy depends on it. Without i recognize the distinguished Ranking Member. Arizona. Thank you man chairwoman. Mr. Moore, im from arizona near from georgia. Itou sound like you have a prety good expertise here. According to the university of new york mapping service, 21 percent of the population my district district, did not send in their survey. The same report estimates that 25 percent of the population in my district, actually lives in the sparta count starts. How we learn anything from previous census to combat the waste and the lackct of respons. That is one thing that were trying to incorporate in a county by county level or a community level. And in all Rural Communities. We have Historical Data and we know what the Response Rate was in 2010 so we can do you wear those hard to count areas more than. Most likely if they work hard to count and ten they will be in 20. We also have maps that show where you have lower limited internet connectivity. So we are working with our local complete count committees to come up with a plan to target all of those areas. All of this focused areas. Weve got several different organizations, our torture news of stations where people can come back in and get information on senses. They thought the census while theyre there. At the Georgia Farm Bureau about two weeks ago, theyre goingou to do the same thing. We got family connections, housing authorities, kitchens, they are all due doing similar things. All we gos, again is in awarenes and education. Make sure people are having it an easy time to participate. It. You brought up Internet Access. In roughly 17 percent are almost 18 percent of my district has no access to internet. Is providing that on the internet service, is it actually expanded the reach. Or has made it more convenient for those people to actually do it that are fundamentally falling through pretty stomach i think probably both. You have a younger demographic right now which is hard to count. The millennials do everything on the phone. They do everything in the computer. When you have maps and i actually received one from the u. S. Census for all of our county so that two weeks ago so we know which areas dont have Internet Access. The first for the census is going to start going out march 12. Most people that have Internet Access, are going to get an internet first encourage them to go on and participate. Those areas that they know do not have Internet Accessible get a written form the first time. So everybody in the country is going to have an opportunity to fill it out. At least once or possibly twice. There will be a tollfree number as well. You just got to encourage them and let them know how important it is. The census has four hard to count categories. Part of locate content, persuade an interview. In these barriers, theyre pertinent to my district. We look outside of the city, president , yuma and whatnot. 02 percent 60 percent mill rate return. How is this, i noticed your comments, its not a onesizefitsall. Youve expanded. Can you elaborate a little bit more. Is deftly not. We have communities were serving and about 50 counties right now. Some of them are family connections. It is a Family Services type ofd organization. But really, the trusted voices, auyouve got to have trusted voices for everybody in your community. We have been culprit county in 2010. Somebody listens to me may not listen to you and vice versa. So if you have someone that has influential in 50 or hundred people, you need to get them engaged and in a complete count committee. Let them know why its important to and get them to go back out and have an impact on the people they have an influence on. I kind of want to step outside my district. I trust in that state of arizona, year after year we are saying 2. 2 percent increase in population. So as county as many people is critical for our future. That includes a diverse population, different ethnic, tribal disease, there are efforts effectively then identified as hard to reach. Speemac cancer. Theyre trying to develop plans for each community. The u. S. Census and even state census as part of count populations. And all of those dont apply to every community. Again it is critical for a community to have robust and complete count committee that is very diverse. You have faithbased, you have local media, young people who feel comfortable writing letters or speaking that may have influence on the general communities. So its important that you come up with a real plan to get everybody to participate. I go back. Mrs. Norton from the district of columbia. Recognized for five minutes. Personal i want to say i appreciate the testimony of all of you. The more i appreciate yours because it goes to the extent of which the sensitive issue has no face. Indeed it is against the interest of every member sitting up here to have their own residence not counted. Because if for noe other reaso, the money will not go to them. Understand the money will be appropriated by congress. It only means that your district will get it. Because you have supported and undercount, i was amazed to see the Ranking Members are marked. Even after a Supreme Court, a conservative Supreme Court has rescued the country from this issue. I would just like to indicate plaintiff, with the Supreme Court said that the rationale given by my colleagues have been incongruent with what the reviews and that can service our concerns the Supreme Court. In the have a chance to have an accurate census. Its bad enough to say, look everybody, the question is not in the census. I want to urge every member of congress, to open attack actions. On the internet, in your own district. To try to reverse them message was out there for two years. That as long as people remembering that it is always difficult to get an accurate census. And my friends on the other side it made it even more difficult. So let me ask you this tomorrow, i understand that your organization has been studying the issue since the Supreme Court ruling. I am trying to get more information on the impact. When anybody there would understand that you have given thought to this on the impact of the citizens are questions on the willingness as i speak, of citizens to participate in the census. Thank you for thefo question. In october and november and december. In the research, to survey 1200 latino adults, Illegal Immigrants, and throughout the country, oregon, florida, north carolina, wisconsin, texas, and arizona. We try to assess with those are by perceptions latino immigrants towards the census. We found some important things. One is they have a positive brand, and it needs to use and to fully educate the public about what is and what is not going to be asked. We also learned their very significant differences in willingness to participate by latino citizens and latino noncitizens. Latino citizens express much more likelihood to say that they will fill out the census forms, noncitizens must know. Tmac using the undocumented and every jurisdiction sitting on this panel as undocumented people. And while they participate. This isnt just an issue of undocumented immigrants. These are families who have mixed status households. Daca and Illegal Immigrants and applicants, people of varying immigration status. There is a fear that why am i being asked and now. Am i a citizen, yes or no. When immigrants are following the policy daytoday know that there is a campaign against this in the country today. This is created an environment that does not help the Census Bureau and being able to convince everybody that it is in fact facing confidential. It is safe. That is why we need to trusted messengers to speak up. We have identified areve educators, healthcarehe provide, minority organizations, like the year on the panel today. And local elected officials. Those of the individuals who need to empower to speak out and to convince their constituents. That it is safe and confidential and any perceived risk, actually is outweighed by the damage done by not participating. This is very important. This responsibility is on us all. I finally ask a question about the administration to refuses to give up on administrative records. I havent even heard about this but and if any of you have any information on the executive order or the effect of the executive order to start the living citizen data from federal and state administrativeal rec records. Do you think this will have any impact. Im not trying to give an air time, i just want to know if youve seen any repercussions. If i may, i think it is fundamentally important going off of what my call and said for people understand that under federal law, the bureau does not allow to release individual data or personal responses that they received any other Government Agency. But we know thatt the executive order has created great concerns of the president is attempting to use that to exclude noncitizens from the population count that states used to redraw district lines. That would be unconstitutional. From equal and fair representation. And all that is actually filed a lawsuit to challenge the executive order. Thank you. The distinguished jim jordan of ohio. His recognized pretty. Now we cant debate it. For a year, the democrats always, the Citizenship Question, on the census is bad. It is a bad idea. Even though weve been doing it since 1920. They told us it was a bad idea. So we must not, even though when the Census Bureau did a study last summer, they saw no difference in self Response Rates between forms with Citizenship Questions and those without the Citizenship Questions. Today is even worse. Just the fact we had a debate is harmful. Scnow think how scary that is. And most of that. And the gentle lady from district of columbia just at the same thing pretty were not even allowed to talk about it now. That is really scary. The debate itself, about a question that is in essence 1820, lets get the facts straight. On the census, it was last on a longform census and between 2000 and today the Census Bureau is placed on the american survey. In his mask every single time. But today were not even supposed to be debated. The sum of the left take it. Think of what judge perceived as a member regarding the important decision. Heres what the judge said, concurring in part anything apart. No one disputes it is important to know how many inhabitants of this country are citizens. It is actually wrong. And he is making a good point but i think hes wrong. Every democrat on this committee disputes that. Even though our constituents, yet we should know how many. You think its important. It is important under the constant pushing under article one section two, that all president s are counted. This is the question aspirated. If there is anything that the senses in terms of an account, that is the concern. Detwomac no one disputes that tt how many are citizens. [inaudible conversation] that is not what i am asking. Do you think it is appropriate to ask how many people are in this country. I would offer no other further response. He wont even answer the question. Between 1820 in 1950, when our country ask inhabitants of this nation, are you a citizen. Was not wrong. Speemac i dispute with your understanding of the history of the question is with respect to the census. On this survey, should be as we speak should be on the form. Im trying to get him to answer a question that is refusing to answer. I asked you a simple question, is an appropriate to find out how many people in this country are citizens. Is appropriate to ask under the census we are talking about, were going to determine the population of the United States. And anything that detracts from the fairness and accuracy of the camps, would not be part of the mission. And i followed up and said do you think is wrong that the Census Bureau would ask that citizen should question would accept. It is not wrong. That is been tested in the context. Its previously was a longform and that is. Different than the 2020 census. Speemac you know when youer ansr my question. Is it okay to debate this question are you stick with your Opening Statement. We shouldnt even have a discussion about it because somehow that may impact what happens on thect census. What i said was that fact that this question was introduced, has caused damage to the communities. That damage continues to this day. As demonstrated by the studies, and by the Census Bureau itself, and so that is what we need to address to ensure a fair and accurate count. So because of that concern, two things appropriate to limit speech in the debate in the nics congress we shouldnt even have this debate. Te isre that we are saying period. That is not what i said. I said that what we need to do is to ensure that everybody is counted and anything that has been damaged, to the fact that everybody would be encouraged to participate. You said that the debate over the last year and whether to include Citizenship Question was harmful to whats going to happen on the census to be able to count the people across the country. Thats what he said. And your answer should be to what im asking regarding if we should have a debate on it. It speemac i believe youre mischaracterizing what i said. I believe youre not answering the question. The gentleman from missouri. Mr. Clay is recognized for questions. Thank you man chair i think you probably scary. Before i get into my line of questions. I want to recognize, i saw you had something to contribute to that previous line of questioning. Would you like to pick it up. The point was im going to make is that the Census Bureau does have in thees American Community survey, how many if you are citizen, but their grief search to determine congressman news which questions you ask and when you asked them, has consequences. Asking a Citizenship Question on the American Community survey, is the different experience than asking a question on citizenship on the decennial. The researchers have determined that the better way to collect citizenship data of the American Public, is through the Community Services. Thank you so much for that followup response. Even with a united effort and administration seeking to do the right thing and 2010 census, some 2. 1 percent of black communities. So im concerned that the current census sabotaged efforts of this administration with their failure to hire and failure tour allocate adequate resources and scare tactics towards immigrants willing to an unprecedented undercount. I think the chairwoman for shedding light bright light on the issue in todays hearing. Ms. Mario, you are a veteran of several sentences. What are some of the major challenges that have led to an undercount in black and brown communities and perhaps other communities. Historically, the undercount has resulted from the failure to count children completely and adequately number one. The historic undercount of africanamericans men, has contributed to the overall undercount in the africanAmerican Communities. Nt only focus todays important 2020 census, where we are and why we are at where we are. Where we are because there is been historic over the last several years, underfunding of the census. That underfunding has led to the cancellation of ath number of tests that the senses had done. It is meant that delay in the late effort to begin hiring the enumerators, its been delays and doing the testing necessary to ensure that this Online System works well. We dont want to have another outcome like that with the senses. Those things, let me finish. Let me finish with clays question. So the undercount, i think if we want a focused issue and what is necessary to ensure a more complete account, the enumerator portion and the advertising campaign, have to be energized, this committee has to do oversight. I encourage the census director to get to the bottom line on where they are on the hiring of the enumerators. This is the point. 60 percent. This is the Census Bureau research. 60 percent of africanamericans are going to rely on the door markers to provide information. Notwithstanding the internet, telephone, not attending the paper forms. And the numbers for the overall population, are the 40 to 50 percent range. The enumerator portion, is so critical and if they dont hire the people that need higher, in 2010 when they were hiring enumerators in the recession, and now the situation is different. Secondly, in 2010, you could go to Census Office and apply for a job. Ninetyfive to go online. So all of these barriers, so we need to get to the bottom line of where it is and ensure the response. I appreciate that. Can you talk about your concerns about the media. So the Media Campaign, weve had a chance to look at some of u the early look at some of the commercials. We focused on theon africanAmerican Community. Some of them are pretty good. However, if the advertisingf stops, when the enumerator followup portion of the segment begins to take place, then there is no advertising telling people that they can have the perception that the census is over. So they need to expand the advertising to another 45 or so or 60 days so that you have advertising taking place during the entire period but people have the opportunity to respond to the senses. This is an alignment issue. I encourage, it is also necessary to the africanamerican population that the advertising not only rely on digital ads, that include radio, and include Community Newspapers in the library. So i encourage you to progress. My time is up. I hope that you understand that the key is communication. So i yelled. So the gentleman of the great state of north carolina. It is recognized for five minutes. It. I think the gentleman from missouri for his continual away where he communicates. Mrs. Right classes. I dont see red classes. You have great was all right. So make it to the bottom line on all of this. Hopefully we will offer a little bit of help. I conducted morses hearings probably more than any other member of congress. What i do want to get is an accurate count. So im going to offer a few things that maybe some of you can consider. Mr. Harris alice, is one of the things i would ask you to do. From a native american standpoint. If you would help us with the rules of a few tribes, where we can do some sampling to make sure we are reaching those underserved areas, i happen to have the First Congressional Office on tribal lands in the history of our country. At least in band of the indians in my district. I probably acknowledged their sovereign rights and so if you do that and get to us, we would be glad to receive those not sure i could find some numbers on the other side of the to work with us been one of the concerns i have, is bluntly reaching those underserved areass becaue the internet is not available, we are talking about five g yesterday and most of my district, i would just like 1g. Let alone five g. If you would do that, i would appreciate that. Mr. Mario, one of the areas that i think that is key if there is false information is being put out there, and predominately in urban areas, that is not something that i have an expertise on. If you will get that to us, here is what i would ask. Ive actually traveled under the previousun administration, with enumerators and we were actually in the field and one of the few members who have done that, i understand the challenges. But the other thing is, Community Advertising is not going to reach the people that we need to reach. I think all of you will agree with that. I just doesnt do it. What i would ask you to do is to come up with something where we could do direct text messaging. It is interesting, they may not have internet service, but they eventually come into contact most with one of these so we can do that with credible sources i am willing to work with you. We spent over 500 million doing 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 you are giving us great a roadmap for Rural America. But youre not getting any federal funding are you. Speemac how many of you are getting any federal funding. Either directly or indirectly with groups in terms of outreach . Raise your anybody. We are spending 500 million on outreach. So in my commitment to each one of you, is that if you will reach out to me, i will work with the committee, and we will work with the Commerce Department. I have met with him more times than i care to mention over trying to get an accurate count. If you will do that, i will help you. If you will help us as native americans, certainly other areas, i dont have as much expertise. We dont have a large asian population in Western North carolina. But at the same time, i am sincere about getting an accurate count. When we start to focus on the Citizenship Question, where are making drastic errors. I think youll agree with that. We have undercounted in 1979, we undercounted in 1980, we undercounted, 1990 we undercounted and we undercounted in 2000. There was a Citizenship Question and to suggest, that somehow it is uniquely the 2020, it is just not accurate. I am willing to work with you but if you will work with us on how we can reach these underserved and hardtoreach communities. Work with us. We will get an accurate count. Are you willing to do that. Im open. I think when the census director here, i think the extent and the character and the magnitude of their outreach, should be probed by the committee. The me just tell you, the creepiest senses directed under president obama and i expressed great concerns that we were not going to be ready. I didnt want there to be it on my page. They were not asking for enough money. We have funded theou census as levels that are unprecedented, so it is not a problem of money. It is a problem of allocation. And if all of you will agree to help us with that, i am willing to make it work. Only the record clear. The Census Bureau does not fund communitybased outreach. We got 500 million. I beg to differ. I can tell you. Speemac the dont funded organizations. The fund on part of it. I can tell you that it is a line item. It actually talked to the groups. We would be glad to clarify that. Nonetheless. I know recognize virginia. Thank you med chairwoman. Panel. To our i want to go back to something that was said earlier. I want to ask mr. Yang particular to respond because the Ranking Member, would have you believe that for some mystical reason, democrats just dont like this question about citizenship. And its a harmless question. It is a piece of data that we need. I thought i heardrd from your testimony, maybe there was a more aligned purpose behind adding a question that is formally not have been asked as i understand it. It wasnt democrats who objected ultimately. It was a court of law. It was a federal judge. He was upheld by the Supreme Court ultimately because the Commerce Department and his eagerness to at this question, which we now know from the release of emails, was politically inspired to depress and suppress cooperation with the census. It wasce deliberately to createn account of minority populations. Especially once you are talking about and maybe represent. The Fastest Growing population in my district news Asian Americans. In the fastest piece of that is asia. We wouldve never been counted as the chairman said in their Opening Statement. Citizen and noncitizen. The constitution requires it. In fairness demands it. I just want to give you an opportunity. This is the conspiracy by one of the Political Parties to avoid getting data on what otherwise on be aan simple analytical too. A question about your citizens to citizenship status. Thank you. And i am proud to be a constituent of years. It. God bless you. Let me correct that question first. It is incorrect to say it is appeared on every census for 200 years. Actually that is incorrect. And has c appeared on the amerin Community Service which is the completely different instrument that has been tested. And it does not go to every possible. Because the 3 percent of all households. Speemac plumbing interact. If i may. To establish your point. Am i correct, the last time it was on the actual census survey, was 1950. Itit was 1950, that is corre. It. So the idea that is customary and ordinary, is flat out false. 1950, is 25 years ago. [laughter]. If we can only wish. Correct. And again, the concerns that we have expressed in litigation and all other groups expressed, was this question was proposed with no testing, and already understanding the Census Bureau itself research has already been presented to us that there was a in the immigration communities that information was being selected about them. So to suggest it should be just willynilly, itg causes great concerns to us. Certainly during the course of the litigation, there been documents that have been uncovered that the people testify to earlier. With respect to the fact that including the Citizenship Question, could cause politically advantageous to nonhispanic white. And certainly many of our communities, that is deeply troubling. You also raise the question of other languages. Although clearly the effort is been made to expand the name or number of languages, given the pluralistic nature of america, and the diversity of so many of our communities including the one you and ive live in, robert hundred and 20 languages spoken. What do you recommend we try to do to maximize participation and get over the language barrier. Thank you for that. I certainly take the offer to work with other communities. Ultimately the objective for the census is to ensure we have fair and accurate count of all america. When i would offer is even closer coordination with the Census Bureau. We talked about some of the different aspects ia which the coordination could be hopeful. One of the benefits of technology is t that. You have realtime information about jurisdictions and areas that are not responding at ate rate that we would want. So at that point, Community Organization should work with the Census Bureau to figure out what is the best strategy to follow up those communities. That is not a device that wouldve been available a in 200 oregon 2000 to the verbose degree that we have now. With respect to languages, it is with trusted messengers. I would add one more, and ministers and pastors in our churches. Ensuring that they are part of that trusted Messenger Community that can get Accurate Information in language information for many of these churches. Get them to these communities i. A way which they would respond. I think you and my times up. I would like to begin byiv thanking each of the panelists being here. Mr. Moore, you are all doing a fantastic job in south georgia. I am deeply grateful for the leadership you are exhibiting there. Met a chair like to ask unanimous consent of power form powerpoint presentation. I would ask unanimous consent without period. Without objection. Thank you. It is interesting to me that we are all of us are agreeing that most ofth us want an accurate count. What seemed to hijack every one of the census hearings is a Citizenship Question. Again i would assume that everyone in this room would agree that is important to know as a country to know how many here are citizens. Thats just about as basic as you can get. Us its important forto us to get e information. How we go about getting it, yes, i suppose multiple ways for that done. But when i get annoyed at is how that issue is used to attack the president. I dont think thats fair. I think its unnecessary. There is no reason for us to create an atmosphere of attacking the president on something constitutionally based as a synthesis. I would just barge, my colleagues on the other side to take politics out of this must try to getet to the issue of an accurate count. With that, i am grateful for the work youre doing in south georgia, just from a broader perspective, how important is the impact in Rural Communities for having an accurate census. Thank you congressman. It is critical especially for us. But in the community is 46000 publishing. Ive taken out from all of our speakers are all working i think on the same primary goal. The counties agriculture communities, we have a large migrant hispanic population. And onere thing that really attributed to our success in 2010 was we had a lady named she worked with county extension. She did prenatal programs. She did finance programs for a lot of them migrants. In the trust both of us and she was on our complete count committee. She told him it was something that needed to do when they participated in the census. I became even more from that. They have representatives from wiedemann, honduran, different subcultures. It is critical, we talk about it briefly early on that the senses that impacts everything that we do from these underdevelopment perspectives. From an Economic Development perspective, how does the census impact period has an impact jobs. If you have an industry that is looking at your community, they want to make sure that they have people there that will work. They have good education, good healthcare, and can provide the workers that they need. If youre looking to open up in a restaurant or brushoff, you might want to make sure you have consumers they can purchase your goods. They will want to go to communities that are growing. Im extremely competitive. I always wanted to win the deal but i always bought my neighbors and everyone around me to do well too. The companies dont look at county lines. They dont look at the wise. They look at market draws. So for a workforce perspective, we had 21000 workers that we had 185,000 workers from and within a 30 minute drive. This will result. It is critical again, education healthcare social programs. An Economical Development. Water and sewer bridges, anything you do, it has an impact on Economic Development. I think its important for all of us to understand the distances as a great impact, not only on just a country but on Rural Communities in particular. With that, the mood is, to go more online oriented. Statewide, we know which a 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 having tablets there, having computers there that people fill out the forms. Again, your libraries, your city council, county commission. Anywhere people congregate and making it easy for them and thats whats really critical. If you explain whythe census is important to them, their families and communities , most peoplewill voluntarily fill it out. I heard some numbers earlier as far as onrates before people come to the doors. Weve got maps on all hundred 59 counties and many of our counties have gotten 80, 85 percent voluntary response which is what you want so you dont have to send any enumeratorsback. Thats where you have a low turnout and lowResponse Rate thank you. Ill now call on the senator from illinois. Thank you Ranking Member jordan, thank you for our panelists for being here. Im so glad athat all of you are so committed to 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 Public Libraries. I joke that with a teenager and a toddler im ready for anything in congress. But we have a few Public Libraries in our area, gale gordon Public Library, Bloomington Public Library and the township District Library doing an excellent job of going above and beyond to make sure that hard to count communities are counted during the census so with that, miss gupta, can you the services at Public Libraries that would help communities us respond to the census online through computers and wifi access . The libraries are all over the country, some of the most critical partners in communities to help get Public Education out and providing services to the communities around actually e filling out the census and the American Library association has been working with our coalition and members of this Committee Regarding the demand for mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers and other key issues. We expect some concern about what the bureau is doing around the lack of information we have over whether those mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers are going to be but the libraries have been incredibly important and we know we have a map, the map actually shows around the country where libraries are in hard to count communities so we can do targeted outreach, the bureau can do targeted outreach based on that, within communities about how libraries can play a Critical Role that we have to make sure the bureau is equipped to do that. Great, mister yang, in my district libraries reading outreach efforts have partnered with local schools where over 100 languages are spoken in our local Public Schools. What are some of the challenges you see incounting people in places like my district where theres such a wide diversity of languages spoken . How do libraries help facilitate . Youre absolutely right, Public Schools play an Important Role. Because School Districts know the composition of their students which is the emerging population for our country will be tailoring their language to be even more specific. For example my School Districtoffered languages not offeredby the Census Bureau so working with those schools, i like you have Young Children. I rely on what we call the thursday folder. Even if i dont read all the mail that comes with respect to advertising, etc. , i will Read Everything that comes from my child so if they have statistics in schools classes, if they have programs that allow census information and i know the bureau is working with the schools to do things along those lines along with the libraries to make sure that information again goes for messengers, that would go a long way towards it. Miss vargas, one of the things we fear because of the Citizenship Question or the mention of it previously is kind of the fear of institutions. Do you sense that maybe immigrant communities might be more icapprehensive or fearful of using the local Public Libraries in light of all the discussion around the Citizenship Question . Congressman, i have not seen any data about image misperception in Public Library but i have seen data where immigrants do find credible messengers among schoolteachers, healthcare providers, local Community Leaders, faith leaders so we need to engage those leaders in our community as census ambassadors as well. How are we doing thatby the way . We are doing it ourselves and by each of the efforts of these organizations are launching their own campaign and our communities are closely coordinated with the Census Bureau. What we need also is for the Census Bureau itself, for their staff because they have the resources we dont and they have 500 million allocating to a 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 so we need the power of the Census Bureaus resources to do a much more thorough education job for the American Public so they can be confident in i participating in the census. Thank you so much, thank you chairwoman. Thank you, the senator from kentucky is recognized for five minutes for questioning. Before i begin questioning about my concern for an undercount in Rural America, especially rural kentucky, madam chairwoman with all respect i wanted to correct an inaccurate statement that you made with regards to the president t wanting an inaccurate count. He didnt want an accurate count area thats not true. The president represents the majority of taxpaying americans who simply want to know how many citizens reside in the United States who are not legal american citizens. Ithas absolutely nothing to do with the final count. Every person residing in the United States should be counted in the census and that will apply to the Electoral College so i wanted to correct that inaccurate statement and i wanted to shift gears to talk about my concern or an undercount in Rural America. A 2016 American Community survey showed my te Congressional District, first Congressional District of kentucky is having the greatest share of households with no internet subscription or only ill of connection. Im sad to say 29 and a half percent of households in my district which is rural have either no internet or dial up connection. Thats an unfortunate situation that i placed a lot of blame on the last two kentucky gubernatorial administrations g but its something that im working hard on whether its the farm bill or any other piece of legislation that deals with funding for rural Internet Access. Thats something we strongly support in my congressional office, but as the 20 20 census approaches i echo the concerns that others have raised here 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 and i want to ensure that those with lack of internet and Broadband Connectivity art left out because i think we would all agree that Rural America , where the overwhelming majority of lack of internet is overwhelmingly republican. And weve heard a lot of people express concerns about an undercount in different ercommunities and i just want to echo my concern about an undercount in Rural America. Also have learned that the most difficult population to accurately count our children under the age offive. Mister moore, why do you believe children are undercounted in Rural Communities . I think to be anycommunity and this isnt a 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 whenthey get that question and asked how many people are living in the house , they may either not answer at all or not be accurate on it. So you get an undercount in that situation and it impacts at the Development Level use that census data for planning and theyre expecting 100 kids to go to kindergarten in the first day because we dont have an accurate census count, you have 200 children showing up the first day and youve got classroom shortages, teacher shortages , you dont have enough books or materials so that all people and try to come up with a wayto address that question if it comes up. Why is it otimportant for me to list everybody in my household and thats why its critical that you have again reached diverse, large complete count committee that can work with different demographics in the community that have influenced and that know the answers to the questions and i think we all said it. If people know what it is and what it isnt, they are willing to voluntarily fill them out area is that fear keeps them from dissipating voluntarily. You mentioned in your testimony the effort you made in georgia about recruiting workers and i had someone in my District Office trying to recruit work more workers for the census. My last question, whats being done to prevent fraud from census takers, either intentionally over counting or intentionally undercounting residents . I know there are a lot of groups that are really doing. We argue person counted. For obvious reasons. Census workers are credentialed and i cant necessarily or accurately address that question but i will tell you something i share with many of our mueller communities and i know overtime, in 2010 a lot of our smaller Rural Communities had census in birmingham and from outofstate communities walking doortodoor not a good thing theyre not familiar with the community and the neighborhoods and theyre not invested so what we did in 2010 and are talking about the origin all our complete count committees , and volunteers can buy for those jobs and that weve got somebody local, thats vested, they knowhow important it is for their community. They know the neighborhoods better. They mentioned not going into a neighborhood because they didnt feel safe. You will have a lot higher Response Rate if you get local people hired. I agree completely thank you very much and madam i chair, i feel back. Damister raskin of maryland is recognized for questions nsfor five minutes. Thank you for calling this important hearing. Successful voter turnout in elections pens on public trust that peoples votes will be counted fairly and as successful civics turnout in a census also depends on public trust, trust that our nation will be kept secure and that nothing that we write down, no information we provide will be used against us and this talent is a difficult one in an age of social media driven conspiracy theories and russia propaganda campaigns to so distrust among american in our society and just the general background levels of paranoia about government is so that places an extra burden on government not only to act with integrity and transparency but also to bring a positive message about democratic government and constitutionally established practices like the census tothe people. So miss gupta, let me start with you. How do you think of lack of trust in privacy and security of the census could lead to an undercount in American Communities . I think theres no question that a lack of trust in either see could have people basically feel persecution in the census if they feel their data will be turned over to others from other agencies. It is what all our organizations have done so much Public Education. We believe the bureau needs to do more Public Education about the existing federal laws, very robust that safeguard confidentiality of census data. The law is clear today but as several of mycolleagues said , the sector of the Citizenship Question call people to have even greater mistrust about what the motives are for the census and that is what we were all seeking in our communities and campaigns to overcome and there are very good answers so federal law could not be clearer. The Census Bureau conducted a survey focusing on hard to count communities which found that 28 percent of respondents were very concerned or deeply concerned spthat their answers on the census would not be kept confidential and 22 percent or more than one in five were extremely concerned that their answers could somehow be used against them and if youre pointing out none of those things happen under the law and we want to send a no sage to people that information that you put on the census that can be used against you and it is secure and it isconfidential. Madam chair i have consent for the report of the bureau to be entered into the record. I brought a copy today. Without objection. Mister morial, what confidentiality concerns you think might some of your dformer constituents keep them from filling out acensus form . I think confidentiality concerns particularly in the age of the internet, in the age of social media are elevated because of what occurred in the 2016 election evwith people hearing about hacking. Its very important that we push back against that through Public Education, through positive messages to assert that it is the law, the information that is collected is confidential and that it is a violation of the law and its a violation of criminal law to expose that. I think its important the census andany other agencies , be vigilant and closely watched and that we will be closely watching and report anything untoward that may might make sense so we got to encourage confidence by people as to what the law is, push back against it because it does undermine peoples willingness as you mentioned in all processes. Mister alice can you describe how trust levels in the federal government in Indian Country might affect a census participation specifically their. Thank you congressman for that question. Theres no mystery in Everybody Knows or at least its widely known that historically Indian Country has had a little bit of the distrust towards the federal government , giving away the government has treated American Indians over the past 200 years. The trust level is impacted negatively by the lack of proper attention given to educating and making the American Indian alaskan native population understand the purposes of the census, what it can do, what itcant do. Ill to properly fill out questionnaires and even more important is the communicators that interact with Indian Country. Are they atknowledgeable enough to understand cultural and traditions and inappropriate manner to be able to communicate and navigate within a very unique population and when you get folks that dont have that familiarity, they are notjust the voices. You think the Census Bureau is attentive to that concern. Theyve identified that as an issue in their own background. But we have yet to see ifthey have , we are concerned about the proper resources when it comes to number of enumerators, who they are, are they prepared to go out there and be able to accurately interact with the community. As weve heard from some of the others, we know that applying for these jobs in this particular space has become more difficult. Its online, its a longer process. A longer vetting period and we are not certain that this particular trust affect within Indian Country will be addressed properly. Mister is recognized. The first point i liked it and im a little offended here, i think one of our questionnaires today said from his antiimmigrants and most recently the Data Available we had hundred 76 hundred 76,000 in the country which is the highest in several years. And to call a president antiimmigrants is just a ridiculous partisanslap and not true. I believe it was Mister Vargas, im not sure. But at least in my district, people whose ancestors are south of the border, i can think of a lot of them who are proimmigrant but do not want to break the law and insofar as you feel that as you represent something called the National Association of latino federal officials, i want to make it clear to anybody listening out there that at least in my district, people of dissent south of the border do believe in obeying the laws and they would object to you implying thatpresident from his antiimmigrants because he is for enforcing the law. Now, semy next comment is seeing the groups we have before us today , theres an effort in this country to permanently divide america, having people obsess over their ancestry. There are conflicts during this building. There are conflicts by occupation. Th people on it, have more or lesscredential is an , gun owners are already under attack 30 we always happy conflicts between taxpayers and tax payers tax takers. But i think we set up so many groups like this, it creates the false narrative that we have one america where its disagreement by racial background, i disagree with that but thinking over time i think that due to intermarriage, were going to have, its going to become more apparent that theres less and less of that sort of conflict. Ntim going to ask you folks when i fill out the census or when somebody else fills out the census form how exactly they should do without. When you have a mixed bag. I can think of several people here that i know are saying one half latin and one half direct european ancestry. Should you fill out the form, we will ask miss gupta. How do you fill out the form . The census allows you to self identify to answer your question around racial background. Ill give you an extreme example. We have a woman running for president rightnow, elizabeth warren. She is very proud, held a press conference that she was 164 native american and apparently she used that when she applied for a job a while back. Its appropriate that she enwould fill out the form that shes native american. The census permits self identification. You think its okay. I think it should be Accurate Information, self identification is Accurate Information. We will ask mister allis. To be member of the tribe, a lot of tribes you have to be one quarter the background of that tribe. But it means your three quarters Something Else. If somebody was one quarter native american ancestry and three quarters european ancestry, would it be appropriate for them to fill it out european and would it be appropriate to fill it out native american . So my drive is locatedjust north of the district. And if youre a member of a federally recognized tribe, you have the absolute right to represent yourself as a native american. As the other of my colleagues on the panel have accurately stated and which the number of consultations that mca i have conducted or has hosted with Census Bureau, when that questionhas come up , within Indian Country audiences, the answer has been you self identified in a manner that you think is appropriate. Which is has caused some level of confusion but its, it is the standard statement is made by folks at the us Census Bureau when addressing that particular question. And i will make a little adjustment to a comment im trying to understand. There is no difference in a particular tribe. If youre a tribal number and enrolled a quarter member or three quarters member , youre a tribal member. I understand, im just saying the average american, i dont know if the average american accesses like some people here. If you have a friend who is three quarters european ancestry and onequarter native american , thank you. Can i clarify something, you can check as many categories as you want. It is self identification but you can check notable categories if you identify with more than one an. Can i say one thing about that . Theres a lot of quarter blood American Indians in this country and most of the rules go back to you have to trace back to our role as far back as the 1800s so we are talking about 3 to 4 different generations and punishment, i would suggest that a quarter blood over 3 to 4 or five different generations is a significant amount of American Indian blood in any particular person so whether somebody is a quarter indian or three quarters Something Else is a really kind of interesting way to look at it to question how somebodywould identify themselves. The chair recognizes congressman for being from maryland,question for five minutes. I want to thank everybody on the panel, its a really critical discussion that were having today in many respects, talking about the importance of counted is talking about justice, dignity and respect. Miss gupta, you argue a lot testifying and you are here because the Leadership Conference provides on the mental advocacy for these important issues of empowerment and i want to thank you for that. We had the opportunity of working closely together on efforts to protect and reform our democracy and especially as it relates to Voter Suppression. It occurs to me that Voter Suppression and attempts to reduce census participation are really two sides of the same coin area there about pushing people often times of minority communities out of our democracy area we need to be pulling them in. To our democracy and if you think about it, that you most uneventful ways or opportunities that people in this country have had empowerment iis to be counted at the polls. To be counted in the census. Thats the way some might be able to stand up and say here i am, i count, i matter. My voice is important. So im very concerned about something that i believe you reference in your testimony, at least in written testimony which is the potential for census related disinformation efforts. We talked about the importance of getting good education and information out there and when we need to lean on that as strongly as we possibly can , we also have to combat disinformation when it comes to the census process. Could you discuss what census related disinformation look like, how can be spread and what the negative effectsof it might be . Thank you congressman for your leadership on so many of these issues. We have been deeply concerned about disinformation which really speaks to persuade masses of people to kind of not participate in the count. And this information is usually pushed by bad actors with trying to property false information to make that viral, scare people away from participating. And it can contain false information about who can participate, about when to participate, how to participate and it can spread through social media and networks the negative affect literally be that countless people count themselves out meaning that they do not fill out the census as a result and will and therefore miss out on federal representation on it being represented in eight districts and on being counted for purposes of schools and hospitals and healthcare and life area we have been, many of our groups have been actively working with social Media Companies around ensuring that they have as, that their developing policies to prevent census interference right now. I can say more about that. I gather that last month facebook announced a new policy on census interference on its platform, disinformation being spread on its platform and said its not going to allow any posts that would reduce census participation. Can you give me a sense of how w you think that policy is, whether its strong enough, whether others and be invited into taking another kind of action on the official platforms area. Leadership conference and f other civil Rights Groups pushed very vigorously at the highest levels of the company. To ensure give very detailed input on what would be required to have a rigorous and robust census interference policy. We commended facebook when they announced their policy for developing really what today is the most comprehensive policy in combating census interference and as you know we have not been commending facebook very much recently but that was a significant achievement. Facebook announced that they will, that any content violates their census interference policy will be allowed, not be allowed to remain on the platform. As newsworthy, even if its posted by a politician that was a significant staff for the company. They have created an enforcement kind of protocol and we want to make sure though that theyre going to continue to engage with stakeholders in meaningful ways such as external census working groups to complement their internal interests and we have asked the company to share information that theyre getting about the targets of a particular Disinformation Campaign so that the Census Bureau and organizations and then come in and have Accurate Information to make sure nobody is lost as a result. Bill and twitter have made more general statements that they will treat the census like an election but we have yet to see the detailed policy we need to see from them and are now is that all social Media Companies are going to follow, theyre going to follow suit and we will be very active in trying to push that votes into the census and election. Thank you very much, my time is up area i think the work of leadership and all on the panel and it might be a good idea for us at some point to have a hearing where we can see what the feedback is on what these digital platforms are discovering in terms of censusinterference. We will follow up on it mister cloud of texas is recognized for five minutes for questions. One point of clarification if thats all right with you. Its all right with me if its all right with mister cloud. The gentleman is recognized. I think under my questioning earlier i talked about federal funding and i think it was taken in one context, not the other so i dont want any of our perjure s to themselves so if they would get with the committee to make sure you make a full disclosure on federal funding so t i dont think youre answering what i intended the question to be but i know a number of you get federal funding so you may want to clarify that with ntthe committee so i yelledback. Mister cloud is recognized for five minutes. Thank you chairwoman, Ranking Member for holding this meeting, its good to start off the year on a topic that is important to our oversight duties. Its a key function of our republic, a republic of the people, by the people of having Representative Government and i appreciate the fact that everybody else is unanimous in the understanding that its vitally important that we count every individual and that we do our duediligence to make sure that happens. Mister moore, i come from texas and the hundred 90 one of our 254 counties is, the vast majority of my district is rural including a little town like cats where its a population of about 2918 people and had the privilege of the other day, i appreciate allthe effort you done , thecreative ways , with and i would ask that if you could invite us to one of those popup dinners, i appreciate it. Thats good on cooking. I wanted to ask mister morial, do you have anything to add to Creative Ideas with what your organization might be doing to help teach Rural Counties and maybe some of the differences in the challenges versus urban counties . Theres a substantial segment of the africanamerican population that completely is a substantial part and its probably more africanamericans living in suburban America Today than sin urban America Today area theres been adramatic shift. We can be 60 organizations under the banner of the black census roundtable and through those efforts and they include people that reach urban communities, a number of Civil Rights Organizations have Extensive Networks in Rural Communities though were using this communitybased strategy to publicly educate about the importance of the uscensus. What purpose of the census is for, why the census is a right for people to participate. Were moving along on time here. Do you have any practical nuggets like mister moore had on, we talk about coloring pages and education schools and. All of the above, i think what mister moore has been able to do is to identify on a local government puts tits money and its resources behind the census, whats essential to making the census work is the work of local governments. States, cities, counties, Economic Development agency. And were encouraging local affiliates to participate in these local efforts. In the local computer lease communities in an effort to do that. If i can move on, i appreciate your thoughts. Mister gay, humid constitutional responsibility of what the constitution asks that you mentioned that anything beyond that, that would deter from that mandate that we shouldnt ask, what does the constitution require us to add mark. The constitution requires an accurate count of all persons in the United States. Thats not helping each individual. You agree with that as well. I do and in fact the constitution only requires an enumeration of population, it doesnt require that we ask name, gender, race or ethnicity. It ask for is a headcount, it doesnt require race, housing status, sex, relationship status or any of those things. Would you endorse not for this one, its late in the game but Going Forward consideration of mea census that just counted what the constitutionrequired . It would have to be a conversation about what then is the role of the American Community service of the Data Collected by the Census Bureau goes beyond just a headcount is used by all us policymakers to determine how to administer akpolicies in the United States and you need to know how many people are children, how many people are men and women area you need to know how many people have Different Levels of education. How you collect that data will depend on what survey the census uses it will be a determination for what purpose is it a single census and what is the purpose that the American Community survey and other surveys. Theres been talk about this information and miss thrown out, you said something that troubled me. You characterize the ministration as being antiimmigrant and i think part of this disinformation is we cannot be conflating the vital need to secure the border and to mitigate what the cartels are doing in our nation and communities like mine against an immigration policy is the truth is, and i asked to submit this for the record, the hill article deportations lower under trumpet ministration that obama andthe truth is they were lower under bush and clinton. So if we could stop the rhetoric, i think it would go really far too dissuading the fear that we see often. There is one Underserved Group that i think miss gupta, if you could were two years out of harvey and we still have a number of displaced individuals. We have houses go being built. You have a way to deal with that and any suggestionsfor that or mister moore . Weve had similar issues in southwest georgia, Hurricane Michael panhandle and south georgia and we still have several of our communities that dont have residents back in their homes so we are working with all those communities to come up with a plan to identify where they are staying. It could be with a friend or relative or somewhere else were trying to make sure we count those displaced families. How do you do that . The Census Bureau made special efforts like for instance special efforts to count Homeless People, the numerator to what people are no its important that the Census Bureau work with in those areas wherepeople have been displaced. Whether its in texas or its in puerto rico or anywhere where weve had hurricanes and fires that they work with local officials. Those officials know where the displaced citizens are, the displaced people are sending enumerators to those areas. The only way theyre going to be counted is through the use of the numerators. Theyre not any customary physical address so it requires a special effort by the census and were sophisticatedknowledgeable society. We know where these events are taking place, we know where displaced people maybe to some extent and so it requires a special effort and again, i encourageyou all talk to the Census Bureau. The census director about that and he comes herein a few weeks. The gentleman time has expired. I now yield, this request to mister meadows, briefly out of order to further clarify his point of clarification. I want to come back to all of you because my question was not and i got your question. I think you all tried to answer it honestly and so when i was talking about federal funding, i was talking about actually, because some of you received federal funding. We know that area and so my question would have been accurately, do any of you receive federal funding rectally or indirectly that supports your census work and that way you can answer in the negative as you did or answer truthfully. The Leadership Conferencedoes not. Can i ask if the agent receives no federal funding the education stage does not receive one sense of federal funding. The National Association of indians do not receivefederal funding for census work. I think the chairwoman for allowing me that. I now yield to the representative from california for questions. Thank you chairwoman and thanks to all of you for attending on this important topic area of proper census count is a rural issue, and its a us issue and we want to make sure we count everyone. Im from Orange County california, the 40th district and in the 48 district we have an area known as Little Saigon which includes parts of westminster, santa ana and garden grove. And its a community that i think is an example of hard to count places and so what i want to talk about with all of you is the of having Partnership Specialists coming out with the Census Bureaus efforts to make sure we do get an accurate count in all communities. These partnerships specialists tend to be trusted local voices who serve as critical liaisons between the Census Bureau and the local communities. Yet the Census Bureau has reportedly failed to meet its own deadlines for hiring ownership specialists, raising questions about the effectiveness of this program. Miss morial, can you explain why Partnership Specialists are so important and increasing census participation in hard to count communities. Partnership specialists are reflective of the local communities. They are often made up of people local communities are going to be much more trusted messengers as well as door knockers and anyone from the federal government or the bureau they have to self identify that way so the separtnership around the bureau has historically relied on its ability to hire, have a robust Partnership Program for that reason and i would say particularly now because of i think escalated here like not only at the citizenship . The climate for immigrants in those countries right now that feeling viscvis the federal government that it is important than ever that there are all hiring, for hiring is done that we got those partners in every community in places like Little Saigon where there will be language barriers as well. Can you elaborate because some people would suggest that the Advertising Campaigns that we do and websites that provide significant information suffice, yet i think you would recognize and agree that we need more because these partnerships specialists provide rule that thosedont. Could you elaborate on that a little bit . Partnership specialists are doing more than providing Public Education. They are in community, often trained in language and my colleague john gang and speak directly to some of the challenges that fulton Little Saigon will face without a robust Partnership Program. But they are much more engaged at the local level, kind interfacing with members of the community in a way that no amount of media or communication, all vital but it is notgoing to have the same range. We know that these partnership nationalists play an incredibly importantrole in making sure that we get an accurate census count. And the Census Bureau is supposed to have 1500 Partnership Specialists hired by june 30, 2019. They missed it. They set a revised particularity specialist by september 1 19 and our understanding from the gao is that i miss again in december. Mister barnett, what concerns do youhave about the delay in the hiring of these Partnership Specialists . My major concern is that there will not be sufficient time to make sure that the specialists are adequately trained to do the job that needs to be done now. The Census Bureau aMedia Campaign is beginning in january. It just in case you need specialists on the ground not just higher to know whats going on. And one of the challenges weve had is that we have been Partnership Specialists that are not well informed themselves about the census operation area and if i could use this opportunity to make a recommendation tothe congressman from texas , my advice would be that you should look at where in your district will people not receive mailings because many Rural Communities will not get any mail. Theywill be and delivered the census. For an update enumerator or update lead, excuse me so my recommendation is that everybody should understand what the operations of the Census Bureau will conduct in your districtbecause not everybody will get mail. And specialists need to be informed about that and so my concern is that not only are we behind in hiring but theres not enough time to make sure theyre fully trained so that there accurately informing the community about census processes. To say that in another way we want to make sure not only do we hire those that weve committed to hire in a timely manner to make sure they have theappropriate skill set but equally important, they have the proper training so they can do their job, is that correct . You very much and i yield back. I now yield to mister trout for a unanimous consent request. Thank you chairwoman and thank you Mister Vargas for your thoughts. I asked funanimous consent to put into the record an article from the hill. Hedeportations lower under trumpet ministration than obama. Without objection, so ordered. I now recognize miss miller, west virginia. Thank you chairwoman maloney and Ranking Member jordan and thank you for being here today. Ive heard a lot about what constitutes counts of population so id like to offer a different perspective from my state, west virginia. Its extremely rural and filled with beautiful hills and colors that contain many immunities, individual homesteads and places where families have proudly lived for generations. Navigating the state, reaching out to these communities often multiple times and ensuring that every individual is counted in the right place is no easy feat. Behind me display is a map of my district. Four of 18 counties in my district have 100 percent of the population living in hard to count neighborhoods. Ive spent the last year visiting these i can tell you first hand experience how Rural Communities are. Furthermore, an additional five counties have over 60 percent of the population living in hard to count neighborhoods. Thats half. Many of these counties also have pelower percentages of those who mail back there census forms in 2010. And it required a costly in person followup. Its important that this Committee Considers how to address hard to count populations as we do take Rural Communities into account. Mister moore, ive enjoyed listening to your testimony today because you have so many good ideasabout how to engage the Rural Communities. Once thought i had is we have a lot of food pantries as well as mobile food pantries all over our state. And i think that might be a good way as ntwell to spread the news about the census. We also have global mammograms to go around. Are there any unique ways that you have found to success in reaching these folks . Im not familiar with your district or your state so i dont know why they would be classified as hard to count. They are mountains. I understand that, geography. Hartford county, i mentioned a little bit about the success weve had that and i never thought we had a Homeless Population but we do. So 2010 we had a soup kitchen that the people every wednesday night and we made it available for to participate in the census there on major churches before in schools and several of our panelists have said that when we were doing our focus groups, we ask people where they got their news, where they got their information, who were there trusted sources and any of them came back to their pastors if they went to church and their teachers or their Guidance Counselors , we use both of those as options to do , to try to get outraged but again, every team used different what works in one community will not work in another and thats why its critical that you have a diverse complete whcount committee. Somebody had mentioned earlier a lot of times government takes the lead and maybe its true but weve got very successful counties maybe family connections which is a nonprofit, they work with a lot of your hard to countpopulations. They do it with them on a daily basis so i think thats my perspective, maybe a little bit different than others, by working with the chamber and the development of ready for some years and working with committees is what works and what community doesnt work than the others, with ideas, suggestions, best practices and plans tohelp them put together a plan that will work well. Much of my district because of the hills and geography are without the internet and since this is tthe first time people can respond online, how have you addressed the lack of . Got a lot of rural south georgia counties thatdont have adequate internet. Theres two things, one is if you are in an area that doesnt have internet , but first letter should have a written form that could fill out and the fifth letter will also have a written form they can fill out and then trying to promote its from a spring fling may parade, football games, anythingwhere youve got a lot of people set up tents to promote it. Have Educational Opportunities with them, tell them what it is and what isnt and encourage them to fill out the census we mentioned libraries and others have to, state of georgia allocated Million Dollars Public Libraries to put in computers, Promotional Materials to promote census because many of our south georgia citizens dont have internet available wont go to the library. So do the homeowners as well. Your food banks, soup kitchens, churches area anything and ive had people say that thats only 50 people. If you got somebody that has influence over 50 people they can be engaging your committee because want to count everybody that you can. Id hate to think i missed 50 people in any county. Ilike your trusted sources i yield back. I just want to comment, mister moore, you brought a lot of information aboutRural America and how to address it. And the theme of libraries, i represent an urban area but we are using our libraries as a center for the homeless for other people that dont have internet, to have people there to help them. Thats a real resource that we need to build on in our Rural Communities and i want to thank you for bringing that information to us and id like to recognize mrs. Kelly of illinois were questions for five minutes. You for your patience. I know how important the census is. Illinois has lost a congressperson. I think every decade for five decades and it looks like you going to lose another one and people dont go out and fill out the census, wemight lose to. So i and my office have taken it upon ourselves, we do briefings all over. My district is suburban and rural and the rural part of my district 40 percent of constituents dont have access to the internet so we will be using the library. Also in my district there is a lot of concern about the Citizenship Question from in particular my latin population because they talked to us about it a lot so what i wanted to talk about is actually the Census Bureau itself, because people are concerned about private speech and in october 2013, gao issued a report about 2020 census operations and the report found that as of august 2019, many of the census Technology Systems were at risk of missing critical deadlines ahead of census date, they stated that and i quote, risk systems add uncertainty to a highly compressed timeframe for completing development and assessing work over the next seven months. Miss morial, is the bureau ensuring theres enough time to accurately test all the new systems mark and what concerns you have about it . So as some of my colleagues have already said, this fences will be reaching us with your endtoend tasks than ever been in the 2010. Theres only really been one endtoend task that gives us a lot of data and gives the bureau a lot less data about how to shore up it. Obviously technology is hugely important to regional people but it brings security to us whether theyre real or perceived and that can chill participation as well and the bureau has to do everything with private federal and state partners to ensure security. We have been pushing the bureau to take necessary steps to address out new ip and Automated Systems are going to affect the communities they are most likely a mess. We know as we said through the map that we worked on in partnership where all the hard to count communities are. The bureau as i think should update congress when it appears before it on february 12 on the status of all these activities and show that its spending resources in the manner that congress has directed. And further, i think should trust the bureau and ensure that its it systems are secure. And i mean, i can add again a couple of details. There are people need to understand also due to Partnership Program and Public Education work that the bureau does about the internet self response portal. And you know, kind of understand the process more and all of a piece or making sure that Cyber Security is strong. Does anyone else want to add anything else area. This gang, can you briefly explain the Legal Protections that protect census data . Under title13 of the census act , nobody is allowed to provide any individualized data coming from the census form and that is subject to a penalty if i rememberright of 500 and six months in jail. Five months. Five years in jail, sorry about that and we will say this area all of us, our experiences with the Census Bureau are vast. The line level people seek that and take that protection seriously that is part of what Mister Vargas has talked about in terms of the Census Bureau trusted messenger of sorts. Thats sort of we rely on so those protections are absolutely inplay and that is something we do need to emphasize to our community and protect from any misinformation. With respect to that. There is one thing that you would tell the Census Bureau or us, what could be done better and what would be difficult down the line mark. Broadly. While we have been pushed very hard and appreciate on this bipartisan leadership and getting the funding levels that they needed, we are gravely concerned about how they are actually using ve and allocating in real time because the census is about to start days away in alaska on all of the various brands that we know and attend of private strategies to address the risks that the census is facing. That is, it is a census that is at rest and thats about whether theyre hiring a Partnership Programs, what their plan is without communications. It security, Cyber Security and the like for many of us addressing these issues and we are, i think you have to put this and ask about all of these questions. Because they have, they have funding to do everything they need to do we believe in order to ensure that everyone is counted. Eanybody else . I would say broadly, transparency. Let us know what the gaps are realistically, all of us can help those gaps. And ending with you, mister moore. Congresswoman kelly, thank you. One thing thats been effective when i talked to small groups and communities, if you look at the questions, theres nothing on there thats not extremely personal information. Youve got your name, your address but theres no bank account information, no security numbers. Security is a big issue and that something shes got to address with people but once you actuallyrun through the questions that are on the form , i think theres a misconception that theyre going to hack the census database and have all your personal information, drain your bank account and ruin your creditand thats just not the case. Training. Im going to ask you to answer a couple of questions with yes or no. Let me clarify that i support totally accurate count regarding our census and is crucial for a representative for public payday support doortodoor direct mail and on line census Data Collection and i believe its the responsibility of all of us to determine whats the best way to have a 100 accurate count however we have some morality is to face. By show of hands have any of you ever worked for the Census Bureau on the street collect inc. Census data doortodoor . Let the record reflect that no member raised their hand madam chair. My next question by yes or no please. [laughter] thank you for your service. Valasco my second question yes or no and this is not a gotcha question. Im just asking for a genuine answer. Do you recognize that some communities and some demographic groups are more close culturally and just by tradition as a tent to interact with those outside of their community, yes or no. Ms. Gupta. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Morial yes. All the panelists responded yes so is it interesting question regarding how we move forward to seek 100 should be our goal, 100 accurate count. Do these American Communities that have a cultural or traditional ability to do they have the right to determine their own level of interaction withth government for those outside of their community . Do they have that right ms. Gupta . Yeah. Mr. Yang . Mr. Vargas . Mr. Allis. I didnt quite understand the gretchen. Those an american citizen and a member of a community that has a tradition of hesitancy to provide data to census researchers, do they haven that right to resist back . Pin i would answer by singer right but they have a responsibility. T they have a responsibility . E mr. Morial. They have the right that its required by law that they participate. The ever right to resist, do they not . A would the incumbent upon us to do outreach and communication into these communities to encourage their bridges the patient and to seek ultimately their census data and do they have the right to resist . Just so we are clear on that. I was a patrolman on the street in 2010 and it was a common call during the census collection of a suspicious person. This was in 2010. Sometimes we get multiple calls a day on the same census worker. Since 2010 there has been an overwhelming number of scams to steal her identity andin money n line ea email, or telephone and its increased exponentially largely targeting the elderly. I believe this decade past will certainly bring us a greater number of American Communities and individual families and households to w resist the effos to collect data. I think theres a great deal of emphasis in place on the Citizenship Question at the expense of overlooking the fact that we have allowed to manifest in our nation and environment and we encourage our citizens on a daily basis. If you dont know the person calling on your phone dont answer the phone. If youre not familiar with the email coming to you dont open an attachment. This has been the main manifest over the last 10 years and i think that as a nation we have to get our heads wrapped around this because i believe one of the largest demographics that will not be counted in this coming census is our elderly and those that feel under threat from i. D. Theft. Madamt chair if panelists could choose to respond amongst. Themselves . Someone may respond if they would like to. I think he raises a point reaching out to the elderly. Is there anyone who would like to respond . In our focus reason the information we have received the elderly is generally the population that is more inclined to voluntarily respond to the census because they done before and they see it as their civic duty. I cant address your concerns about privacy but traditionally thats been one thats had a higher Response Rate than other populations. If i may madam chair. You speak to resistance and thank you for your service. I spent almost 10 years in the streets of Baltimore City doing what you did. As mr. Moore said earlier one size doesnt fit all when you look at different areas and different district and why people or group of people may resist in one area may not be transferable to the other. Your suggestion respectfully that people have a right to resist and then follow it up withou a security concern basedn fraud on the internet and other locations in things they run across in their daily lives has been transferable to all of these resisting communities is the a primary cause or suggesting that is dubious at best. It resists for a totally different reason which has nothing to do with anything that you spoke to. It has to do to a historical mistreatment of American Indians through a couple hundredea year. There were periods when they werent allowed to vote or be citizens. The country tried to terminate an American Indian in history. When you look at why we may be a little hesitant and it has nothing to do with that. It has more to do with properly communicating educating and connecting with the culture and tradition that exists on individual indian reservations in understanding what that is. I have to say thatun in response to your suggestion to try to pigeonhole the panel if you will into recognizing certain things with a yes or no answer and then extrapolating some kind of the gentlemans time has expired but its a very important issue to raise. I find it not shocking that a panelist would be named by a member of congress as dubious. The representative of michigan is wrecked it nice for five minutes. I think the question my colleague post gives us more of a responsibility to assure that we educate and we addressed the concerns and we are sharing that our reach is one that is inclusive. As members of congress and must ensure that all hardtoreach and hard to count communities are included in this up coming census. Unfortunately the president continues the citizens ship question has been correctly sparked fear in a lot of the communities. Today we have an opportunity to help correct that injustice. My home district is detroit, a city notoriously undercounted in the census with a large minority population that speaks dozens of languages. Critical that the Census Bureau take every step they can to ensure that the hardtoreach population in our communities are reached. After the 2010 census the Census Bureau reported that undercounted africanamericans by 2 , hispanics by 1. 5 and American Indians and alaskan spy 5 . According to the 2010 census might district home is home to over 400,000 africanamericans, 34,000 hispanics and 15 hundred American Indians which equates to a district that is seriously at risk of being undercounted. If those undercounted trends continue my district will see hundreds if not thousands of individuals not counted in the 2020 census. In addition to that 10 of my district is born in another country. Our largest groups are residents from Eastern Europe iraq bangladesher and the mexico in india 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, Health Care Education and more if the 2020 census is not properly done but im concerned that because the Census Bureau has fallen behind in the hiring for the 2020 census it may not have the manpower it needs to conduct followup operations to ensure everyone in america fills out the census form. In november of 2019 the Inspector General at the department of commerce raise concerns about hiring delays. The ig found the Census Bureau Information Technology system used failed several tests and that quote presents a risk to the completion of our census. Ms. Gupta do you have a question about the pace of the census hiring today . Yes i do. I think several do for the very reason you said which is the program is vitally important to being able tori secure hard to count communities. In fact the Census Bureau acknowledged its way behind in just this week appear or issued a press release stating that the Census Bureau need applicants of all 50 states. Mr. Morial do you believe the Census Bureau is doing all it can to recruit and hire and you know the question that we should be asking members of congress what can we do because we must act. Do you have recommendations and give me your assessment. Thank you for your focus on the me say its time to ring the alarm bell on the program. They are behind. There is no strategy to catch up. They have got to hire 500,000 people. Every hard account community whether00 its in black indian r asianamerican is over overly reliant on the success of the enumerator program and what they need to do is hold emergency hiring. They need to decouple their total reliance on an on line hiring system. They did need to do what anyone would do an emergency and that is to say our processing, by utilizing our processes with fallen behind and therefore we need to change. Wise people change, fools never and if they continue along the course that they are going they will not hire enough people and an undercounted his preordained. I agree. This congress appropriated 90 million form multiple Questionnaire Assistance Centers. We have no information that they have stood up the implementation of that program. And to add to this decisions made years ago to reduce the number of local partnership offices means those partnerships specialist that have fallen behind and hiring have a broader Geographic Area to cover. What they should do is they should go into some of these areas and set up Emergency Partnership offices. My point is as we sit here and early january with the first letters to go out in less than 60 days we need to sign ringing the alarm bell and demand that there be adjustments in their approach or the result is not going to be what we want. Thank you. Your time has expired and mr. Keller of pennsylvania is recognized for five minutes. Say that thank you madam chair. I just want to get into the census information. We all know. Its used for the boundaries of Congressional Districts as its been since the beginning of our republic. It was a sign that purpose in outs also used 600 billion per year in our communities so its very important and i want to thank the panel for being here today to discussta this issue. Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District has many rural areas where the census have hard account populations. In fact the village i live in has a population of less than a and these areas would be defined as hardtoreach by the census. Looking at this i think its important. We look back on what we have been able to accomplish in 1969 putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. We can do thatur in 1969 or in 2020. I think we need to look at it as essential that we put forward proven strategies and the use of that technology that we have been able to get over the years to ensure that the Rural Communities are properly counted in the 2020 census. And again we know the mailings are set to begin in a few short months. And i look at what happened and some examples of what happens mr. Moore with europe work in georgia prior to 2010 as an example of reaching hard to count communities. What could you say more about your efforts and how those efforts might help otheray parts of the country count some of these areas that are hard to count and again im going to stay with the use of technology. Do you see that being a part of what we can do . Hes apec colacci makes sharing information with other regions and what other communities can do . I mean the fact that with certain things we can pinpoint and i will use an example. We all use gps so we have incredible mapping to know where homes are and where people live think thats the talk about hard account populations. Part of it is people under five is what ive seen but how can we use technology to make sure we are reaching all the households . Theres a lot of rate data to storee data and activity or coverage for current numbers. We also have a lot of different options. We had a program and everybody at the table probably knows what it is. We recorded every address and every county in georgia and giorgia had one of the highest participation rates. That determines where the mail is going to go and the ones that dont respond we go doortodoor if you have a 1000 Person Community that you are worried about . Not just buy one but thats just an example of what it looks like. I would suggest that the each community have their own. Where people congregate in you can chose to the voices are and come up with a plan to make sure that everybody is educated and aware on the census why its important and they are motivated to respond by looking in the mail instead of dragging them and to do a pretty want to to make it where they realize how important it is so they voluntarily fill it out. The Response Rate for the enumerators for everybody we are dealing with is to have the highest percentage of people voluntarily fill out the census as h possible. I probably didnt answer it direct me but i will be glad to share with you some suggestions or ideas that we have shared with other communities and s all the to followup with you. I appreciate that you what we are do is making we accurately count everybody and i know we all run for election we seem to be able to find out where people are and are able to melt them things and things like that and i find it very shocking that we dont have uniform system and we are not actually able to find it out when it comes to counting people that live in the United States. I think there are some things we can do. More of that sharing, how do we get more of that sharing best practice and im going to collect us practice in all parts of the country. We have plans for 41 counties and with a plan for a state. Ill be glad to share. We have got probably 16 counties outside of our service area that we are supporting. The gentlemans time has expired but he raises an important point. The best practices we can use around the country would be something we canac try to get te Census Bureau pulled together for all of us from the testimony of our panelists and others. Its a very important point. I guess i would just ask if he shared best practices because youve practices because you voldman very active that i would encourage you if you have an already doma to look at what other people are doing to solve this and put together a best practice. I think its an excellent idea for the chair recognizes from the great state of new york mrs. Cassio cortez. Thank you madam chairwoman and thank you to all our witnesses took for coming to offer testimony today. Some of you have come and offer 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 on documented status a lot of havoc and confusion has been unleashed in the electorate which we know it has really created a lot of fear one of most important constitutional operations we have to conduct. Lets clarify something. Ms. Gupta will the 2020 census asked people about their documented status . It will not. It will not. Its filling out the census save . It is safe. On that confidentiality will individuals personal information beid shared from the 2020 censu . A federal law prohibits the sharing of census information with any other Government Agency so it is illegal for any of your individual information to be shared by the census, correct . If that is right. How serious of a crime is a . Is it a misdemeanor or is it serious . It is very serious. At the federal law on the subject is very robust and part because the consequences will be in credibly great. Its a very very serious crime. Okay. Lets talk a little bit about the potentialal outcome of not counting a community. Lets say i want to manipulate peoples ability to return their census or rather their willingness to return their census. Why would i potentially want to do Something Like that . You may want to do it to encourage communities that are perceived to vote for one party or another to stay out of the census for political gain. You may want that to happen because you dont believe that certain segments of thewa community are deserving of the same social services as everyone else but itt is against the law and against the constitution that the duty of federal government is to count every Single Person in the status. So theres is a potential whytical motive as to someone would want to undercot certain communities. Yes credits they the citizenship litigation and the Supreme Court balance and the impetus and motive are adding that question was motivated by partisan gain in dr. Thomas tofflers memos that were discovered in the course ofho tt location unfortunately reveal that there was an effort to weaponized the census when in fact it should be the core Government Institution and function from politics. We have seen theres a documented paper trail here that the desire to scare our immigrant communities out of answering the census is to help add political gain to the Trump Administration of potentially along partisan lines, correct . Unfortunately we have. Concrete evidence that the case again look no further than thomas tofflers memo advocating for the addition of the citizens are question to be in it damage and advantage. Let me move on. I understand your organization what did this report find about trust in the government of this administration among likely respondents in the Latino Community . That commission which is by atisan and shared t member of the Miamidade County board of education and the secretary of state of california held hearings throughout the country and Community Leaders emphasized how not just among latinos are immigrants but overall the American Public there was a growing mistrust of institutions in contact with government submitting information on line. The Census Bureau understands their problems and they are working to overcome which is why the resources they need for their communication is structured. Very quickly lets talk about the stay. We dont answer the census would that impact your schooll fundin . Absolutely. Does that impact funding for roads . Does that impact resources for our community . Yes. Soap we dont answer the census or kidss will not be able to have textbooks,s teachers ad the ratio that they need. We also have i would say thats one of the most undercounted districts in the country but also represent one of the most overcrowded districts when it comes to schooling. That is connected as well, correct . There are broad implications for how many teachers there are in any School District and a Infrastructure Health care in hospitals. Has a very real impact on actual communities and people are rendered invisible and not counted in the census. Thank you very much. Her next questioner will be mr. Armstrong from the great state of california. Senator thank you. Rural districts are monolithic. They are very different and very diverse i cant talk about georgia with any degree of accuracy but what i can do is talk about north dakota and the native american reservations. Outside of all the historical stuff which i do agree with you mr. Allis are being challenged because of the rural location of how we deal with this. The Census Bureau defines hard to locate an in part to interview and hard to contact them persuade and these are the Biggest Challenges for all households. Mr. Moore theres a big distinction from her rural town of 200 people versus all of the people who live around that town of 200 people. What is one of the Biggest Challenges when trying to count Rural Communities . Again its just the diversity of the community and trying to find sources where people congregate and get their information and everybody on the panel has mentioned that. I mentioned earlier you may havm people that you trust and they may not listen so having a Diverse Group that addresses everybody in the community will have the greatest impact. Her research and trying to find out what was effective in what was not effective i wish everybody responded in the ads. They all respected how the census data affected them and most of them said they trusted teachers or Guidance Counselors and that was a trusted voice and they trusted their pastors. Then to come up with a plan to get that information out. I want to ask mr. Allis how do we recruit more people from the enrolled tribe to work on this because ive done a lot of work on the reservation in north dakota and just the efficiency of having somebody from there doing it. We have a problem in north dakota. We have 30,000 open jobs really effectively haveei negative unemployment so when you bring someone from outside of those rural areas to work to do the census work its exponentially higher let alone what you are dealing with frustration skepticism and dealing with those issues. Congressman thank you for raising that. There are challenges in the rural nature of where these native communities are nixed exit difficult. Stomach as simple as not having 911. And as simple as what we take for granted having access to the internet. And so when you look at your normal method of communication, okay lets just look at it in a couple of silos here. One, how do we get people enumerators get people there that can interact and get counted and how do they come from Indian Country . Census census is Movement Towards filling these positions through on Line Networks is complicating the issue for us. It has had a major impact on the number of people that have the ability to do that. We strongly long it takes to become an employee with the Census Bureau. Thats an additional pylon into onthe addition to all all the stuff we are not what this committee. Senate that would be my question for mr. Moore. Have a look at the number of census workers for citizens in rural areas versus urban areas . The efficiency is significantly decreased. Speaking from my perspective we talked about specialists and there are great people. Thats not the only solution for me. They are there to give guidance and best practices to help the committees communities get together and be there a more frequent basis but if youre going to follow that model you need more people serving a smaller Geographic Area. I will close with this but i think we take for granted 911 addresses and gps locations but i can tell you in rural areas of north dakota none of those things exist in certain places and they are more exasperated than our traditional rural areas on native american reservations. Thank you for raising this. Ms. Tlaib for michigan. One of the things that have been distracted understanding a tank what this really means for us to just primarily due this initial round on line and i think the crisis that we have right now when it comes to the census is the fact that it has to rely on access to broadband internet. Its not just mike enzi like in wayne county. It is communities in Rural America. Theres so much emphasis on investing only on having this all be on line and in return they are saying if we are going to go on line we dont need that many folks on the ground. Secretary ross came before this committee and specifically said is reducing these offices by 50 primarily because they were going on line. The last census was one of three did not return the responses in the initial round. Do you know one out of nine americans dont have access to the internet . Not only that combine that with the fact that they are going to hire 125 thousand less people, fewer people to actually try to get people counted. All that combined i think for me when we thinkne about the communities we are talking about here in the undercounted communities they think we are underestimating what this means in the fact that this is the First Time Ever in the history of our country that we are going to gove completely on line and rely on that to be the initial touch. I know this and i would ask my colleagues dont use rock band here or at home and try to fill out the census on your own if you dont have access to that. People need to understand because some can ward Internet Access. Some affordability issue not even an access issue of being available. I want to ask each and every single one of you the critical importance of understanding what this is going to be. Resources are down 50 and hundreds of thousands of people on the ground are very fearful. The city of detroit has a coalition of folks that made all the time and t they are trying o raise money in foundations and the Wayne County Community that i represent wayne county executives are taking the lead in saying we have got to count everybody we appreciate the leadership on that but what is worrisome to me is unless i have folks with ipads at the bus are outside of school trying to explain to folks no one is coming knocking on your door. You arent going to get something on your mailbox. You have to go on line and do it right there might be the majority of my residents use their phones. Thats not going to work. Not only that its not safe and secure period. So i want to hear from every single one of you with regards to that. This major change in how we are counting folks this year. If i could start you make a very important distinction. Its not the first on line census periods is the first since his in which on line responses are available. That is not your only option. You can still get a written form and by the fourth mailing if you have not responded he would get a written form in the mail. Their difficulties with rural f addresses. There is the 1800number that you can call to provide responses. Theres a robust reluctance to use on line. The paper form is still preferred in many of our communities so thats part of the education and again is working with the Census Bureau to make sure they understand. Initially they were touting how the on line internet response would be wonderful and make everything more efficient. We need to continue to emphasize how closely to tie all of that together. I would invite congress to update close scrutiny to make sure to have the Load Capacity to be able intake the millions of americans going on line all at once. I firmly believe we need a plan b to make sure we have an adequate supply of paper forms should something happen. Previously we had help. Gov. I appreciate you bringing up the cost issues as well as accessibility for individuals to various higher speeds cost more money and we know which communities have access to higher connectivity and the like cities and states are engaged in putting money to the complete count networks locallybased included. Several states have not set up complete count committees. We know their unique challenges that we will be facing there is significant in a positive piece has there have been a lot of ngos that are really stepping up to make wifi Centers Available in public spaces or households in response to the census but we know thats not a t constructor of answer to some of the issues youre talking about. And we talked about the cybersecurity concerns as well that we are mindful of. Chairman if you dont mind i would like to add to the record the title ofn the census could undercount people who dont have internetet access by one of our commissioners. I recognize ms. Porter of california for questions. This committee wanted discussion about how Government Programs or affect did by complete counts. The private sector creates opportunities for all and i want that capitalism to create opportunity for everybody and to do that we need an accurate count. Id like to enter into the record that businesses and business organizations that they filed an opposition to President Trumps census changes. Matt without objection so ordered. The Companies Submitted the wide for a Gift Industries and regions of sizes and approaches for example the los angeles Chamber Commerce univision ben jerrys the moffett corporation located in Orange County and in this brief essay cole without accurate census data businesses would lose a tool that has become crucial to survival and growth unquote are they also said quote the stakes about where to place a store or warehouse or facility can harm not only businesses outlook but also the communities that need or dont need such a facility end quote. Its not just about whats on her shelves the risk of an inaccurate cat. Association of homebuilders uses census data to provide Housing Market information including the number of renters in home values. Fair and accurate census will help them decide on more housing in places like Orange County. Ms. Koop to as a leader in this area what partnerships could you develop with businesses . The Leadership Conference in several organizations at the table have been working very closely with trying to get more partners in helping to get out the count and we see a number of companies who step up for the very reasons that many of them articulated in their amicus brief in the Supreme Court about their concern about the Citizenship Question. Companies understand and accurate census business case. They are concerned about an undercounted and they were lie on it for marketing positions in patient positions. We have had expensive getting Big Companies with huge footprint to get more engaged in this effort and to help partners and getting outin the count. Different companies are doing a different range of things using platforms for marketing and advertising. They are using their platform to get employees where they have tons of thousands in some cases hundreds of thousands. We also will say we need more companies being engaged. I would just say and i think you are hearing this from all of us this is an all hands on deck moment and as somebody said we have got shake the alarm right now because this is happening. We are not approaching the census away from the count. Mr. Vargas if you try to communicate with the community and what feedback have you received . With engaged in a number of businesses so we can do several things. One is encouraged their own employees to register in the census and commit them to make sure that everybody in their sphere of influence in her network also participate in the census but also to incorporate business messages as they reach out to their customers and clients. Its an all hands on deck as ms. Gupta mentioned and businesses can also be trusted messengers but if someone has a Grocery Store if they go to in the Grocery Stores providing census information thats a good thing in terms of making sure the information is getting out to them. In my district i met with her Irvine Chamber of kong commerce. They are putting their own resources toward what they call census 2020 to help educate and inform the companies that are part of the Irvine Chamber of commerce to do this work and i would hope we can make the leaders and organizations like the Business Roundtable which recently said they want to engage at every level to put some of their muscle behind this initiative. Ms. Gupta. We are engaged with the Business Roundtable on this very question. I wanted to highlight something that is come to my attention and my district which is the problem of people taking advantage of this trusted brand that we try to build in the census to use it to create scams. In my district people in another district have beeneo select it o participate in the census and given the voter number in a deadline and questions that look very similar to the census but these are actually political tools and so we covered to the postmaster general and ive written to the attorney general of california and have tried to shine a light on that and not received responses. Im going to follow up with with the census director when he comes but i want to flag the importance of Stem Education as you are doing your outreach. Id like to recognize ms. Holland from new mexico for questions. Smith thank you mr. Chairman thank you all so much for taking the time to f be here and your hard work on behalf of the underrepresented people in our country. Thank you forep your persistence and integrity in the face of opposition for the higher purposes of quality and justice which is all of you are doing when you are doing this work. I need to mention something for the reckon because it was brought up earlier by one of my colleagues. What i would like to say is that this entire country was once Indian Country. This entire country and federal recognition in the process that has been established because off colonialism and for no other reason. Regardless of whether an indigenous person is enrolled in a federally recognized tribe there are tribes that edmund tonight at status like government. Doesnttu mean they are not indigenous. They in fact are indigenous and they could answer the census in that way because thats how they identify. They are a state recognized tribe. Their tribes that arent state or federally recognized however they have a Family History that says that they are indigenous to this continent and they should respond the way that their Family History requires them and obligates them too. So now on to some questions. The Census Bureau has had 10 years to prepare for the 2020 census and to address the severe undercounted native americans in the last census. They know the vast majority of responses will have to be done by in person in numerators on tribal lands. Keeping in mind that our state of new mexico has largely navajo pueblo and apache in several large diverse urban indian populations. Not only is the Census Bureau behind hiring staff but congressional intervention in my home state of new mexico got the office to put the order in the navajo language. They have a language that is taught on Rosetta Stone for example. Im directing this question to mr. Allis but i encourage all of you to submit your answers in writings as it pertains to the communities you work with. Mr. Allis from your experience to believe that the hero of officials understand the need 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. Allis please give us an idea of just how important it is to count urban indian populations. Saying thank you congresswoman and two great questions. I do recognize that 70 8 of the native American Community in new mexico your state isnt hard to count area significant population. So does the u. S. Census bureau understand their needs . Thats a tough question to answer. I dont know but say yes or no answer. We work for them it is important that we 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 that we have articulated through the years however as mr. Morial mentioned earlier this is not a complaint about funding. Congress has done its job. This is about the operational decisions thaty have been made and when you look at some the things that they have made we do have to question whether they fully understand the needs and the problems that exist in the hurdles and how they are staffing their team and putting that together and also not necessarily communicating with any of us. Although they have identified the barriers and taken the time to selfidentify with the barriers on instructive voice as language barriers and barriers and the general lack of knowledge and improper messaging questionable whether the operational decisions have gone to address those. How important is it to us . We areho very unique. We are a political group. Also what a lot of this country doeser understand we are one of three sovereigns that articulate in the u. S. Constitution federal government states and tribal governments. What is the lifeline of any sovereign entity . Its the tax base. Its being able to get resources from its taxes and they dont have that option. Doesnt exist. We dont have that lifeline. Our lifeline is the federal funding that is for education, Economic Development, infrastructure that has been promised to us in treaties and trust responsibilities. That funding isil directly impacted by the census. In fact if that doesnt come out right and we are properly counted our life let us cut right of anybody you are tribal sovereign government, whether youre a state or federal government or whether youre a human being you stop your lifeblood, you die and so thats how important it is and its a really unique distinction that separates Indian Country from other partners that i think people need to understand. Now would like to recognize ms. Tlaib of massachusetts for questions. Austin makes up the bulk of my district now the 100 largest cities in the country it is the hardest account. The fiber and diverse dynamic district that one of the most unequal and country and that is certainly true when iteq comes o Health Outcomes. Census data is used to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding for health care programs. Most people arent aware that includes medicaid and. Jeff the Childrens Health Insurance Program. These programs provide coverage to millions of families making two organs made in the United States. Can you explain how census data determines federal spending for medicaid and chip matt . Census data is the basis by which large federal programs will allocate dollars per person literally people in your community will have smaller block grants been given to these programs for kids to get the health care that they need and of course we know about Health Care Disparities so the consequences of an undercount it communities and health care consequences are going to be that much more dire. Can you elaborate a little bit more about how we are failing to count hard to reach communities. There is a wealth of information showing the degree to which Health Care Disparities hit low income communities and communities of color that are highly disproportionate. When you think about if you are thinking about structural issues like the allocation of federal dollars programs specifically targeted to address those gaps and close the chasm if there is an undercount of those communities because theres an undercount of those very communities the dollars that are allocatedd for the programs to reach them or then also diminished and reduced and it becomes a structural vicious cycle. Stand pink and mr. Vargas what about the communities that are uninsured are disproportionately higher rates . And bayern is when a community suffers from an undercount the services that are based on census data art delivered less to those same communities that take the example of young latino children. They are the e most frequently d accounted population in the country. 40,000 young latino children ages zero to four were not counted in the 2010 census so all of the data and all of the programs that are designed to benefit very Young Children are of because the numbers are wrong. If the numbers are wrong your allocations are wrong. Mr. Morial could this disproportionately worsened Health Outcomes . Issues like Maternal Mortality or other Health Disparities . All acrosstheboard, every Single Health disparity will be exacerbated by an undercount because the range ofri programs that rely on census data and the allocation of funds. I think its approximately 800 william in the federal government and the federal budget is allocated based on dated collected by theed census. It stands to reason with its medicaid or medicare Childrens Health Insurance Program cdbg, head start, and you can go down the line its so essential that we communicate that to our s communities and hold census accountable to do the right thing and make sure everyone is counted or the impact is political and that comes to reapportionment of every Single Office in the country for whom the country would be that by district and it impacts economics. The impact also goes beyond that the entire framework for market these data used by the private sector by the Media Companies is based on census data. Her o own state of america repot is based on the census. Thank you mr. Morial and with my remaining time yes or no 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 they are from and where they are being mostly warehouse. Yes, yes and yes. Let me say this we have 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 urge as we advocated for many many years they changed those incarcerated are counted to their home districts. And the election impacted this. It is not fair. Its not appropriate to allow count where that happens in the collection of facilities to get a disproportionate share of resources as well as political power because they just happen toow be the place where incarcerated people are. And i urge congressman clay has got a bill. He is not here but us see despair. I think we should make it a priority to push the bill to the congressgr so this is not the ce in the 2030 census. Thank you. I think your time has expired are frozen in time. Id like to recognize ms. Wasserman schultz from florida for questions. Thank you mr. Chairman. Recently an and welcome to our panelists and thank you t so muh are being here and your work every day. Recently the Census Bureau announced the paid Media Campaign that includes targeting hardtoreach hard to count communities so we can increase messaging around the census because that will obviously increasely visitation and make sure more robust funding is available when we know how many people we need to reach. This advertising is prevalent in diverse district like mine and trusting government has been seriously eroded due to the Trump Administrations attempt to propose a Citizenship Question. Specifically i represent broad and miamidade counties south florida which are considered among the a counties in my state. There are Major Concerns aboutut gaps in Media Coverage in my Upcoming Team many places just like around the country but its hard to count ribs that are not properly engaged on thehe importance of the census and could lead to a significant undercount. For example theres a question 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 and whether its one or two and as you have more like this with fishels more advocacy and more resources with federal and state formulas. Mr. Morial its good to see you and really glad you youre here. One of the things im concerned about is that there is like lee a gap in the outreach budget that the administration has announced ton count africanamericans. 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. It goes all the way down the line. It affects the season justice of the pcs and in rural areas. Members of congress and in the 40 states of the elect judges, some of them are from districts, all of this could bet affectedy an undercount in this particular concern, the africanamericans. I know other communities, because our population has grown and we want the census to capture the growth of our t populations. That can be translated into the reinforcement process and into the process how the federal funds are allocated. They need to be complete and at. To be clear, the africanamerican population is going. This is an undercount, because of the way the districting works, and decisions made about where an estate, or in a community, a new district would be added. If you undercut the population that is well, the Community News best likely to get representation they wouldve otherwise gotten had they been counted andnd maximized. When you have that the fact that we have a section five the nouthern states, at this point in time, the risk is great. That is why, all the source united, and saying to you as the house Oversight Committee, the power is in your hands to hold us accountable and you talked about plan b, i talked about a state of emergency, whatever is required, between now and march and april, the Census Bureau has to step up its game and to fill in these gaps. But god responded these concerns we raised today. For the rest of the nation and the risk of our communities is great. Is the say earlier, specifically having an immediate Outreach Campaign in between when the enumerators began going doortodoor, so there is a wind that they are coming. I know when i go to doortodoor my district, when i have the mailings that announce that i am coming. They are less fearful and then will open the door to where. Later missed because they have these times, where theyre not following up in the primary. Advertising, went all the way to the end. Until the final day where people didnt feel out a form or response. You so much. I recommend tribe in florida. Clearly native americans it is usually. A lack of trust, a lack of confidence in the official government of the United States, so what kind outreach are you aware of this been included by the administration to make sure that theres not an undercount among native americans. Thank you very much for the question. What was the Census Bureau doing needed to do in order to connect with this community. There are things that you need to be addressed which include language. Itlu includes, knowledge about y with the purpose off defenses, honey fill this thing out. In all those kinds of things. Our concern is even though its beeny properly funded, a lot of that stuff just hasnt happened correctly. And theres a shift in the way they want to hire people, move people around and set up their infrastructure. It doesnt align with the or addressing this particular thing. You talked about media, mediaow outreach. Alaska starts in two weeks. They intended for the goal was that this Media Campaign wouldve startedspoke. It started in middlee of december. And when it started, there were mispronunciations of the villages, and of the tribes and it was just not claim. And that is not connecting the dots. They have not been doing their homework. And were in Indian Country. Were preparing an awareness and visibility that understands to the community is that it is trying to target. We have a president of the United States to even today continues to align with native American Communities, putting a democratic candidate intentionally the rights of an intensive monitor. You can see what kind of respect and lacks for the native American Communities. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. I healed back. Is about nine minutes on the clock. After i am done with my question, we will adjourn this hearing. But i recognize myself for questions. First let me think all of the palace for coming this is an issue that i studied, the senses when i was in grade school back in 2002. So yes, the dork who studied the census. I also understood what it means in history of this country. What it means when it comes to even the marginalization of impairment of the particulars communities. And what it needs for that mean powerfully, powerfully led the changing demographics where peoplele live, how they live in with a look like with the issues that are getting impacted five. The census is all about. I want to encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that the senses is not or should it be used to marginalized communities to silence voices. The changing demographics that are occurring in this country, i believe in a been seeing it for long time for the last 20 or 30 years, its, inevitable. As sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, it will occur. Their grounds and latinos live in Rural Communities. This country is changing. So we want to make sure that everybody is accounted. That is how you have truly a rep. Democracy. I would ask a few questions mr. Vargas, you are familiar with my district. I want to have question that a lot of people talk about. Partnerships specialists. When you been hearing on the ground about the effectiveness of the newly hired partner specialists within the Latino Community. Are they generally fluent in spanish and are they culturally sensitive. So and more, in fact some have been very excellent. We had the opportunity to work with them. But there also been partnerships that in our opinion have been not well deployed in the sense that they dont have the skill guts in the language to work in the community that theyre being deployed by the Census Bureau. In other cases, because of the time in the rush to hire enough people, theyre not adequately trained. And so they are misinformed about the full range of the census operation. So thoseul of the consent conces that we have this point. Thank you. Another issue that is being extremely urgent, the growing Homeless Population. I know that theres a hundred and 30000 plus Homeless Individuals in company. If 8000 in la county alone. Without counting the Homeless Population, and you think that the Census Bureau has established to ensure they are counted. Will late among the most vulnerablele population. In part because of their transient and the communities and the like. The bureau is really going to need to work with direct Service Providers. Shelters, soup kitchens and the like as well as an effort for locations for businesses to get an accurate count. We are does have someo strategis they put in place. Weve been urging them to do more with direct Service Providers in a way that i just mentioned. Also to coordinate also intensively with hardy camp Community Leaders to prepare a lot of Community Leaders that are running these direct service to kitchens and the like. They know where Homeless Populations are. Seasonally in their districts. So having a very close net coordination is really going to be vital to ensure that the Homeless People are accounted. One of the things i would like to point out is that homelessness is not just occurring in california but throughout the country. That can be a challenge for the blue states as well as the red states. Urban areas as well as rural areas. Thank you so much for all of the witnesses for being here and testifying on this important issue. Now its time to make sure that that we need. I have some announcements id like to give the Ranking Member a few seconds to think the witnesses. We had a debate with the front end and addicted to make a everyone. I appreciate you and your testimonies. Thank you. Thank you to the Ranking Member. This is the first in a series of hearings will be having on census oversights issues. We 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. So i wantt to thank everybody fr their hard work. Without objection, all members will have five legislative days with which to submit additional questions for the witnesses to the chair. This will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. I asked the witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able. Thank you for participating in this hearing is now adjourned. [background sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds] she danced washington journal live every day with policy issues in the past year. Coming up saturday morning, chief operating officer of the 2020 women smart discusses the market as women voters in campaign 2020. Walk away campaign founder, talks about his movement to persuade democrats to read the party. In wilson center, matthew discusses recent developments from russia and ukraine. And how it impacts the u. S. But she spans washington journal. Live at seven eastern on saturday morning. Join the discussion. Sunday 202 2020 democratic president ial candidates including people to judge, develop african senators a makeover chart elisabeth warren. They speak in a forum on money and politics. Timetomarket tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court citizens united. Live coverage starts at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Campaign 2020, watch our continuing coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail. Think of your own mind. As the voting begins next month, watch our live coverage of the Iowa Caucuses on monday, february 3rd. Cspan campaign 2020. Your unfiltered view of politics. He was sworn in as mississippis 65th g