[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 ServantsCensus 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 JudiciaryCommittee 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 DepartmentInspector 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 co