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CENSUS 'ADVANCE LETTER' WILL INCLUDE
IN-LANGUAGE MESSAGES
- Republicans target 2010 Census partnership with labor union
- Stop-gap funding bill keeps 2010 census prep on track
- Latino census campaign launches web site
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CENSUS BUREAU CHANGES PLAN; ADVANCE LETTER
WILL INCLUDE IN-LANGUAGE MESSAGES
Targeted Follow-Up Postcard Will Promote Toll-Free Help
The
Census Bureau has decided to include messages in languages other than
English on the advance letter sent to all households next winter,
announcing the start of the census and the imminent arrival of census
forms at each home. The revised letter will direct recipients, in
Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian, as well as English,
to the 2010 Census web site for assistance in filling out the
questionnaire. The 2010 Census Web site is scheduled to launch
later this month.
The bureau also is adding a targeted follow-up
mailing to its outreach arsenal, to reach households in census tracts
where at least ten percent of households speak primarily Chinese,
Korean, Vietnamese, or Russian. The new postcard, which will be
mailed within days of the census forms, will feature messages in all
six questionnaire languages, telling recipients to call a toll-free
number for assistance.
Census questionnaires are available in
the six languages mentioned above. The Census Bureau will mail or
hand-deliver English language questionnaires to most addresses next
March (some remote and rural areas will receive forms in late January
or February); for the first time, about 13.5 million addresses in
census tracts where a significant portion of households primarily speak
Spanish at home will receive a bilingual English-Spanish questionnaire.
The
Census Bureau's web site already offers 2010 census assistance guides
in 59 languages, compared to 49 such guides offered in 2000. The
paid advertising campaign will include messages in 28 languages, up
from 17 languages in the 2000 census.
In a memorandum to the
2010 Census Advisory Committee, Census Director Robert Groves said he
agreed with the recommendations of a committee working group tasked
last summer with reviewing the agency's decision to send an
English-only advance letter, a change from 2000 that drew significant
concern from many stakeholder organizations and some local
officials. Dr. Groves said the decision to restore the
in-language messages was "feasible and efficient" and that the full
language assistance program "is designed to raise awareness of the 2010
Census in every household, even the hardest to count, and to encourage
everyone to complete and return a census form."
The Census
Bureau also is exploring ways to offer a "locator" feature on its 2010
Census Web site, to help people identify close-by Questionnaire
Assistance Centers, Dr. Groves said. The director highlighted
plans for paid advertising on in-language web sites, as well as
negotiations with in-language newspapers and magazines to include
relevant language assistance guides with home deliveries.
For a
summary of recent stakeholder concerns about the prospective absence of
in-language messages on the census advance letter, see Census News Brief #73 http://www.thecensusproject.org/newsbriefs/cnb73-08sept2009.html.
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REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS URGE CENSUS BUREAU TO
END PARTNERSHIP WITH SEIU
Rep.
Mark Kirk (R-IL) is urging the Census Bureau to "immediately terminate"
its 2010 census partnership with the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), citing what the congressman said was the labor union's
support for and "intimate financial relationship" with the Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Rep.
Kirk was joined by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) in sending a letter, along
with "research material" outlining "SEIU-ACORN links," to Census
Director Robert Groves earlier this week.
Rep.
Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the senior Republican member on the House
census oversight subcommittee, also called on the Census Bureau "to
follow through on [its] commitment" to ensure "a census of the highest
integrity," citing Dr. Groves' recent decision to end the 2010 census
partnership agreement with ACORN.
SEIU
represents 2.1 million workers in the health care, property services,
and public services sectors, according to the organization's web site. The Newport News (VA) Daily Press reported
on September 29 that Rep. Kirk, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat
previously held by President Obama, acknowledged receiving political
contributions from SEIU in the past and would donate a similar amount
to charity. SEIU endorsed a Democratic candidate for the Senate
race last week, according to a September 28 Chicago Sun-Times article.
Rep. Kirk's press statement and letter to Dr. Groves is available at http://kirk.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3689&Itemid=88. See Census News Brief #75 http://www.thecensusproject.org/newsbriefs/cnb75-21sept2009.html for information on the Census Bureau's termination of ACORN's 2010 census partnership.
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NEWS FROM CAPITOL HILL
- Temporary funding bill keeps census prep on track
- Senate hearing to focus on key census operations
Congress approves higher census funding in stop-gap bill: Congress
exempted the Census Bureau from flat-line funding in a one-month
temporary funding measure that will keep the Federal government running
while lawmakers work to complete the twelve regular appropriations
bills for Fiscal Year 2010, which started October 1. The Senate
approved the bill, by a vote of 62 - 38, on September 30.
The
"Continuing Resolution" (H.R. 2918) allocates $7.066 billion for the
Census Bureau's Periodic Censuses and Programs ("Periodics") account,
which covers the decennial census and other cyclical surveys, such as
the quinquennial Economic Census. The amount is $50 million below
the Administration's budget request, reflecting appropriators' belief
that mileage reimbursement rates for census field workers next spring
would be less than predicted. Under the Continuing Resolution,
most federal agencies and programs are funded at Fiscal Year 2009
levels; Congress carved out an exception (called an "anomaly") for the
Census Bureau, a nod to the need for significantly more resources
during the final ramp-up to the 2010 population and housing count.
Congress
will now continue work on the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, and
Science bill, which includes the Census Bureau. The House-passed
version allocates $6.91 billion for Periodic Censuses, $206 million
less than the Administration requested. The full Senate has not
yet considered the measure; once it does, House and Senate negotiators
must reconcile their versions of the funding bill in a conference
committee.
Senate subcommittee hearing will focus on final census preparations: The
Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government
Information, Federal Services, and International Security, which has
jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, will hold a hearing on October 7
to review the status of 2010 census operations, including plans to
ensure a complete count in Gulf Coast communities recovering from
Hurricane Katrina. Census Director Robert Groves, Commerce
Department Inspector General Todd Zinser, and Government Accountability
Office Strategic Issues Director Robert Goldenkoff will testify.
The hearing will start at 3:00PM in Room 342 Dirksen Senate Office
Building.
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STAKEHOLDER ACTIVITIES
Latino census campaign launches web site: Leading
Latino organizations, elected officials, labor leaders, faith-based
groups, and Spanish language media companies announced the launch of
the "ya es hora ¡HAGASE CONTAR!" ("It's Time, Make Yourself Count!")
web site to promote participation in the 2010 census among the nation's
47 million Hispanics. The bilingual web site, <www.yaeshora.info>,
features fact sheets on the importance of the census, answers to
frequently asked questions, and sample census questionnaires.
Arturo
Vargas, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino
Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund (NALEO), called a full
count of the nation's Latino population "critical to recognizing our
nation's diversity and to building future political strength."
Laura Barrera, NALEO's Deputy Director for Census, described the
initiative as "a historic partnership of national Spanish-language
media and prominent Latino organizations ... to enhance the [Census]
Bureau's efforts to count Latinos."
Partner organizations in the
"ya es hora" campaign include the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Institute, NALEO, National Council of La Raza, League of United Latin
American Citizens (LULAC), Mi Familia Vota Education
Fund, Dominican American National Roundtable, Service Employees
International Union, and several media companies, including Univision Communications, Inc., Entravision Communications, and impreMedia. A
public service announcement promoting the importance of census
participation began airing today on major Spanish-language media.
Univision
Network News anchorwoman Maria Elena Salinas said that the
collaborative effort would help the media company "reach and educate
Hispanic America about the connection between participation in the
Census and achieving full funding and a strong political voice for our
communities." Census Director Robert Groves, who participated in
today's announcement, said community-based initiatives would help the
Census Bureau "in spreading the word that the 2010 Census is easy,
important, and safe."
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Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal,
an independent legislative and policy consultant specializing in the
census and federal statistics. All views expressed in the News Briefs
are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the
information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K@aol.com.
Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested
individuals and organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is a consultant to the
nonpartisan Census Project, organized by the Communications Consortium
Media Center in Washington, DC. Previous Census News Briefs are posted
at www.thecensusproject.org.
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