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JUSTICE DEPT: CENSUS ACT TRUMPS PATRIOT ACT
CENSUS DIRECTOR: "WE ARE READY TO GO";
AUDITORS WARN OF CONTINUED RISK
PLUS:
- THE REST OF THE NEWS: Census Awareness Month; and more.
- STAKEHOLDER SPOTLIGHT: PSAs, door-to-door canvassing, lotteries, and more.
- NEW RESOURCES FOR CENSUS ADVOCATES: Reports on rural census challenges; census-driven federal funding; and
more.
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CENSUS CONFIDENTIALITY TRUMPS PATRIOT ACT
PROVISIONS, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FINDS
The
U.S. Department of Justice has concluded that Congress did not intend
to override the confidentiality protections in the Census Act when it
passed the so-called "Patriot Act" (Public Law 107-56, 115 Stat. 272,
as amended) in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Title 13, U.S.C., §§8, 9, 214, prohibit the Census Bureau and its
employees from sharing any personally identifiable information with any
other government agency, courts of law, or any outside entity, and set
forth severe penalties for violating the confidentiality of census
responses.
"[I]f Congress intended to override these
protections," wrote Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs
Ronald Weich in a letter to members of Congress this week, "it would
say so clearly and explicitly." The chairs of the Congressional
Asian Pacific American Caucus (Rep. Michael Honda, D-CA), Congressional
Black Caucus (Rep. Barbara Lee, D-CA), and Congressional Hispanic
Caucus (Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-NY), wrote to Attorney General Eric
Holder in September 2009 at the urging of the Leadership Conference
Education Fund and its four national census campaign partner
organizations (NAACP, NALEO Educational Fund, Asian American Justice
Center, and National Congress of American Indians). The Asian
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) also urged the
Attorney General in a December letter to issue an opinion confirming
the primacy of Census Act confidentiality provisions.
The
lawmakers asked General Holder to determine whether the Patriot Act,
which includes information-gathering and information-sharing
provisions, "would supersede the confidentiality protections" in the
Census Act. "Distrust and fear triggered by uncertainty
surrounding the Patriot Act," the caucus chairmen wrote, "would further
undermine efforts to achieve an accurate census in already
hard-to-count communities."
Mr. Weich also noted the "long
history of congressional enactments protecting [census responses] from
disclosure, as well as the established precedents of the courts and
this Department" in concluding that "no provisions of [the Patriot Act]
override otherwise applicable Census Act provisions barring the
Commerce Secretary and other covered individuals from disclosing
protected census information."
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CENSUS DIRECTOR SAYS, "WE ARE READY TO GO,"
AS ENUMERATION STARTS IN RURAL AREAS
Census
takers are hand-delivering questionnaires in rural communities and
other areas without city-style addressing or with intermittent mail
delivery (including some Gulf Coast counties recovering from Hurricane
Katrina), Census Director Robert Groves told reporters at a press
conference on March 1. The "Update/Leave" operation covers 12
million homes and about nine percent of the population.
Most
American households will receive an advance letter from the Census
Bureau next week, letting them know to expect their census forms in the
mail the week of March 15 and providing guidance in the five additional
languages (Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese) in which
the census forms are printed. A thank you/reminder card will
follow at the end of the month. The director noted that testing
showed the value of multiple contacts in persuading households to mail
back their forms. He told reporters that forgetfulness or busy
lifestyles, language and cultural barriers, and the independence of
young adults on their own for the first time were primary reasons that
people don't respond to the census. It costs 42 cents to count
each household that mails back its questionnaire; the cost rises to $57
for each household that requires a personal visit to collect
information.
Dr. Groves told a Senate oversight panel last week
that his agency is "well on [its] way to executing the largest
non-military mobilization in the United States." Dr. Groves
testified on February 23 before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial
Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International
Security (Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) on
the status of key census operations.
At the hearing, the
director highlighted successes in final preparations for the 2010
enumeration, while also acknowledging "challenges that remain."
"[O]ur biggest risk is
the uncertainty presented by the American public's response to the
census," the director said. Recruitment
is "well ahead of our goal" (117 percent as of January 24), he
testified, with two million potential hires already in the pipeline for
temporary census positions. Printing of questionnaires for
various enumeration operations (e.g. Nonresponse Follow-up;
Mail-out/Mail-back; Update/Leave; Group Quarters; replacement mailing)
is "on track or ahead of schedule," the director reported.
Advance visits to group facilities, to arrange enumeration times and
procedures, took place in February.
Auditors concerned about IT systems readiness:
The Commerce Department Inspector General and the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) told senators at the oversight hearing that
key IT systems that will manage work flow and payroll for more than a
million temporary census workers still face potential performance
problems.
Robert Goldenkoff, Director of Strategic Issues, GAO,
said the Census Bureau's "readiness for a successful count is
mixed." He noted that major enumeration activities are "generally
on track" and that the agency has addressed previously identified
problems, but that "a successful outcome is far from guaranteed."
Mr. Goldenkoff added that the Census Bureau "cannot conduct a
successful enumeration on its own," calling the decennial census a
"shared national undertaking."
In his quarterly report to
Congress, Inspector General Todd Zinser highlighted potential
performance problems with the paper-based operations control system
(PBOCS) and said development and testing are still behind schedule,
despite staff "working at capacity." He recommended that the
Census Bureau focus its efforts on "minimizing the impact of PBOCS
limitations during operations." Mr. Zinser also reported on
budget overruns during the address canvassing operation, with "wide
disparities" among Local Census Offices. While the IG outlined
some "inefficiencies" in travel reimbursement and training costs during
last spring's address list updating, he said similar problems "could be
expected for any major field operation." However, the IG warned
that differences between budgeted and actual costs "do not generate
confidence" in the Census Bureau's budgeting process for large field
operations.
The full set witness testimony from the hearing is available on the subcommittee's website.
Civil rights groups express optimism about census participation: The
leaders of several national civil rights organizations held a telephone
press briefing on March 1 "to emphasize the need for full
participation" in the census and to highlight the activities their
organizations are sponsoring at the national and local levels to
encourage response in historically hard-to-count communities. The
organizations are working together as part of the It's Time. Make Yourself Count. campaign, spearheaded by the Leadership Conference Education Fund.
Moderator
Hilary Shelton, NAACP Washington Office Director, described the
collaborative campaign's efforts as "focused on meeting people where
they are." Outreach activities organized by the campaign include
in-language assistance hotlines to help people fill out their census
forms, canvassing in low-income neighborhoods, distributing census
fliers in ethnic grocery stores, and sponsoring advertisements on
buses, radio, and in ethnic media. In addition to Mr. Shelton,
representatives of the NALEO Educational Fund, AAJC, and NCAI said they
were optimistic that the efforts of national advocates and
community-based groups would increase census participation in
hard-to-count communities.
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THE REST OF THE NEWS ...
House recognizes importance of census:
The House of Representatives passed a resolution (H.Res. 1096) on March
3 designating March 2010 as "Census Awareness Month." Sponsored
by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the
measure (which only requires passage by the House of Representatives)
encourages everyone living in the United States to participate in the
census "to ensure an accurate and complete count." The measure
was approved by a vote of 409 - 1, with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) voting
"no" and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) voting "present." Utah, which
failed to gain a fourth congressional district after the 2000 census,
filed two unsuccessful lawsuits against the Census Bureau, challenging
the exclusion of Mormon missionaries stationed overseas in the state
population totals used for congressional apportionment, as well as the
Census Bureau's use of statistical methods to impute missing people
into the count.
H.Res. 1096 also urges state, local, and tribal
governments and other organizations to promote participation in the
decennial count. There were several Republicans among the 56
original cosponsors, including the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee
on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, Rep. Patrick
McHenry (R-NC).
The House approved a second resolution (H.Res.
1086) by the same vote count on March 4, recognizing "the importance
and significance of the 2010 census" and encouraging Indian Country
communities to designate "an elder" to answer the census first.
Sponsored by Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA), the measure notes the "trusted"
position of elders within Indian communities and suggests that they can
influence other members of their tribes to participate in the
census. Post-census evaluations have shown a disproportionately
high undercount of American Indians and Alaska Natives, especially on
reservations, in recent censuses.
House committee approves deceptive mailing bill: The
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday
unanimously approved legislation (H.R. 4621) that would require
organizations that use the word "census" on their mailings to indicate
clearly that the item is not from or affiliated with the federal
government and to include the sender's name and return address.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the bill's sponsor, said that non-Census
Bureau envelopes bearing phrases such as "Congressional District
Census" and "Official Document" "risk confusing people into
believing that they have completed their official census form, lowering
the census response rate." The congresswoman, a long time member
of the census oversight subcommittee, said private organizations were
"piggy-backing" on the Census Bureau's multi-million dollar advertising
and promotion campaign, "at great cost to all Americans."
Both
Democrats and Republicans on the committee criticized recent mailings
by the Republican National Committee, senior citizen advocacy groups,
and others that have tried to capitalize on the upcoming census to draw
attention to their fundraising appeals.
For more information on the "Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act," see the February 10 Census News Brief #87 on the Census Project website.
Number of Census partners hits 200K: The
number of official 2010 Census Partners reached 200,000, far exceeding
the 140,000 partner organizations for Census 2000, when the program
started. The Census Bureau announced that partners had donated
more than 35,000 locations for training census workers, saving the
agency $339 million in rental costs.
Dr. Groves praised the
"important role" of partners in "motivat[ing] people to fill out and
mail back their census questionnaires." The Bureau emphasized
that partners "play no role in official census operations and do not
conduct the census;" critics of former census partner ACORN had
suggested that the nonprofit group would hire staff to go door-to-door
to collect information from unresponsive households.
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STAKEHOLDER SPOTLIGHT
The Unity Diaspora Coalition,
a group of leading Black organizations led by the National Coalition on
Black Civic Participation and the National Urban League, and members of
the Congressional Black Caucus, held a press conference on March 3 at
the U.S. Capitol to mark the 30 day countdown to Census Day and to
launch a series of events in nine states to encourage Black Americans
to participate in the census. UDC activities in March will
include town hall meetings and poster and social media
competitions. The Coalition also is urging Black immigrants to
check the "Black/African American" box in the census race question
(question #9 for Person 1) and to write-in their national origin in the
space provided next to "Some other race."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
a member of the Census Bureau's 2010 Census Advisory Committee, signed
on an official 2010 Census Partner. Dr. Martin Regalia, the
Chamber's chief economist, said that census data "makes for good
government but it is also essential for businesses making investment
and operational decisions ... to locate retail stores and facilities,
to plan marketing campaigns, delineate markets and a host of other
uses." The organization represents more than three million
businesses, as well as industry associations, and has local chapters
throughout the country.
Voto Latino unveiled
its New York Census Campaign at a press conference in Albany last
week. The campaign includes Public Service Announcements
featuring Latino entertainers such as Rosario Dawson (the group's
founder), Wilmer Valderrama, and Jorge Garcia. Time Warner Cable will broadcast the PSAs using its multimedia capabilities.
Volunteers organized by Moving Forward Gulf Coast Inc. canvassed neighborhoods in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward to draw
attention to the upcoming census and explain the counting
process. Orleans Parish is one of several along the Gulf Coast
that are designated "Update/Leave" areas, where census takers will drop
off questionnaires and update the address list, looking for housing
units that might have been overlooked in previous census
operations. "Update/Leave" is used primarily in areas without
city-style addressing; the Dallas Regional Census Office decided to use
the modified enumeration procedure in selected parishes and counties
still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Univision, the Spanish-language media company, will air a half-hour long program on March 27
to provide instructions on how to fill out the census
questionnaire. The program will run at 11:00AM Eastern, 10:00AM
Central, and 11:00AM Pacific time.
Fremont, CA,
kicked off its 2010 census effort to promote participation in the
Alameda County city yesterday. The public celebration at the
Fremont Senior Center featured Census Bureau staff, printed materials,
and promotional items.
The City of Lincoln, Alabama (population: around 5,000) is holding a Census Lottery to encourage
residents to mail back their census forms. According to a
February 24th article in The Daily Home newspaper, the mayor and members of the city council are personally
contributing $1,500 for three prizes, including one for the resident
who comes closet to guessing the city's official population
count. People can drop off their completed census forms in a
locked box at City Hall and put their Lincoln Census Lottery form in
another container.
The Census Project sent a letter to House and Senate appropriators, urging their support for President
Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request for the Census Bureau.
Associations participating in the project noted the importance of final
2010 census activities, including data tabulation and publication, as
well as early research and development for the 2020 count. Census
stakeholders also expressed their support for the Administration's
proposed initiative to increase the size of the American Community
Survey sample, "to preserve the scientific integrity of the survey and
improve the collection of reliable data on smaller population groups
(such as ethnic and language minorities)." See the February 1 Census News Brief for more information on the FY2011 budget request.
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NEW RESOURCES FOR CENSUS ADVOCATES
? The The Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution,
which provides research and policy ideas to help decision makers
address the needs of metropolitan areas, will release a report, Counting for Dollars: The Role of the Decennial Census in the Geographic Distribution of Federal Funds, on
Tuesday, March 9. The report analyzes census-driven federal
program funding for Fiscal Year 2008, the latest data available, and
includes program-by-program allocation tables for states, the 200
largest counties, and the 100 largest metropolitan areas.
? The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire issued a new report, Rural Areas Risk Being Overlooked in the 2010 Census,
by Dr. William O'Hare, Senior Fellow, The Annie E. Casey
Foundation. The report concludes that while rural areas are
easier to count than urban communities, there are pockets of
hard-to-count populations in rural America, including Blacks in the
South, Hispanics in the Southwest border region, and American Indians
living on reservations in the Southwest and Northern Plains. The
author notes several characteristics, including poverty and low
educational attainment, that put some segments of the rural population
at greater risk of an undercount.
? LatinoJustice PRLDEF,
a national advocacy and educational organization that uses legal
resources to advance civil rights and civic participation for Latinos,
established a 2010 Census Latino Outreach and Civic Participation
Project. Go to http://latinojustice.org/civil_rights/census/ for materials and information that highlight the linkage between census data and political empowerment.
? The Leadership Conference Education Fund has
prepared several new fact sheets focused on counting children in the
census. The materials highlight how families and communities
benefit from an accurate count of children and offer guidance on how to
account properly for children on census forms. The fact sheets
are available at http://www.civilrights.org/census/census-resources/#children.
? The Iranians Count 2010 Census Coalition,
a collaborative effort of 30 organizations dedicated to ensuring the
collection of accurate data on the Iranian American population,
launched its official website, Iranianscount.org. The site features information on the importance of census participation and PSAs in English and Persian.
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QUICK LINKS:
2010 Census Website: The
Census Bureau's new 2010 census website offers useful basic
information on the census process, as well as sample questionnaires,
information on job opportunities, and in-language materials. Add it to
your "Bookmarks" bar to track mail response rates daily for your state
and locality starting in late March.
2010 Census en Espanol Website: New official 2010 census Spanish language website.
2010 Census Jobs: Visit this web page to download a Census Practice Test and find
information about the application process and a Local Census Office
near you.
The Census Project: Visit the Census Project website for previous Census News Briefs,
fact sheets, and a weekly blog in support of an accurate 2010
census. Become a fan of the Census Project on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Census-Project/251237523383.
Census 2010 Interactive Hard To Count Mapping Site:
This new mapping site, developed by the City University of New York
Mapping Services at the Graduate Center, allows users to pinpoint
hard-to-count census tracts and identify the socio-economic
characteristics that contribute to difficult enumeration conditions,
allowing advocates to target outreach and tailor messages.
Leadership Conference Education Fund: The LCEF 2010 Census campaign, "It's time. Make yourself count." offers
fact sheets, a toolkit, data on the census undercount, and promotional
materials to reach historically hard-to-count communities.
Nonprofits Count:
The Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network's 2010 census campaign features
fact sheets, a toolkit, posters and swag, and state-specific resources
to help nonprofits promote census participation. Check the
website for information on webinars on important census topics.
ya es hora !HAGASE CONTAR¡: Resources and promotional materials, in Spanish and English, targeting the Latino population.
National Urban League:
This Census Information Center web page includes links to demographic
information on the Black population, job opportunities, and other 2010
census materials.
Fill in Our Future:
Multi-lingual clearinghouse for information and educational and
promotional materials targeting the Asian American and Native Hawaiian
and Pacific Islander populations, sponsored by the Asian American
Justice Center and its partner organizations.
Indian Country Counts: Region-specific information, events, job listings, and tools for the American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
Voto Latino: The organization's census campaign, Be Counted! Represent!, includes an offer of 25 free iTunes songs for those who pledge to fill out and mail back their census form.
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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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Contact information:
TerriAnn2K@aol.com
(tel.) 203-353-4364 |
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