KATRINA & THE CENSUS
Tell Congressman Clay to Hold Hearings on Katrina Census Issues
Katrina and Ritas survivors have faced red tape and the runaround for the last four years and now their communities are facing the prospect of losing millions in federal funds and their voice in government. If Congress does not act soon to pass special provisions for how displaced residents are counted in the Census, those actively working to return will be counted where they happen to stay on the day of the census, not where they call home. With about 85 percent of federal funds and much of state monies allocated based on census data, everything from school funding to road repair is at stake.
Please take a minute to let Congressman Clay, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information, Census and National Archives, to hold hearings investigating this important issue.
Please click here to tell Congressman Clay to hold hearings on this important issue.
Act NOW for a fair Census!
Vitter-Bennett Senate Amendment 2644 seeks to prohibit the use of funds by the Department of Commerce for collection of census data that does not include questions regarding citizenship and immigration status. If enacted, the amendment will intimidate people from participating in the census, and will waste billions of tax dollars.
The Vitter Amendment makes communities even harder to count.
The amendment undermines the fundamental goal of the U.S. Census Bureau, which is to accurately enumerate all people living in the US for the purposes of apportionment and representation. The bureau has stated that its key challenge in 2010 is enumerating what it calls "Hard to Count" communities. Asking about immigration status is unnecessarily intrusive, and will raise concerns among all respondents about the confidentiality and privacy of the census. This will deter many residents from responding, resulting in an inaccurate census count.
The Census is about counting residents, regardless of status.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution clearly states that the apportionment of members to the House of Representatives is based on a full count of residents in each state. That amendment was enacted, in part, to repeal the provisions in Article I in the Constitution, which counted Black people as only three-fifths of a person. The Vitter-Bennett amendment seeks to re-establish this shameful legacy by creating a new sub-class of residents that will not be counted fairly.
The Amendment wastes billions of tax dollars.
If enacted, the Vitter amendment would also stop the 2010 Census in its tracks and prevent census forms from being mailed next spring. This would severely impair the Congressional reapportionment after 2010 and redistricting of congressional and state legislative districts. Ultimately, the Vitter amendment would waste $7 billion in research, planning, and preparation that has already been spent for Census 2010.
We need an accurate count!
Accurate Census data is essential for the health and well being of all people living in the US. As you know, the data is the basis for critical policymaking in a wide range of areas including education, housing, transportation, health and public safety. This amendment, if enacted, will result in an undercount that will jeopardize health and safety in all communities. It will also disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color where trust in the Census is already low.
