[CTPP] CENSUS NEWS BRIEF

[Ed Christopher]

Focus on Promoting the 2010 Census:
News from Capitol Hill:
2010 Census "Partner" News:
Delay in Release of Some ACS Data:
The Rest of the News

FOCUS ON PROMOTING THE 2010 CENSUS
Latino organizations hold "summit" on Communications Campaign: More than 
40 national Latino organizations, U.S. Census Bureau officials, and 
media companies working on the targeted Latino communications campaign 
met last week to discuss efforts to promote census participation among 
Latinos and ways to coordinate messages about the importance of the 
decennial count.  According to a summary of the meeting prepared by the 
Latino Census Network, attendees talked about fear of government and 
concerns about data confidentiality; calls for undocumented residents to 
boycott the 2010 census until Congress enacts comprehensive immigration 
reform; the importance of engaging faith-based institutions in census 
outreach activities; the implications of anti-immigrant sentiments; and 
other challenges to achieving an accurate count of Latinos.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials 
(NALEO), a member of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, and Latino 
Census Network Chairman Angelo  Falcon, who serves on the Census 
Bureau's Advisory Committee on the Hispanic Population, spearheaded the 
meeting of the Latino Census Communications Group.  The September 17 
gathering was held at the National Council of La Raza offices in 
Washington, DC.  To sign up for updates from the Latino Census Network, 
visit the National Institute for Latino Policy web site at 
www.latinopolicy.org 
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102710602087&s=12&e=001HGlv0RwB0sCsDryE3AZLjYnGbflogLYIvmgDgYp1TvGDau63jfcjhlun0I_voDrNn0e28JELLCmXtmurtOfStOqL4GYs6zWur3zABcZEBfdeHMK_YwIjnQ==].

All of the Census Bureau's official advisory committees, which are 
scheduled to hold their regular fall meetings in the coming weeks, will 
meet jointly on December 9, 2009, to provide final feedback to the 
agency on the 2010 Census Integrated Communication Campaign.  Expert 
Census Bureau panel applauds paid media campaign development: An 
independent panel of marketing and communications experts commended the 
Census Bureau for using industry and academic "best practices" to create 
the paid media campaign for the 2010 census.  The agency formed the 
five-member Academic Assessment Panel last spring to "evaluate the 
methods used to define and develop the communications 
campaign,"according to a Census Bureau press release.  Panel Chairman 
Dr. Jerome D. Williams, the F.J. Heyne Centennial Professor in 
Communication, University of Texas, Austin, said in a written statement 
that "the Census Bureau  and [Communications Campaign contractor] 
DraftFCB team have done an exceptional  job and are to be applauded for 
what has been developed so far under very challenging conditions."  He 
called the crafting of the 2010 Integrated Communications Campaign 
"fundamentally sound."  2010 Census Publicity Office Chief Raul Cisneros 
said the expert review during the development phase of the media 
campaign allowed the Census Bureau to incorporate  the panel's 
recommendations for improvements and revisions before it finalized 
advertising plans.

Modified ACS materials seek to minimize confusion in 2010: The Census 
Bureau will revise current materials or add new ones in conducting the 
American Community Survey (ACS) next year, to help reduce anticipated 
confusion among households that receive both the ACS questionnaire and 
2010 census form.  The ACS samples about 250,000 addresses a month, or 3 
million a year, collecting a wide range of demographic, social, housing, 
and economic data previously gathered on the census long form once every 
ten years.  The ACS was first implemented nationwide in 2005.

ACS materials sent to homes in the sample, including a pre-notice letter 
and at least one questionnaire (unresponsive homes receive a replacement 
form), will advise recipients that they will be receiving both ACS and 
decennial census questionnaires in 2010, and that they are required by 
law to complete both.  The agency also will modify packaging for ACS 
materials next year, using different colors and logos on the envelopes 
to distinguish them from the 2010 census mail packages.

NEWS FROM CAPITOL HILL
Senate bill would add citizenship question to decennial census: Sen. 
Robert Bennett (R-UT) introduced legislation that would require the 
Census Bureau to collect information on citizenship and legal status in 
the decennial census, in order to remove undocumented residents from the 
state population totals used for congressional apportionment. The 
"Fairness in Representation Act" (S. 1688) calls for a "checkbox or 
other similar option" on the census questionnaire, to determine if 
respondents are U.S. citizens or legal residents.  In a press statement, 
Sen. Bennett said it "does not make any sense" for congressional 
apportionment and representation in the Electoral College "to be 
determined by a process that unfairly provides the advantage to those 
communities with high illegal populations." The lawmaker praised the 
Census Bureau's work but called the apportionment process "broken and 
unfair."

The proposal, if enacted in its current form, would be effective 
starting with the 2010 census. It takes several years for the Census 
Bureau to research, develop, and test its forms for a decennial census, 
and almost a full year to print and address questionnaires.  For the 
last several decades, the census has included a short form sent to all 
housing units, and a long form sent to a sample of homes; only the long 
form included a question on citizenship.   The American Community 
Survey, which is replacing the traditional long form in 2010, asks 
respondents if they are U.S. citizens.

Article I, section 2, of the U.S Constitution requires a population 
census every ten years as the basis for allocating seats in the House of 
Representatives. As modified by the Fourteenth Amendment (section 2), 
the apportionment is based on "the whole number of persons in each 
State, excluding Indians not taxed."  Congress debated whether 
"citizens" or "voters" should be the basis for apportionment when it 
passed the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866, according to a Congressional 
Research Service review of similar legislative debates on the eve of the 
1990 enumeration (LOC/CRS Report No. 88-62A, January 13, 1988).  Since 
then, lawmakers have considered (but not enacted) a number of proposals 
to amend the Constitution to exclude non-citizens or undocumented 
residents from the census population counts used for apportionment.

Former Rep. Thomas Ridge (R-PA), ranking member on the census oversight 
subcommittee at the start of the 1990 census, led a group of 
Representatives, states, and private organizations in a lawsuit seeking 
to exclude undocumented residents from the apportionment counts (Ridge 
v. Verity, 715 F.Supp. 1308, W.D.Penn. 1989); a federal appeals court 
upheld the lower court's dismissal of the case for lack of standing. 
More recently, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) sponsored a resolution 
(H.J.Res. 11) to amend the Constitution to exclude non-citizens from the 
apportionment counts derived from the census.

The resolution, which has 11 cosponsors, was referred to the Committee 
on the Judiciary, which considers all proposed constitutional 
amendments.  The Bennett bill, referred to the Senate Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, had three original 
cosponsors: Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Sen. 
Michael Enzi (R-WY).  House oversight panel to evaluate Communications 
Campaign: The House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and 
National Archives (Committee on Oversight and  Government Reform) will 
hold a hearing on September 22, 2009, to examine the 2010 Census 
Integrated Communications Campaign, including "criteria for 
implementation" and "measurements for success."  Census Bureau Director 
Robert Groves also will provide an update on preparations for the 
upcoming decennial count.  The hearing  will start at 2:00PM in Room 
2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

2010 CENSUS "PARTNER" NEWS
Census Bureau ends ACORN's 2010 census partnership: Census Director 
Robert Groves told the Association of Community Organizations for Reform 
Now (ACORN) that the agency was terminating its Partnership Agreement 
with the nonprofit organization, citing criteria for determining whether 
a group can serve effectively as a booster for the 2010 count.   The 
director said in a September 11 letter that "ACORN's affiliation with 
2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general 
public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even 
become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 
census efforts."Dr. Groves said the Census Bureau did not "come to this 
decision lightly," citing the agency's initial hope that ACORN could 
help encourage census participation among hard-to-count populations, 
such as the poor, renters, and people whose primary language is not English.

ACORN's participation in the Partnership Program drew significant 
criticism from Republicans in Congress.  Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and 
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) delayed a vote on Dr. Groves' nomination to be 
Census Director based, in part, on their concerns about ACORN's role as 
a 2010 census partner.  Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ranking member on 
the House census oversight subcommittee, urged the Census Bureau to end 
the agreement last spring.  In a statement calling the director's recent 
action "welcome news," Rep. McHenry praised Dr. Groves' "courage" for 
terminating its relationship with ACORN and said he was "sure there are 
those in the Obama Administration who will not be happy" with the decision.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the senior Republican on the Oversight and 
Government Reform Committee (of which the census subcommittee is a 
part), said, "ACORN's partisan election efforts and its involvement in 
criminal conduct rightly disqualify it from working on the non-partisan 
mission of the Census to accurately and honestly count the U.S. 
population."  The congressman said that congressional redistricting and 
the allocation of federal funds would have been affected "[h]ad ACORN 
been allowed to submit fraudulent information to the Census."  A 
description of the Partnership Program on the Census Bureau's web site 
says that partner organizations "are not Census employees and have no 
responsibility for counting, collecting or processing census data." 
Community-based organizations, schools, businesses, state and local 
governments,  and other groups may sign a "partnership agreement" with 
the Census Bureau, promising to be "advocates for census cooperation and 
participation," according to guidelines for the Partnership Program.

A description of the selection process says that partners should be 
"visible and trusted voices in the communities they serve." Partner 
organizations are asked to consider a wide range of activities that 
would promote cooperation with the census, including displaying and 
distributing materials, volunteering at Census Bureau events, inviting 
Census Bureau staff to speak at conferences and meetings, helping to 
translate census materials, providing space to test job applicants, and 
serving as a Questionnaire Assistance Center or Be Counted site.

Partnership Program staff may decline to select organizations as 2010 
census partners, according to the guidelines, if applicants "are not 
trusted or are viewed negatively within the community" or "could 
distract from the Census Bureau's mission," among other reasons.  More 
than 80,000 national and local organizations have signed partnership 
agreements in support of the 2010 census; there were about 140,000 
partners during the 2000 census.  Asian American advocacy group launches 
census campaign: The Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), a member of 
the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, has launched a national campaign to 
mobilize the Asian American community in support of the 2010 census. 
The effort, which includes partnerships with eight local organizations 
in areas with significant Asian American populations, will rely on media 
outreach, community education, and social networking to highlight the 
importance of census participation.  AAJC will translate many of its 
census campaign materials, such as fact sheets and toolkits, into 15 
languages.  To access AAJC's census campaign materials, visit 
www.asianamericancensus.org 
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102710602087&s=12&e=001HGlv0RwB0sCFtXgWIsbKDIpwluDv8ZF36HWIzbY_BDyh1q5A9KaCEmnd2EsU00z8G3eOtgJdCXkBN7omkwVCgq-ho6LblpD0T_X7WWg395HotkFh2EbgszaGJFQ8urVB].

CODING MISTAKE DELAYS RELEASE OF SOME ACS ECONOMIC TABLES BY ONE WEEK
The Census Bureau will release 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) 
one-year estimates on poverty, family income, and food stamp recipients 
a week later than planned after discovering a coding error that affected 
tabulation of the data. The agency said the mistake affected 
approximately ten percent of the data tables, which it will now publish 
on September 29. All other data for the roughly 7,000 jurisdictions with 
a population of 65,000 or greater will be available on September 22, as 
originally planned. Three-year ACS estimates, for areas with a 
population of 20,000 or greater, will be released on October 27.  The 
coding mistake involved new check-box options for children and in-laws 
in the 2008 ACS relationship question; the tabulation of data on family 
income (which in turn affects poverty and food stamp receipt 
calculations) failed to account for income from these sources.  Members 
of the press were notified of the problem late last week, when the 
Census Bureau was scheduled to release the full set of one-year data to 
the media on an embargoed basis.  For more information on the annual ACS 
data release, see the September 6, 2009 Census News Brief (#73).

THE REST OF THE NEWS ...
Report highlights importance of count of undocumented residents: The 
Drum Major Institute for Public Policy has issued a report analyzing the 
benefits of counting undocumented residents accurately in the decennial 
census. The self-described "progressive" Institute concludes in "The 
Next Economic Imperative: Undocumented Immigrants and the 2010 Census" 
that, "Failing to gather accurate information about an estimated 12 
million undocumented residents will make it too difficult for the 
country to recover from the worst recession in decades: local and state 
governments won't receive adequate funding for public services; 
businesses will be discouraged from investing in new markets and 
creating jobs in growing communities; costly mistakes will be made in 
infrastructure, education, and health care because of incomplete 
demographic data.  "The nonprofit think tank also has drafted talking 
points to help immigrant advocates and other groups discuss the 
importance of counting immigrants.  For a copy of the report and the 
talking points, visit the organization's web site at 
http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=98
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102710602087&s=12&e=001HGlv0RwB0sC_emfJrQBlcfv0-2qQne8FO5KWDfukHx3TL20wL1BRm4h9EoVjwwkffvWF43lzo9AIxK2hHx8nW7ix9fRQpk3mKdrX_b-4aieTMCH3gqx1SM6ZL7Pczw5V2h0vCxDtuqtTkWjaDKsjJTPw2Uwxc_QiHaYdwwM7l9E=].

Census Project blog tackles key 2010 census policy and operational 
issues: The Census Project launched a new weekly blog to follow final 
preparations for and implementation of the 2010 decennial census.  If 
you would like to receive new posts each week via e-mail, click here 
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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 at 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 
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102710602087&s=12&e=001HGlv0RwB0sDx8823CBip7P6sejqrxgcIhdI2F3WOG8vnQUBB94nvZVbZHO6wXCYJlmjoN0mjEAiwfGBzk8OutyjRrzva0_Jprd3pIR3fkVx9xawK7iNH5Q==].

-- 
Ed Christopher
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