Officers Chair Judith L Lichtman National Partnership for Women Families Vice Chairs Thomas A Saenz Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Hilary Shelton NAACP Secretary Treasurer Lee A Saunders American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Board of Directors Kevin Allis National Congress of American Indians Kimberly Churches AAUW Kristen Clarke Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Alphonso B David Human Rights Campaign Lily Eskelsen García National Education Association Fatima Goss Graves National Women's Law Center Mary Kay Henry Service Employees International Union Sherrilyn Ifill NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc David H Inoue Japanese American Citizens League Gary Jones International Union UAW Derrick Johnson NAACP Virginia Kase League of Women Voters of the United States Michael B Keegan People for the American Way Samer E Khalaf American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Marc Morial National Urban League Janet Murguía UnidosUS Debra L Ness National Partnership for Women Families Rabbi Jonah Pesner Religious Action Center Of Reform Judaism Lisa Rice National Fair Housing Alliance Anthony Romero American Civil Liberties Union Maria Town American Association of People with Disabilities Richard L Trumka AFL-CIO Toni Van Pelt National Organization for Women Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers John C Yang Asian Americans Advancing Justice AAJC Policy and Enforcement Committee Chair Michael Lieberman Anti-Defamation League President CEO Vanita Gupta STATEMENT OF VANITA GUPTA PRESIDENT CEO THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS “REACHING HARD-TO-COUNT COMMUNITIES IN THE 2020 CENSUS” HOUSE COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM January 9 2020 Chairwoman Maloney Ranking Member Jordan and Members of the Committee I am Vanita Gupta president CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Thank you for the opportunity to testify about reaching hard-to-count communities in the 2020 Census The Leadership Conference is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 210 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States Founded in 1950 by A Philip Randolph Arnold Aronson and Roy Wilkins The Leadership Conference works in support of policies that further the goal of equality under law through legislative advocacy and public education The Leadership Conference provides a powerful unified voice for the many constituencies of the coalition persons of color women children individuals with disabilities LGBTQ individuals older Americans labor unions major religious groups civil libertarians and human rights organizations Given the breadth of our coalition The Leadership Conference is ideally positioned to address many of the most pressing issues affecting the successful implementation of Census Bureau programs surveys and initiatives The Leadership Conference’s coordinating role among so many diverse organizations allows for the sharing of different perspectives as well as the development of broader strategies that occur within the purview of any individual organization All of our work draws on the expertise of the cross-section of national organizations and examines the impact of civil rights policy on a broad range of constituencies Our coalition views an accurate and fair census and the collection of useful objective data about our nation’s people housing economy and communities generally to be among the most important civil rights issues of our day We and the Leadership Conference Census Task Force co-chairs NALEO Educational Fund and Asian Americans Advancing Justice AAJC have a long record of first-hand experience working in support of previous censuses For the 2010 Census we undertook the most comprehensive and extensive effort by a stakeholder organization to promote participation in historically hard-to-count communities January 9 2020 Page 2 of 12 and to mobilize local advocates in support of the census by highlighting the community benefits civil rights implications and constitutional imperative of a fair and accurate count We are now building upon our previous work to help ensure that no one is left out of the 2020 Census The Leadership Conference Education Fund the education and research arm of The Leadership Conference established the Census Counts Campaign1 to engage national organizations and state and community partners across 50 states and the District of Columbia to ensure communities do not miss out on the political power and resources they deserve The campaign is driving innovative outreach strategies to hard-to-count communities through a network of trusted national and local stakeholders National organizations in the Census Counts Campaign include representatives from the groups most at risk of being missed in the 2020 Census and those with networks to reach hard-to-count populations including American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Arab American Institute Foundation Asian Americans Advancing Justice AAJC Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance APALA Coalition on Human Needs Color of Change Common Cause Community Action Partnership Faith in Public Life Fair Immigration and Reform Movement FIRM League of Conservation Voters NALEO Educational Fund National Congress of American Indians National Disability Rights Network NDRN National LGBTQ Task Force National Urban League OCA National Partnership for America’s Children ReadyNation project of Council for Strong America Service Employees International Union SEIU State Voices Students Learn Students Vote SLSV Coalition and Voto Latino These national organizations are training communities about the 2020 Census and its importance translating materials into languages the Census Bureau will not be offering translations for as well as monitoring Census Bureau activities to ensure they are best serving hard-to-count populations The Census Counts Campaign’s State Count Action Network works with state coalitions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to implement proven strategies to reach hard-to-count populations leveraging message research organizing best practices and strategies driven by community need Under the Constitution Congress bears responsibility for overseeing the census and by extension for ensuring a fair and accurate count that supports the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal representation That is why this oversight hearing is so important and we commend the committee for focusing muchneeded and welcome attention on the challenges of enumerating “hard-to-count” populations The Importance of the Census Article I Section 2 of the U S Constitution places the census at the core of our democratic system of governance by calling for a count of the nation's population every 10 years The census provides information that is the cornerstone of knowledge about all people in the United States It is the basis for virtually all demographic and socio-economic information used by businesses policy makers research institutions and nonprofit organizations 1 https prospect org civil-rights accurate-census-look-grassroots www censuscounts org January 9 2020 Page 3 of 12 Congress uses census data to identify community needs and to distribute federal program dollars to states and localities based on population numbers or other community characteristics that the decennial census and related American Community Survey measure In Fiscal Year FY 2017 316 federal spending programs relied on 2010 Census-derived data to distribute $1 504 trillion to state and local governments nonprofits businesses and households across the nation 2 A more accurate census will 1 ensure that every community as well as people and households in need receive the federal resources to which they are entitled under all census-guided programs and 2 ensure that lawmakers can make more informed decisions about how to allocate federal dollars fairly prudently and effectively For all of these reasons getting the census right is important to everyone The primary and overarching goal of the census is a fair and accurate enumeration of all people living in the United States on Census Day April 1 2020 The goal of a census that is equally successful in all communities is non-negotiable Census Accuracy and the Problem of the Undercount Certain population groups are at a higher risk of not being fully counted in the decennial census Some areas and population groups – referred to as “hard-to-count” – have had lower rates of self-response in past censuses 3 requiring the Census Bureau to send enumerators into the field to count households one by one increasing costs and operational needs There are many reasons that households may not participate in the census including fear of government and limited language access Now however additional populations – such as rural residents4 and older Americans5 – may experience new or increased vulnerability due to major changes in methodology such as relying on the Internet as the primary way for households to respond to the 2020 Census Others may be reluctant to respond due to concerns about data confidentiality 6 The Census Bureau will face these challenges in many parts of the country and in many types of communities Outreach to these groups must be innovative research-based and responsive to community needs Being hard-to-count can deprive people and their communities of equal political representation and their fair share of vital public and private resources The differential undercount is a disproportionate undercounting of these population groups most notably people of color young children and renters a proxy for low-income households compared to nonHispanic Whites seniors and homeowners These groups have been historically underrepresented in the decennial census for decades and for some populations – for example young children under age five – the undercount has been getting progressively worse 2 https gwipp gwu edu counting-dollars-2020-role-decennial-census-geographic-distribution-federal-funds https www censushardtocountmaps2020 us latlng 40 00000%2C98 09000 z 4 layers 2020%20census%20initial%20contact%2Cmajor%20roads%2Ccounties infotab infocontacttypes modal info-about filterQuery false 4 https carsey unh edu publication 2020-census 5 https www aarp org politics-society government-elections info-2019 census-impact-older-americans html 6 https www2 census gov cac sac meetings 2019-03 census-barriers-attitudes-motivators-survey pdf 3 January 9 2020 Page 4 of 12 Census tracts are considered hard-to-count according to Census Bureau research if they have certain population and housing characteristics associated with both low self-response and higher likelihood of being missed entirely in the census There are hard-to-count communities in every state and hard-to-count population groups in communities of all sizes across the country from large urban areas such as Denver New York City and Omaha to smaller cities such as Virginia Beach and Little Rock Hard-to-count communities are not confined to urban areas It may be less well known but rural and remote communities including American Indian tribal lands and reservations are also vulnerable to disproportionate undercounting in the decennial census with lower income households especially at risk Eighty-seven percent 87 percent of the hardestto-count counties in the 2010 Census were rural counties In order to identify where hard-to-count areas and population groups are located around the country The Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York CUNY together with The Leadership Conference has launched a searchable online map7 that identifies communities whose demographics and other characteristics qualify them as “hard-to-count” for purposes of the 2020 Census These examples may be of particular interest to members of the committee • • • • • • • • • • • 36 percent of New York’s population live in hard-to-count census tracts More than 19 percent of Ohio’s households have no home Internet or dial-up only One quarter of California’s residents live in hard-to-count census tracts 17 percent of Arizona’s households lack home Internet or have dial-up only Nearly 15 percent of Tennessee census tracts are hard-to-count Just over 23 percent of Tennessee's households lack home Internet or have dial-up only Nearly 21 percent of Missouri's households lack home Internet or have dial-up only Roughly one in five Illinois census tracts are considered hard-to-count Ten percent of North Carolinians live in such areas 20 percent of North Carolina's households lack home Internet or have dial-up only 35 percent of Louisiana's residents live in hard-to-count census tracts One in 10 Michigan census tracts face similar circumstances with a staggering 65 percent of Detroit residents living in neighborhoods that are harder to count accurately Just over 19 percent of Michigan's households lack home Internet or have dial-up only 23 percent of Massachusetts’ population live in hard-to-count census tracts A Fair and Accurate Census is At Risk The window of opportunity to ensure a successful 2020 Census in all communities is closing fast The 2020 Census has already started Major census operations have already begun and critical final steps – from recruiting and screening staff to verifying addresses to finalizing outreach and advertising plans to testing IT infrastructure – are finished or underway On January 21 the Census Bureau will begin Remote 7 See generally https www censushardtocountmaps2020 us January 9 2020 Page 5 of 12 Alaska enumeration and in March U S households will begin receiving their 2020 Census materials by mail or hand-delivery The census only happens once every 10 years and its complex design leaves little room for error or modifications this close to the starting line without consequences for data quality cost-effectiveness public confidence and accuracy People across the country will lose out if the Census Bureau does not commit sufficient resources for final preparations dissemination of information to stakeholders peak counting operations and expanded outreach in communities at risk of being missed in the 2020 Census These activities include • • • • • • • Final address list verification and updating including for new construction Strengthening cybersecurity and ensuring adequate load capacity for IT systems Recruitment screening hiring and training for census field staff Increasing ad buys especially targeting hard-to-count population groups and launching national advertising and outreach Location verification and advance contact for enumeration of group living facilities such as college dorms nursing homes military barracks and prisons shelters and outdoor locations where people experiencing homelessness stay and transitory locations such as motels RV parks campgrounds marinas and carnivals Modification of plans to count communities recovering from natural disasters and Final preparations and launch of peak counting operations in Remote Alaska later this month That is why we are grateful to congressional leaders and all lawmakers for their bipartisan effort at the end of last year to ensure sufficient funding for the 2020 Census at a level higher than the administration’s inadequate request We believe the Census Bureau must update its operational plan now with input and feedback from key stakeholders and Congress whenever possible to spend effectively the additional funding Congress made available and in ways that meet the goals Congress set to increase Partnership Program staff not just Partnership Specialists who help state and local officials and trusted community leaders support census operations through focused outreach and promotion for their constituencies as well as targeted communications and advertising to hard-to-count communities including in-language outreach where helpful and to deploy Mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers with $90 million plan being the floor in coordination with grassroots stakeholders Stakeholders have also recommended planning for additional field staff to ensure accurate effective in-person enumeration for household follow-up Nonresponse Followup or NRFU as well as for the primary operations for counting people experiencing homelessness Service-Based Enumeration and the Enumeration of Transitory Locations By all accounts the 2020 Census will be the largest most difficult enumeration in our nation’s history The U S population is increasingly diverse – geographically culturally and linguistically – with households becoming more complex and a greater share of residents falling into hard-to-count categories The Census Bureau will also need to meet the growing challenges and threats that could undermine the enumeration including cyber-attacks disinformation campaigns natural disasters growing distrust of government that could depress response rates in many communities and the digital divide especially in January 9 2020 Page 6 of 12 rural remote and low-income communities Because of a broad months-long coalition effort the citizenship question is not on the 2020 Census questionnaire However fear and the specter of the question remains and targeted outreach to immigrants and hard-to-count communities continues to be needed Finally budget constraints over the course of the decade have added to these barriers causing the Census Bureau to eliminate streamline or delay vital planning activities and tests Counting every person residing in the United States is a difficult endeavor But even with careful planning several other factors – many out of the Census Bureau’s control – pose significant risks to a fair and accurate census IT Readiness and the Digital Divide As this committee knows the 2020 Census will be the first “high-tech” census An Internet response option while offering the promise of cost savings could lead to poor or uneven participation technological infrastructure failings or both thereby increasing the differential undercount 8 The Internet response option which will be available along with options to respond by paper questionnaire or telephone could help keep census costs in check or at least hold them steady compared to 2010 thereby saving resources that can be used to find and enumerate the hardest to count The Census Bureau will ask nearly 80 percent of households to respond online as the preferred method in the initial request to respond to the census 9 However not everyone – or all households – has the same connectivity security and comfort or skill with the Internet The Commerce Department’s own analyses show that communities of color rural residents adults with low educational attainment low-income individuals people with disabilities and older Americans lag behind younger affluent highly educated urban and White adults in both device and Internet penetration 10 The devices used vary – not every household can afford to update their devices frequently leaving them open to vulnerabilities In addition many marginalized people in America have tenuous Internet access through data-limited smartphones public computers or slow or unsecure home connections – if they have Internet access at all This disparate access and opportunity contribute to households being hard-to-count in the 2020 Census A lower-than-projected Internet response rate could strain the Census Bureau’s already limited resources by increasing response by paper questionnaire or telephone or more costly and inefficient the number of households that require door-to-door follow-up Technology also brings cybersecurity threats real or perceived The Census Bureau has built dozens of systems for 2020 and maintains a full-scale structure as per the National Institute of Standards and 8 http www civilrightsdocs info pdf reports Counting-Everyone-in-the-Digital-Age pdf https www2 census gov programs-surveys decennial 2020 program-management census-research predictivemodels-audience-segmentation-report pdf 10 https www georgetownpoverty org wp-content uploads 2017 10 LCEF_2020_Census_Poll_Report-Final002 pdf 9 January 9 2020 Page 7 of 12 Technology NIST framework to ensure its systems are designed built tested and deployed The framework includes ways to identify and fix system bugs including penetration testing that tries to break the systems The security of the 2020 Census IT systems and personal census data they contain is paramount and the Census Bureau and its federal and private sector partners must do everything possible to ensure that security This means there must be a comprehensive back-up plan to address any potential breaches and their consequences for the census process in real time The Census Bureau also needs to take necessary steps to address how new IT and automated systems affect the communities the census is most likely to miss The Census Bureau should update Congress on the status of these activities and show it is spending resources in the manner that Congress directed Further Congress must press the Census Bureau to ensure that IT systems are secure In addition the Census Bureau will need to build confidence in a high-tech census at a time when many people are wary The Census Bureau will need to educate all communities – particularly those at risk of being missed – about how to interact with the Internet self-response portal and work with trusted community voices to disseminate that information The Census Bureau can work with civic technology groups to report issues they see in the field At the same time the Census Bureau must have an effective communications plan to direct people on where they can report potential incidents and assure everyone in the United States that their personal information is secure Lack of confidence in data security could depress Internet response rates more so if a large business or another government agency suffers a cyberattack near the time of the census thus increasing costs and enumeration challenges considerably Misinformation and Disinformation Our coalition has already observed attempts to suppress census participation by promoting inaccurate or fearmongering information on social media and traditional media outlets 11 Media manipulators and disinformation agents may attempt to undermine the integrity of census data and the public’s perception of the data Experience shows that efforts to rig the 2020 Census could take place online in national or local media and by attempting to directly influence vulnerable community groups Pressured by The Leadership Conference12 and other civil rights groups as well as Congress 13 tech companies and online social media platforms have started to commit to fight disinformation and misinformation that prey on people’s fears but strong enforcement of those policies by the platforms will be critical The Census Bureau has set up a new website 2020census gov en news-events rumors html and email box rumors@census gov but must also work with trusted messengers including representatives of hardto-count communities to combat the spread of inaccurate information The Census Bureau must detail its plans about how it will communicate with partners about the frequency and severity of incidents and how 11 https www npr org 2019 11 14 779465179 the-census-is-going-digital-bringing-the-threat-of-disinformationcampaigns 12 https civilrights org 2019 12 19 facebook-listens-new-policy-protects-against-census-interference 13 https www schatz senate gov imo media doc Census%20Misinformation%20Letters%2007 15 19 pdf January 9 2020 Page 8 of 12 it will report resolved events The census demands extreme vigilance and Congress must ensure that the Census Bureau and tech platforms do everything they can to address and counter census interference Distrust of Government and Climate of Fear The reluctance of many individuals to provide personal information voluntarily to the government poses an additional barrier to a full count There is lingering fear and mistrust of confidentiality pledges by the administration following the prolonged controversy over the proposal to add a citizenship question to the census The Census Bureau’s own research found that fear is a significant barrier to participation among hard-to-count populations 14 In order to combat this fear the Census Bureau must work closely with trusted messengers and partners to encourage populations at risk of being missed to participate in the census The Census Bureau’s Community Partnership Engagement Program CPEP and National Partnership Program NPP will play essential roles in building trust raising awareness and increasing participation in the 2020 Census As intermediaries between the Census Bureau and the residents it is responsible for counting partners help enumerators make inroads in hard-to-count communities They also provide the relationships and supplemental resources and language support that census workers need to successfully count residents from all walks of life The Census Bureau’s 2020 Census Partnership Plan outlines CPEP’s objectives 15 chief among which is to establish committed partnerships with at least 300 000 local partners by March of 2020 The 2020 Census Partnership Plan also details the objectives of the NPP although it does not specify a target number of national partners Robust partnership programs are especially critical in light of the realignment of the Census Bureau’s field office structure following the 2010 Census including plans to employ at most half the staffing used for the 2010 Census However the Census Bureau has not revealed much information to help Congress and stakeholders to determine that it is on track to meet its stated goals Congress should request the Census Bureau to provide information on all current local and national partners as well as details on how the Census Bureau identifies defines and recruits partners for both programs This work will be complemented and buttressed by the efforts of nonprofit organizations and grassroots groups who will play crucial roles in building the groundwork needed to ensure a complete count in 2020 National and state-based organizations have already developed information about the importance of the census and how people can engage The Census Counts Campaign has developed a Get Out the Count GOTC toolkit16 that consolidates and disseminates resources on effective census outreach strategies from how to build a GOTC plan to how to ensure outreach is accessible In addition the Census Count Campaign’s State Count Action Network17 convened more than 800 census leaders in a series of regional 14 https www2 census gov cac sac meetings 2019-03 census-barriers-attitudes-motivators-survey pdf https www census gov programs-surveys decennial-census 2020-census planning-management 2020partners html 16 https censuscounts org gotc-toolkit 17 https censuscounts org state-by-state 15 January 9 2020 Page 9 of 12 trainings about 2020 Census operations and outreach best practices During 2020 the Census Counts Campaign will convene a “train the trainer” series for grasstops leaders and work with local leaders in rural communities in Arizona Oklahoma Texas Mississippi and New York to directly engage with hard-to-count populations and communities Recruiting Hiring and Training Staff The timely recruitment and hiring of enumerators who have cultural competency necessary language skills and are local to communities where they will be going door-to-door will be another key strategy to combat fear in communities Encouraging people within hard-to-count neighborhoods to work for the 2020 Census can help ensure people in these communities hear from trusted voices when an enumerator comes to their door The Census Bureau has launched its nationwide 2020 Census recruitment campaign to recruit and hire the nearly 500 000 people needed to ensure a fair and accurate 2020 Census 18 These census workers will staff the Partnership Program or serve as enumerators going door to door to count those households that did not respond to the census by mail phone or online in April With the national unemployment rate its lowest in 50 years the Census Bureau has faced challenges reaching its hiring targets and increased its recruiting goal from 2 3 million to 2 7 million for peak operations The Census Bureau expects that of the 800 000 to 900 000 applicants chosen about 500 000 will be hired At the Fall 2019 meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Racial Ethnic and Other Populations the Census Bureau noted that to bolster recruitment efforts they are reviewing and increasing pay rates expanding recruiting staff and tripling Census Investigative Services CIS staff to initiate and process background checks 19 Nonetheless reports from grassroots stakeholders indicate difficulty getting applicants into the pipeline Recruitment progress varies by region and city for example some regions are on track to meet recruitment goals while San Francisco 20 Philadelphia 21 and Raleigh22 lag far behind their recruiting goals Of specific concern is the lack of progress to date in hiring and recruiting applicants with the necessary language skills While the Census Bureau has reported that 20 percent of applicants are bilingual and that applicants speak more than 450 languages and dialects oversight will be necessary to ensure that staff are deployed in a manner that ensures language access according to community need Stakeholders are also concerned that the onerous and time-consuming hiring process will deter participation by marginalized groups Once applicants are in the pipeline they are required to complete a background check and to travel to an area census office to be fingerprinted Shepherding applicants with the right skills through the process is already proving to be challenging and will likely result in some applicants not completing the application requiring the Census Bureau to recruit additional candidates 18 https 2020census gov en jobs html https www2 census gov cac nac meetings 2019-11 fontenot-thieme-update-2020-census pdf # 20 https www sfchronicle com business article Census-seeks-12-000-Bay-Area-workers-and-pay-is-14945666 php 21 https www inquirer com news 2020-census-jobs-pay-hikes-20191226 html 22 https www newsobserver com news local article238501738 html 19 January 9 2020 Page 10 of 12 Finally it will be critical to ensure that once hired partnership and enumerator staff are adequately trained Census stakeholders in the field have observed instances of census employees providing inaccurate information to community partners and trusted messengers This erodes trust in the Census Bureau and presents an opportunity for inaccurate information about census participation to spread Communications and Advertising The Census Bureau is deploying a robust communications and advertising campaign that includes partnership advertising events and public service announcements For this campaign to be effective the Census Bureau must customize content and outreach strategies for hard-to-count communities that is informed by its message research and be responsive to input from representatives from hard-to-count community groups Stakeholders were pleased to see adaptive and customizable public service announcements PSAs released in late 2019 23 and the Census Bureau’s responsiveness to stakeholder suggestions such as increasing English language PSAs targeting the Latino community can serve as a model for future engagement In December 2019 the Census Bureau released its planned $240 million media spend 24 VMLY R formerly Y R the firm that secured the Integrated Communications Contract ICC for the 2020 Census campaign and its subcontractors have developed a media buy strategy to encourage participation in the 2020 Census and reach hard-to-count communities But a number of concerns remain Stakeholders have identified the following gaps in the media spend • • • • • • 23 24 Advertising will be developed and placed in 60 languages creating content gaps for Asian American Native American and African Immigrant languages Ad buys for certain population groups such as the Black African American ad buy were not sufficiently robust and will need to be supplemented by additional advertising There are several historically undercounted groups that the Census Bureau is trying to reach through its “diverse mass” outreach Because individual plans were not built for these groups the outreach is likely not to work well Groups included in “diverse mass” that need but are not likely to receive specific outreach include English speaking Latinos parents of young children LGBTQ people people experiencing homelessness and housing instability and people living in poverty State and local media in-language vary by state creating some gaps in-language communications The advertising campaign will end on June 22 before Nonresponse Followup NRFU is completed meaning that enumerators will be in the field well after the advertising campaign has ended While the advertising campaign for the 2010 Census also ended in June stakeholders expect that the increased concern and fear in hard-to-count communities and a crowded media environment expected in the summer of 2020 will necessitate targeted outreach to hard-to-count communities for the duration of NRFU The plans for outreach to Arabic speakers and Portuguese speakers seem very minimal https www census gov library video 2019 2020-census-psa-all-videos html https www census gov about business-opportunities opportunities 2020-opps 2020-census-paid-media html January 9 2020 Page 11 of 12 • There are very few in-language outreach materials for Native Hawaiian Native Alaskan and Native American people and most of the media buy for those communities seems focused on outof-home outreach materials like service provider flyers as opposed to in-home advertising materials The Census Bureau has yet to share planned creative content for hard-to-count populations and the planned persuasion “journey map” that will drive the strategy and flow of the advertising buy Members of The Leadership Conference the Census Counts Campaign states cities and other key stakeholders are planning to place advertising buys to supplement the bureau’s campaign More transparency from the Census Bureau would help ensure that efforts aren’t duplicated Finally the Census Bureau has indicated that its advertising will not speak directly to the fears that many hard-to-count communities will be grappling with Stakeholders believe that the Census Bureau should incorporate messaging about confidentiality into its earned and paid media strategy e g that the Census Bureau will not share data with landlords police or public benefits providers Mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers M-QAC A new Mobile Questionnaire Assistance Center M-QAC operation which Congress requested will require substantial advance planning and collaboration with local and community partner organizations Stakeholders believe that the Census Bureau’s proposed initiative with an estimated $90 million price tag needs more staff and a larger footprint to be effective Stakeholders have very limited information about how the Census Bureau plans to implement M-QACs In the absence of information from the Census Bureau counties cities and community-based organizations have been developing their own plans to support questionnaire assistance including how they will provide support to their communities and the gaps that will need to be covered In the 2010 Census community-based organizations were given insufficient time to plan and advertise “Be Counted” questionnaire assistance centers resulting in low usage rates Congress must press the Census Bureau to spend the $90 million allocated on this M-QAC program and possibly more and to consult with stakeholders so that the program can be most effective Population Displacement Due to Natural Disasters Extreme natural disasters e g flooding tornadoes hurricanes and wildfires will require modified more costly outreach methods to ensure an accurate enumeration in recovering communities The Census Bureau now has sufficient funding to take decisive swift action in communities recovering from natural disasters where modified labor-intensive counting methods and special advertising and outreach might be needed Those areas include 13 Texas counties recently flooded by Tropical Storm Imelda East and Gulf Coast communities damaged by Hurricane Dorian and several powerful 2017 hurricanes California towns and cities wiped out by wildfires and Southern and Midwest states ravaged by significant flooding and unprecedented tornado outbreaks January 9 2020 Page 12 of 12 Conclusion Members of Congress are fully aware that the census has political consequences – in fact the Constitution says as much by basing congressional apportionment and equal representation on the population count But the conduct of the census must be strictly nonpartisan and must strive to achieve an equally accurate count in all communities The Leadership Conference and its member organizations look forward to working with all members of this committee to ensure a cost-effective secure and above all accurate and inclusive census in every one of the nation’s communities When people – your constituents – are not counted in the census they remain invisible for the next 10 years And overcounts – that is counting people twice or including them by mistake – do not benefit anyone either because policymakers have a skewed picture of where to direct hard-earned limited taxpayer dollars There are no do-overs with the census The Census Bureau must get it right the first time and all of us – members of Congress county officials and mayors school principals veterans advocates businesses large and small and indeed every person in the United States – must live with the results for the next 10 years