Senators Appeal to Leadership for Additional 2020 Census Funding

Senators Appeal to Leadership for Additional 2020 Census Funding

A group of Senators, led by Sen. Brian Schatz (D), have written to Senate leadership requesting �additional funding for the Census Bureau� to specifically �address the operational changes to the 2020 Census in response to the current public health crisis.�

The May 8, 2020 letter acknowledged the need to work on the delays in statutory deadlines sought by the Administration, but said that �it must be paired with additional funding for the Census Bureau to ensure that every person is counted. The extension is expected to cost an estimated $1.5 billion.�

The additional funding the Senators recommended �should be used specifically on:

• Personal protective equipment for census field workers, call center staff, and other employees;
• Additional mailings to households that have not self-responded;
• Targeted outreach to hard-to-count communities;
• Targeted outreach to the location of the 2018 End-to-End Census Test;
• Special operations to hand-deliver census packets in rural and remote communities, on American Indian reservations, in areas recovering from natural disasters, in Alaska, and in Puerto Rico;
• Enumerating people experiencing homelessness;
• Increased in-language outreach and assistance to supplement 2020 Census partners in non-English speaking communities;
• Changes in Census Bureau�s communications plan, including advertisement and social media;
• An increase in the number of call center staff to address higher volumes of self-responses by phone; and
• Facilitating internet access in low self-response neighborhoods.�

Read the full letter.