Introduction of the Ensuring Full Participation in the Census Act of 2019
Floor Speech
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Ensuring Full Participation in the Census Act of 2019, which would prohibit the U.S. Census Bureau from including questions on the decennial census about citizenship, nationality or immigration status.
This bill is essential because the Department of Justice has written to the Bureau that it ``reinstate on the 2020 Census questionnaire a question regarding citizenship.'' From 1970 to 2000, this question was sent to only approximately 16 percent of the population during any decennial census through the so-called ``long-form.'' However, the long-form system was dropped from the census and replaced with the current American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is sent to approximately 3 million people annually on a rotational basis, instead of just with the decennial census, and allows the Bureau to get the necessary information on citizenship, without asking every respondent during the decennial census. Asking questions about citizenship status to every American through the decennial census has not been done in almost 70 years because it would discourage people, largely in minority communities, which are already undercounted in the census, from participating in the census. The ACS was created to make the decennial census simpler for American citizens to complete, thus encouraging a higher and more accurate participant rate, and to preserve privacy. Adding a question back into the decennial census about citizenship would defeat this purpose of the ACS. The representative sampling provided by the ACS is more than sufficient to determine citizenship statistics within the U.S. We must ensure that all individuals are counted in the decennial census, thereby providing accurate allocation of federal funds and representation in Congress, not reduce participation by already undercounted minorities because they fear answering questions that are already addressed elsewhere.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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