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Tell Congress:
"The U.S. Census plays a critical role in our democracy. Donald Trump is trying to undermine the Census to advance his short-term political goals. Congress must step in, safeguard our democracy and protect the U.S. Census by adding language to the COVID bill to ensure the Census is completed accurately during the pandemic."
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John,
The Trump administration is planning to end the constitutionally required U.S. Census before it is even completed. Missing children and vulnerable people throughout our country would have a devastating two-fold effect for the next decade: cutting funding for a wide range of programs that have funding formulas derived from Census data, and stealing representation of vulnerable populations in Congress.
In effect, Trump knows the country doesn't support his efforts to undermine our services and communities. So he is attempting to cheat how our democracy functions. He is trying to undermine the effectiveness of the constitutionally-mandated Census.
Add your name! Tell Congress to add bipartisan legislation into the pending COVID relief measure to protect the integrity of the Census.
A rushed Census will harm every state in our country. As a direct result of the difficulties of trying to conduct a Census during a pandemic, more than a third of US households still haven’t responded. There are low response areas in every part of the United States, in every state, in every city.
If remaining counting operations are cut short, communities most in need of resources to improve quality of life and standards of living will be chronically underfunded for the next decade.
Few will be surprised to learn White House political calculations intervened, overriding experts who were running the Census. The decision to reverse course on the proposed extension of Census counting was reportedly hastily developed at the White House.
The Washington Post wrote, "Given this administration’s willingness to politicize and corrupt virtually any process, it is not hard to see why: A flawed count would almost certainly help Republicans, because poor, minority and young Americans tend to be those undercounted."1
Tell Congress: We can't afford to miss vulnerable people throughout the United States.
It is vital that we protect the 2020 Census from political interference. The House of Representatives has already approved an extension of the 2020 Census operations as part of its most recent COVID relief package.
CHN is demanding the Senate stay the course by agreeing to an extension provision in its next COVID relief package, so that the Census Bureau has the time it needs to accurately complete remaining enumeration operations and the critical review processes afterwards.
Our democracy demands we must have a fair census. Thank you for your continued help to fight for vulnerable people throughout our country.
Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-push-to-spoil-the-census--and-make-democrats-disappear/2020/08/02/5005b7da-d367-11ea-8d32-1ebf4e9d8e0d_story.html
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