Minority Lawmakers to Ask Leadership to Address U.S. Census Undercounts

[babylonsister]

Minority Lawmakers to Ask Leadership to Address U.S. Census Undercounts
By Kathleen Hunter | 6:11 AM; Oct. 29, 2007


Minority lawmakers have long complained of Census Bureau undercounts in their districts. But now that Democrats are in the majority, black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers say they plan to pressure House leaders to do something about it before the next national head count.

They haven’t quite agreed on everything they want Congress to do before the 2010 census, but they do have a starting point: pushing to make sure the Census Bureau gets the money it needs to keep its preparations on schedule for the $11.3 billion endeavor.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Hispanic Caucus and Asian Pacific American Caucus, working as a coalition, intend to ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California to help the Census Bureau get the money it needs to prepare for the decennial head count, according to members of the three caucuses.

They reason that if the Census Bureau gets a late start, outreach programs aimed at ensuring minorities are counted accurately will get short shrift. Any change that improves the accuracy of the count in minority communities ought to be supported and swiftly funded, they argue.

“Leadership needs to recognize that there are greater expectations that our communities have from our members because we’re in the majority,” said Democrat Charlie Gonzalez, whose heavily Hispanic San Antonio district was the site of a July field hearing on reducing the Hispanic undercount.

“They have to know that we’re 72 votes that can affect what they are concerned about as well,” added Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joe Baca, D-Calif.


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http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/10/minority_lawmakers_to_ask_lead.html

[fasttense]

1. The census is contracted out and that is why the numbers are wrong.

Since we all know how inept, and corrupt private contractors are when it comes to doing business with the government, I suspect the undercount is due to mismanagement or playing with the numbers. Perhaps if the CBC focused on how the contractors are doing the work, maybe they wouldn't have to just throw more money at it.

$11.4 billion is an awful lot of money. I bet civil servants or federal workers could do it for a lot less. I bet the firm that runs this census is in bed with the repukes and rigging a few counts for their friends in exchange for a few bribes is just part of the business.

The CBC needs to take a good close look at the contractor before it gives them more money.