[House Hearing, 111 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] THE 2010 CENSUS: HOW COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEES, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATIONS, NOT-FOR-PROFITS AND THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY CAN CONTRIBUTE TO AN ACCURATE CENSUS ======================================================================= HEARING before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON INFORMATION POLICY, CENSUS, AND NATIONAL ARCHIVES of the COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ DECEMBER 2, 2009 __________ Serial No. 111-71 __________ Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/ index.html http://www.oversight.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 58-133 WASHINGTON : 2010 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York, Chairman PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania DARRELL E. ISSA, California CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland JOHN L. MICA, Florida DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio DIANE E. WATSON, California LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina JIM COOPER, Tennessee BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JIM JORDAN, Ohio MIKE QUIGLEY, Illinois JEFF FLAKE, Arizona MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah Columbia AARON SCHOCK, Illinois PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois ANH ``JOSEPH'' CAO, Louisiana CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland HENRY CUELLAR, Texas PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut PETER WELCH, Vermont BILL FOSTER, Illinois JACKIE SPEIER, California STEVE DRIEHAUS, Ohio JUDY CHU, California Ron Stroman, Staff Director Michael McCarthy, Deputy Staff Director Carla Hultberg, Chief Clerk Larry Brady, Minority Staff Director Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri, Chairman PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of JOHN L. MICA, Florida Columbia JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois STEVE DRIEHAUS, Ohio DIANE E. WATSON, California Darryl Piggee, Staff Director C O N T E N T S ---------- Page Hearing held on December 2, 2009................................. 1 Statement of: O'Hare, William, senior fellow, Annie E. Casey Foundation; Melanie Campbell, executive director, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; David Williams, Chair and planning director, Gaston County Complete Count Committee, Gastonia, NC; Yvette Cumberbatch, coordinator, NYC 2010 census, New York City government; and Mercedes Lemp Jacobs, director, Office of Latino Affairs, Washington, DC, government................................................. 7 Campbell, Melanie........................................ 26 Cumberbatch, Yvette...................................... 41 Jacobs, Mercedes Lemp.................................... 47 O'Hare, William.......................................... 7 Williams, David.......................................... 35 Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Campbell, Melanie, executive director, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, prepared statement of........... 28 Clay, Hon. Wm. Lacy, a Representative in Congress from the State of Missouri, prepared statement of................... 3 Cumberbatch, Yvette, coordinator, NYC 2010 census, New York City government, prepared statement of..................... 43 Jacobs, Mercedes Lemp, director, Office of Latino Affairs, Washington, DC, government, prepared statement of.......... 50 O'Hare, William, senior fellow, Annie E. Casey Foundation, prepared statement of...................................... 9 Williams, David, Chair and planning director, Gaston County Complete Count Committee, Gastonia, NC, prepared statement of......................................................... 37 THE 2010 CENSUS: HOW COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEES, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATIONS, NOT-FOR-PROFITS AND THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY CAN CONTRIBUTE TO AN ACCURATE CENSUS ---------- WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2009 House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:45 p.m., in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Wm. Lacy Clay (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Clay, McHenry, Westmoreland, and Chu. Staff present: Darryl Piggee, staff director/counsel; Jean Gosa, clerk; Yvette Cravins, counsel; Frank Davis, professional staff member; Charisma Williams, staff assistant; Adam Hodge, full committee deputy press secretary; Leneal Scott, full committee IT specialist; Adam Fromm, minority chief clerk and Member liaison; and Chapin Fay, minority counsel. Mr. Clay. The Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will now come to order. Good afternoon and welcome to today's hearing entitled, ``The 2010 Census: How Complete Count Committees, Local Governments, Philanthropic Organizations, Not-for-Profits and the Business Community Can Contribute to an Accurate Census.'' Without objection, the Chair and ranking minority member will have 5 minutes to make opening statements, followed by opening statements not to exceed 3 minutes by any other Member who seeks recognition. And, without objection, Members and witness may have 5 legislative days to submit a written statement or extraneous materials for the record. The purpose of today's hearing is to examine exactly what the title says: we want to explore how the contributions of all of you can contribute to an accurate census. That has to be our singular focus. We need the efforts and cooperation not only of you in this hearing room, but those of everyone. We need everyone to get this done. I am very passionate about this, as I am sure you are also. This hearing will focus on Complete Count Committees. The subcommittee will explore all aspects of the CCC, including, but not limited, to diversity of membership, activities, funding alternatives, and special initiatives in rural and urban settings. The Census Bureau's interaction and cooperation with local and county governments and stakeholders will be explored. Additionally, this hearing will track the efforts underway by local governments to actively encourage census participation. The subcommittee will also hear testimony on activities specific to ``Hard to Count Communities.'' The subcommittee is also interested in the lessons learned from past census activities in developing a ``best practices'' guide for future census outreach. We want to make sure that we work with the Bureau through the Regional Partnership Program. The program is credited with attributing to the success of the 2000 census. It is the Regional Offices of the Census Bureau that is key to your work on the ground. They are empowered to assist you in an incredible number of ways. Work closely with them. I thank all of our witnesses for appearing today and look forward to their testimonies. I now yield to the distinguished ranking member, Mr. McHenry, of North Carolina. [The prepared statement of Hon. Wm. Lacy Clay follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.002 Mr. McHenry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your leadership on the census and all the other issues that you have been working on this Congress, including on Financial Services, which we both serve together on as well. I want to thank the panel for testifying today. In particular, my fellow resident of Gaston County, NC, Mr. Williams, for being here today and traveling to Washington. The Census Bureau is conducting an unprecedented outreach and awareness campaign for the 2010 decennial census. While its own advertising initiatives and partnership programs with various national organizations and institutions are certainly crucial to improving the overall response rate, the success of the count is largely dependent on the work being done in the trenches, in small communities and neighborhoods across America. By forming partnerships with local governments, civic groups, and religious institutions and cultural organizations, the Census Bureau is better able to navigate the social and physical landscapes of individual neighborhoods throughout the United States. These partnerships, known as Complete Count Committees, are comprised of local individuals with strong community standing who are best equipped to reach out to everyone in their area and make sure they get counted by the Bureau. Each county, town, or community is different from one another. The same cookie cutter approach to conducting outreach in promoting participation simply cannot work for every one of these communities. It is up to these Complete Count Committees to develop best practices for their own regions and communicate effectively with the Census Bureau in their successes and failures. Some States, such as my home State of North Carolina, are well ahead of the curve in the formation of Complete Count Committees for the 2010 census. Others have yet to take the initiative and begin preparations for local outreach efforts for the decennial census. It is my hope that today's hearing will provide this subcommittee with valuable insight into the progress being made to prepare the census and our communities to challenges yet to be faced and how Members of Congress and the Census Bureau can best assist local governments and civic organizations in preparing for the 2010 count. I want to thank the witnesses for testifying today and for coming to Washington, DC. And at this time, Mr. Chairman, if I can introduce my fellow resident of Gaston County, who is here before us today. He is in the middle of the panel before two nice ladies, and they will be nice to you, I hope. But David Williams is the Director of Planning and Development Services for Gaston County, NC. He has served in the department for 13 years and as its director for about the last 4 years. Mr. Williams is Chair of the county's Complete Count Committee for the 2010 census and also worked on the Complete Count Committee in 2010. The father of two daughters in Gaston County, he and his wife live in Gaston County. He is an Appalachian State graduate. Appalachian State, Mr. Chairman, they have actually had a couple championships, football championships. Three? Three in a row. Pretty amazing. We actually beat Michigan State, so thankfully neither one of us have any Michigan ties, so we are all right with that, right, Mr. Williams? So thank you, Mr. Williams, for testifying today and for making the trip. Mr. Clay. Thank you, Mr. McHenry, and thanks for that notable sports history, as well as introducing us to Mr. Williams and introducing him to the subcommittee. Let me also recognize the rest of the panel. We will first hear from Dr. William O'Hare, senior fellow of the Annie E. Casey Foundation since October 1993. Dr. O'Hare has directed the Kids Count Program at the Annie Casey Foundation. Dr. O'Hare has a Ph.D. in sociology demography and 30-plus years working in non-profits with a focus on disadvantaged Americans. Thank you for being here. Our next witness will be Ms. Melanie Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation. In 2000, she was recognized as one of Washington, DC's, Top 40 Under 40 Emerging Leaders, which we note she is still under 40. [Laughter.] She currently serves on the Board of the Black Leadership Forum. Our fourth witness is Ms. Yvette Stacey Cumberbatch, coordinator of New York City 2010 census, New York City government. Ms. Cumberbatch previously served as chief of staff of the New York City Housing Authority, assistant New York State attorney general, and chief of staff special counsel to the city of New York deputy mayor for legal affairs. Thank you also for being here. Our final witness will be Ms. Mercedes Lemp, director, Office of Latino Affairs, Washington, DC, government. Ms. Lemp Jacobs served for 4 years as the executive director of Language, Etc., a non-profit organization providing English as a second language and the other services to mostly Latino immigrants. She serves as the director of the Office of Latino Affairs. Thank you also for being here. Welcome all of you to the hearing. It is the policy of the subcommittee to swear in all witnesses before they testify, and I ask all of you please stand and raise your right hands. [Witnesses sworn.] Mr. Clay. Thank you. You may be seated. Let the record reflect that all the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Each of you will have 5 minutes to make an opening statement. Your complete written testimony will be included in the hearing record. The yellow light will indicate that it is time to sum up; the red light will indicate that your time has expired. Dr. O'Hare, you may begin. STATEMENTS OF WILLIAM O'HARE, SENIOR FELLOW, ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION; MELANIE CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COALITION ON BLACK CIVIC PARTICIPATION; DAVID WILLIAMS, CHAIR AND PLANNING DIRECTOR, GASTON COUNTY COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEE, GASTONIA, NC; YVETTE CUMBERBATCH, COORDINATOR, NYC 2010 CENSUS, NEW YORK CITY GOVERNMENT; AND MERCEDES LEMP JACOBS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF LATINO AFFAIRS, WASHINGTON, DC, GOVERNMENT STATEMENT OF WILLIAM O'HARE Mr. O'Hare. Thank you, Chairman Clay and Ranking Member McHenry. I am pleased to be here today to represent the Funders Census Initiative and the many foundations that are part of that collaborative effort. I am a demographer and a senior fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and also a consultant with the Funders Census Initiative. My involvement in the decennial census goes back several decades and includes experience as a data user, as well as a Foundation program officer who supported efforts to educate stakeholders on the importance of the census. I believe foundations have several important attributes that put them in a unique position to help the Census Bureau get an accurate and fair census. For example, foundation program offices are embedded in organizational networks which allow them to easily reach hard-to-count communities with a message about the importance of the census; they can provide a critical link between the Census Bureau staff and the trusted voices in local communities; they are in a good position to foster public-private partnerships like those involving the Census Bureau and local grassroots organizations; and, of course, foundations can often provide funding for activities to promote census awareness and participation in hard-to-count communities. I will focus my comments today on three topics: the development and mission of the Funders Census Initiative, FCI's activities related to the 2010 census, and, finally, some recommendations. I have submitted a longer written version of this testimony that provides more details regarding the points I raise here. The Funders Census Initiative is an ad hoc coalition of foundations and philanthropic community groups focused on getting an accurate and fair and complete 2010 census. Foundations have supported census projects in the past, but this is the first time they have formally shared strategies and information, pooled resources in an organized campaign. It represents a major step forward in terms of involvement of foundations in promoting the decennial census. FCI's mission is straightforward: to stimulate interest in the 2010 census among foundations and their grantees; to mobilize philanthropic resources for census outreach; and to facilitate census engagement through resource development, information sharing, strategic advice, and direct consultation. A wide range of foundations and affinity groups from national to community-focused are participating in the initiative, and we invite you to visit our Web site to learn more about FCI. In terms of the activities, over the past year, the Funders Census Initiative has launched a wide range of activities. They have established a Web site for Funders to share information and ideas and best practices; organized conference calls, Webinars for Funders and their grantees; coordinated Funders and grantee activity with the Census Bureau; analyzed the distribution of hard-to-count populations; and briefed journalists on several occasions. Foundations are supporting a Brookings Institution analysis of Federal programs that allocate funds based in whole or in part on census data, and this information has proved very useful in helping local communities understand why the census is important. The Initiative is also funding development of a free online interactive mapping tool to help pinpoint hard-to- count areas in every part of the country. Foundations have invested millions of dollars in grants to organizations that are reaching deep into hard-to-count communities to underscore the message that the census is easy, it is important, and it is safe. Detailed examples of coordinated philanthropic efforts in Illinois, California, Massachusetts, and Long Island are provided in my written testimony. Let me highlight here one early and unprecedented effort that has served as a model for philanthropic investment and census over the past year. In many ways, it constitutes a best practices model. Led by the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, Funders formed the Illinois 2010 Census Initiative and raised over $1.2 million. They launched a Count Me In campaign. In late summer, following an RFP process, the collaborative announced 26 grants focused on boosting census response rates in the State's hard- to-count communities. The Census Bureau is working hard, but they cannot accomplish their goal of a fair and accurate census in isolation. Census messages often resonate best when they are conveyed by trusted voices and through known organizations, and these are often grassroots, non-profit organizations. But these non-profit organizations need resources to fulfill this role. This is funding that the Census Bureau does not provide, and State and local governments cannot provide in sufficient amounts, particularly in these recessionary times. Philanthropy has helped fill this resource gap. Let me close with three recommendations as we look to our 2020 census and beyond. First, that the Census Bureau should look beyond Complete Count Committees in ways to engage local communities in the census; second, that Congress should examine ways for the Census Bureau and the Federal Government broadly to provide financial resources for non-profit organizations engaged in census outreach, perhaps through a public-private partnership with philanthropy; and, third, recommend that the Census Bureau continue its partnership program throughout the decade to keep lines of communication open. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts about philanthropy's role in supporting the 2010 census, our Nation's largest and most inclusive civic event. We at FCI look forward to working with the subcommittee in the future. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Mr. O'Hare follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.009 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.011 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.012 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.013 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.014 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.015 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.016 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.017 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.018 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.019 Mr. Clay. Thank you so much, Dr. O'Hare. Now we will hear from Ms. Campbell. You may proceed. STATEMENT OF MELANIE CAMPBELL Ms. Campbell. Thank you Chairman Clay, for your leadership and for this opportunity to submit written and verbal testimony on behalf of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, as well as our Unity Diaspora Coalition [UDC]. The Unity Diaspora Coalition is an unprecedented network of organizations working together in Black communities made up of African-Americans, African, Caribbean, and Afro-Latino leadership to forge a comprehensive agenda that includes: promoting, motivating, and mobilizing the Black population to fully participate in the 2010 decennial census; two, to advocate for a complete and accurate decennial 2010 census count; targeted efforts to protect the political power of the increasing numbers of those displaced by disaster and economic dislocation which are disproportionately Black and low income; ensuring equitable redistricting plans in key States with significant Black populations; and advocating for critical changes in the 2010 census, including adding country of origin for the Black population and changing methods of counting prisoners. Historically, the Census Bureau has under-counted America's most vulnerable population groups, including racial minorities, immigrants, children, and the poor, leading to inequality for political power, access to publicity, publically supported services and private sector investment in communities where these population groups live and work. The Census Bureau openly acknowledges it has to develop partnerships with the community-based groups to reach out to these and other hard-to-count populations. Effective partnerships can help address these looming factors in 2010 outreach efforts: the significant growth of hard-to-count populations, escalating fear of government in immigrant communities, and displacement of families due to the housing economic crisis and natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Further, the current economic crisis has added a new challenge, as my colleague just mentioned, and one of the things that we know that we have a concern about is the fact that, Congressman, I spent a lot of years in Atlanta, GA with the late Maynard Jackson's administration. For the 1990 census I was living in Atlanta and in 2000 was here, and many times the city governments would augment what happens, and that is not happening in many cases because of what is going on with the economy. So for the Black population, which is the hardest to count population of all demographic groups, yet the Blacks have accepted collectively that many of my colleagues are really not getting the kind of resources that we know we need to try to help augment that. So we are really, really glad that you have the philanthropic community here and really working with them to try to help bridge some of the gaps in resources for our community. The Unity Diaspora Coalition is made up of several key Black organizations. The national coalition is the convener; it is made up of the NAACP, the National Urban League, we have the Practice Project, Fair Count, Fair Share, and many, many other organizations that are listed within my written testimony. The Coalition, with our partners, are currently serving as effective national community partners for the Census Bureau-- many of us are national partners already--and have preexisting relationships and networks in the Black communities. I want to thank you, Congressman. I think it was March 2009 that you came and hosted us for our census summit, as well as the Praxis Project hosted an organizing meeting in September 2009. And from both of those discussions and many of the meetings we have been having to try to organize a cohesive coalition, we have three main recommendations. One falls under 2010 census partnership program. Many of the Census Bureau's national local partners are not-for-profits. We have small budgets and have been adversely affected by the economic downturn, and we believe the Census Bureau should encourage reasonable allocation of resources to national partners. Recommendations that we also have for foundations and corporate funders include: linking historically under-counted groups to other funders; funding viral media campaigns; funding Black organizations and community organizing efforts for long- term impact; identify non-cash assistance such as offering groups techs and technology support. A couple other things. I know I am almost at my time, but I think it is really important. You asked us to talk about forming effective partnerships and Complete Count Committees. One of the things that we know, the Black population, the diversity of the Caribbean African community is that we are really encouraging community Complete Count Committees to make sure, for the Black population, that it includes African- American, Caribbean, Afro-Latino, and African populations so that really has a full effect. And I will wait for the rest of this for questions and answers. Thank you, sir. [The prepared statement of Ms. Campbell follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.020 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.021 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.022 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.023 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.024 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.025 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.026 Mr. Clay. Thank you so much for your presentation. Mr. Williams, you are recognized for 5 minutes. STATEMENT OF DAVID WILLIAMS Mr. Williams. Thank you, Chairman Clay and Ranking Member McHenry and members of the Subcommittee on the Census for inviting me to testify before you today. Again, my name is David Williams. I am the director of planning for Gaston County, NC and also the Chair of the County's Complete Count Committee. On behalf of the Gaston County Board of County Commissioners and the Gaston County manager, I will discuss the activities of the Gaston County Complete Count Committee in my testimony. I have kept my written testimony in bullet form and will instead speak in more detail on those issues. Gaston County's philosophy and goal, No. 1, is to achieve an accurate count; count everyone, that includes urban and also rural areas. We are interested in also increasing response rates. In Gaston County, we have kind of an urban versus rural landscape and we have a certain amount of population in the urban area and also in the rural which makes us interested in counting the entire county and make sure we have strategies for both. Our municipal population estimate, according to the latest census, is 126,000; our rural population estimate now within the city limits is approximately 78,000. In census 2000, we developed a strategy using the Complete County Committee, and that committee was primarily made up of governmental staff. Some of the best management practices that we used for Gaston in 2000 created a slogan called I Count. We wanted to personalize this process to make sure that people understand that it wasn't so much about government wanting count; we needed accurate count. We wanted to make sure we wanted to involve them and they take ownership of the process. The Gaston County Commission funded approximately $16,000 for marketing to show its commitment to this process. We also used the LUCA Program, which is the Local Update of Census Address Program. We examined that process and we discovered that there were missing addresses, so we had a technical side to it and we were able to reconcile those addresses and increase our count in Gaston County. We have also used our Long Range and Current Planning Program. With comprehensive planning and accounting, we often do long-range plans. It gives us an opportunity to get out and meet people and understand the community, and understand those gatekeepers and understand who those folks are. So when we are trying to determine what those hard-to-count areas are, we know the people to go to because of our Long Range and Current Planning Program. We also use our subdivision process. When developments come in to the county and we know they are large developments, we can keep an eye in terms of that development, where we are in the beginning, also where we are in terms of build-out. That allows us to make sure that we are not missing those new developments that are coming into the county, both urban and also suburban. In census 2000, we also created a video called I Count video. We were able to run that, Mr. Chairman, on our government access channel in our county, which covers a vast majority of our county and is seen by a lot of individuals through our county. Now, for census 2010, being involved in census 2000, obviously, I have had an opportunity to get some more experience. The census 2010 strategy, again, establishment of a Complete Count Committee. This committee is more diverse than in 2000 because it was made up primarily of governmental staff. This is made up of the community. So we feel like with a diverse committee we are going to be able to reach out and reach other people. Part of the committee, we have a technical outreach and diverse special populations managers at the county level so we can understand the system a whole lot better. The slogan for this 2010 census is It Counts to be Counted. We are also going to have a Census Awareness Week. That has been recommended to begin on February 2010, right before they begin to send out the census forms. We are also going to be assessing our response rates in urban and rural areas, and part of that, in our urban census track, our lowest response rate was 37 percent; the highest was 76 percent. In our rural census track, the lowest was 43.5 percent and the highest was 74 percent. We want to understand what that number means. One thing that I always employ to our committee, when we go out and talk to community groups and we say we missed 36 percent, most folks can't identify what 36 percent is. We want to say that means a certain amount of people. And what we do is one person, I think, is estimated about $1,000, that is what our community could lose over a 10-year period. So that is something that we want to do when we are trying to get the word out; we want not personalize it and make sure that people understand. Mr. Chairman, if I can yield just a little bit more time, I'm running over. We are also working with our city and county planning directors. We have a luxury, I guess, of having 14 towns in our county, which allows us to go out to some of those rural areas to meet with those planning directors. We also are going to use all governmental buildings for census questions so people can go out to those centers. And, again, in closing, we are going to develop another census 2010 video to be shown on local government access channel. We are going to work with local newspapers and also go out to some of the corner grocery stores and those types things, get out where the people are. And we are going to have an art contest with some of the local schools. So some of the general concerns that we have is just at the urban and also rural areas are mistrust, and we think the way to do that and try to remedy some of that is through education and outreach. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [The prepared statement of Mr. Williams follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.027 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.028 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.029 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.030 Mr. Clay. Thank you for your presentation. One note. Be sure you use Mr. McHenry in your video. Mr. Williams. OK. Yes, sir. Mr. Clay. Ms. Cumberbatch, you are recognized for 5 minutes. STATEMENT OF YVETTE CUMBERBATCH Ms. Cumberbatch. Good afternoon, Chairman Clay and Ranking Member McHenry of the subcommittee. My name is Stacey Cumberbatch, again, and I was appointed on April 7th as New York City's 2010 census coordinator. I have over 20 years of experience in public service, philanthropy, and the law. Thank you again for this opportunity to talk about efforts underway by Mayor Bloomberg to complement and supplement the efforts of the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure a full and accurate count of all New Yorkers. First, I want to provide an overview of New York City's population. The challenges of conducting a complete count---- Mr. Clay. Ma'am, would you pull the mic closer to you? That will work. Ms. Cumberbatch. OK, now it is on. I first want to provide an overview of New York City's population, the challenges of conducting a complete count in a city as dynamic and complex as New York, and what the city is doing to help address some of these challenges. First, as many of you know, New York City is the most ethnically diverse city in the United States, with a population of 8.36 million people as of July 2008. Over 3 million New Yorkers are foreign-born. About one-fifth of those folks, about 600,000, have arrived in New York City since 2000. The top 10 foreign-born populations hail from the Dominican Republic, China, Mexico, Jamaica, Guyana, Ecuador, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, India, and Colombia. While New York City is divided into five boroughs, almost 58 percent of its population, two-thirds of all its immigrants actually reside in two boroughs, that of Brooklyn and Queens. That is about 4.9 million people. New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia. More people of Caribbean ancestry live in New York City than any city outside of the Caribbean. Over 2.27 million Hispanics live in New York City, more than any other city in the United States. New Yorkers of African descent number 1.95 million, more than double the count in any other U.S. city. More than 200 languages are spoken in New York City, with almost half of New Yorkers speaking a language other than English. The top five languages are Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Italian, and French Creole. So the city's diversity has always been its strength, but it also poses a challenge to making sure that everyone is counted in next year's census. Recognizing the importance of this, the mayor of the city of New York created the NYC 2010 Census Initiative. While the city's population exceeded 8 million for the first time in 2000, only 55 percent of New York City households mailed back a completed census form, much lower than the average national mail-in response rate of 67 percent. As stated earlier, Queens and Brooklyn are home to 58 percent of the city's population, and those two boroughs had actually the lowest mail-in response rate of all of New York City. In fact, several neighborhoods in those boroughs had response rates lower than 40 percent. So we know there are many different reasons why people do not participate in the census. For example, families living double to tripled up in one family home may fear that information provided on the census form will be shared with the city agencies, such as buildings and fire departments. Some people simply don't know what the census is. Others don't know that this information is important for enforcing civil rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act. Many immigrants in the city are fearful that their undocumented status might be disclosed to Federal authorities if they complete a census form. So the city is trying to undertake a variety of initiatives to try to supplement, as I said, what the Census Bureau is doing. We are leveraging our city resources to get the word out, to build the relationships with our community leaders from various sectors. Some of these initiatives include working with our city agencies, such as City Planning. We have a mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, a mayor's Community Assistance Unit, the New York City Housing Authority, and other offices of elected officials to first identify hard-to-count groups and neighborhoods in the city and try to work to overcome some of the barriers to participation I mentioned earlier. We are working with five of the borough president's offices to create borough-based Complete Count Committees comprised of diverse stakeholders from every community. Three of our five borough presidents have already created those committees. We work with them; they are comprised of faith-based leaders, community-based organizations, business leaders, a variety of sectors. We are using our 311 system to receive inquiries regarding the census and provide timely updated information to the public. We have a Web site online, NYC.gov. It is basic information about the census. It is translated into 18 languages. It also includes maps of every borough and how those particular neighborhoods did in the 2000 census, as well as pertinent links to other information. We are working with the Department of Education in New York City that is 1.1 million children are a part of our educational system, so we are introducing census in the schools. And I will sum up very quickly. Our work is ongoing. There are a lot of challenges to conducting a complete count in New York City given our diversity and our density, so it really requires really mapping out the city basically neighborhood by neighborhood to identify community leaders from all sectors and engage them. We are working closely with the regional Census Bureau, but, as you can imagine, New York City is very complex and it requires a real on-the-ground effort to get that word out. [The prepared statement of Ms. Cumberbatch follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.031 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.032 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.033 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.034 Mr. Clay. Thank you so much for your presentation. Ms. Lemp, you are recognized for 5 minutes. STATEMENT OF MERCEDES LEMP JACOBS Ms. Lemp. Good afternoon, Chairman Clay, Ranking Member McHenry, members of the subcommittee. It is an honor to be here today, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on such a vital issue to Washington, DC's, Latino community. My name is Mercedes Lemp. I serve as the director for the mayor's Office on Latino Affairs here in Washington, DC. The mission of the office is to improve the equality of life of the District's Latino population by providing community-based grants, advocacy, community relations, and outreach services to residents so they can have access to a full range of human services, education, health, housing, economic development, and employment opportunities. The population that is served by the office includes over 50,000 Latinos living and working in D.C., and they account for approximately 1 of every 10 D.C. residents. As part of our mission is to ensure appropriate resources are available to the Latino community, the 2010 census is of vital importance to our office. While Mayor Fenty and the District as a whole have launched the D.C. Counts Initiative, an aggressive campaign to ensure a full count of the city's residents, OLA has expanded on this effort knowing that the population we serve is especially hard to count and, at the same time, especially in need of the services and resources that will result from an accurate count. Many Latino families share homes or apartments and may not all be identified as residing in these shared dwellings. In addition, they are also more likely to move from place to place and have short-term living arrangements. Most are lower income, have little formal education; many have children and speak little English. Twelve percent of D.C.'s population is foreign- born and 50 percent of the District residents speak a language other than English at the home. Washington, DC, has been identified as one of the hardest to count municipalities. Fifty-five percent of the D.C. census tracks are designated hard-to-count. With the Latino community, we face the challenges described above, in addition to a fear of government, immigration authorities, and a general distrust of government based on experiences from their home countries. Starting with our fiscal year 2009 performance plan, the office included partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau as a key initiative. My staff and I began communicating and working with the Washington, DC, census representatives in the fall of 2008, and since then have collaborated in several ways. We have worked with the Census to help reach out to potential D.C. Latino Census workers; we hosted an employment training and employment tests in our office, a location the community knows well and is comfortable with; we have hosted additional meetings and workshops at the office and now in the community as well. OLA and the census, as partners, have presented at several majority Latino resident apartment buildings to tenant groups about Complete Count Committees. We have planned a workshop for case managers and front-line staff of agencies and non-profits that served Latinos. A majority of Latino serving organizations in the city have served the community for many years and are seen as trusted resources. We have connected with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and will partner with them to reach out to Latino student associations across the city, and are working with Latino churches through the organization, the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Our staff member in charge of educational outreach will focus a majority of her time for the next few months leading up to April 1st on educating Latino parents, English as a Second Language teachers and counselors, and setting up Complete Count Committees in Latino majority schools. Key to our success in communicating is culturally and linguistically appropriate materials. Outreach must be done using culturally and linguistically appropriate messages. Simple translations of materials will not suffice. Information must be developed specifically for the community, specifically targeting the education levels and particular situations for the community. With the financial assistance of the census, we created our own materials in this manner and they are now the centerpiece of our presentations and census talks we have been holding at community centers, clinics, schools, homeless service providers, street corners where men wait for work, etc. Both the materials and the presentations focus on a few key items beyond the dates, forms, and other essential information which is key to our community: the fact that this information will not be shared with any other agency under penalty of fine and potential incarceration to the census worker, the importance of the community services they currently utilize being adequately funded should an accurate count be done, and the importance of taking action through the simple 10-minute questionnaire. We have also stressed that this is an opportunity to stand up and be recognized in their new country and they are just as deserving to be counted and served by their new government as any other U.S. resident. As partners, OLA and the census have been able to better reach the community and more effectively deliver the message of the importance of the census. As a trusted member of the community working with community leaders and front-line workers, we have been able to give census access based on a trusted relationship that has been developed over 30 years of working with the D.C. Latino community. As director of the office, I also serve on the city's D.C. Complete Count Committee, in addition to chairing the Latino Complete Count Subcommittee. The subcommittee includes members of the Latino Community Development Commission, a commission made up of Latino leaders from the city, with the mission of advising the mayor and the office on Latino issues. My presence on the city's Complete Count Committee ensures that not only is my office focused on reaching the city's Latino community, but that the city's overall campaign also considers our Latino residents and the best way to reach them. Starting a relationship with the census early, working closely with community-based organizations and front-line staff, using culturally and linguistically appropriate materials, meeting the community where they are, and ensuring a Latino voice in the city's overall campaign we hope will lead to a full count of the D.C. Latino community. Again, I thank you for this opportunity and want to especially thank Rita Castillo and Ron Claiborne, both partnership specialists with the U.S. Census Bureau, for reaching out to us early in the process and continuing to do great work with us throughout the process. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Ms. Lemp follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.035 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.036 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.037 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.038 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.039 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.040 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T8133.041 Mr. Clay. Thank you so much, Ms. Lemp, for your testimony, as well as the entire panel. We will now move to the question and answer period. I will operate under the 5-minute rule. I will begin with a panel-wide question. I have heard from my colleagues that represent rural areas, some that represent urban and suburban areas, that a lot of Americans are leery about giving information to the Census Bureau for conspiracy reasons, fearing that they will share this information with other Federal agencies. What is the best way, in your opinion, to communicate to people that the information that they provide to the Census Bureau is confidential? What is the best way to communicate? Anybody on this panel can take a shot at it. We can start here and just move. Mr. O'Hare, do you want to offer? Mr. O'Hare. I think one is showing people what the Census Bureau asks for. A lot of people have misunderstandings about what is really asked on the Census Bureau questions, so making clear that the kind of information asked is pretty simple and demographically focused is one thing. The other, I think, is talking about the Census Bureau's record that, for decades, they have collected this data with very few problems, and I think resting on that record is another way to kind of enforce this. But I would underscore this as maybe the biggest problem the Census Bureau faces in 2010, different than 10 or 20 years ago. Mr. Clay. Ms. Campbell, do you have any thoughts? Ms. Campbell. The only thing I would add to that is it also has to do with who the messenger is in taking that into the community. I am also a small town girl from Mims, FL. In April I was home when the person knocked on my mother's door. He was an older gentleman of a different persuasion, doesn't live in the neighborhood. I happened to be home, just happened to be home for her to say, ``well, I thought you said''--you know, I talk to my mother a lot and, you know, ``I thought you said people were going to be hired from the community. He's not from our community.'' So that is going to be very, very important. You keep say trusted voices, trusted voices. Who are those trusted voices? That is what is going to be able to break that. The churches are going to be able to break that. The conversations even our barber shops and beauty shops, the conversations about what this is, because since 9/11, quite frankly, there is a lot that has to do with what has happened with people's privacy, people's concern about the government. There are a lot of things out there. And I think also government being able to say it, but community leaders being able to reiterate that this is something you need to do, and that is why people--just like we do with the vote. ``Why do I need to vote?'' ``It doesn't have anything to do with me.'' Yes, it does. It has to do with the kind of message, making sure it is culturally specific and making sure the messengers are people that our people trust. Mr. Clay. Thank you. Mr. Williams, any comment? Mr. Williams. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I echo Ms. Campbell's comments and I would add to it I think that you asked a great question, and that is the kind of question I think that we, as individuals who work with the census, have to understand. So part of the reason why, part of our committee, we wanted a technical outreach manager and an outreach manager, and also a special and diverse populations manager, because we have urban; and what is done in urban may be a little different in the rural. So we have to understand the questions that each area faces, and sometimes I don't know some areas as hard to count in urban and/or rural, but we have to find those people who do. And that is the reason I was saying earlier, through our planning program, we can get to know who those gatekeepers are, because, like Ms. Campbell said, if you find out who those individuals are, they may trust that particular individual, and you have to go through that individual. Another point is I talk to a lot of my friends, for example, about the census. It is not that they mistrust; sometimes they just don't know. So what I do is--and they say, ``David, you know, you are kind of passionate about this stuff,'' you know. I say, ``well, it is important because, No. 1, if you don't return your census form and if you are not counted, we don't get enough money to fund schools, hospitals, and roads, for example. We don't get all the money that we get. So it takes away from our community.'' So I think when you personalize it and you connect with that individual, it is kind of like voting, like Ms. Campbell was talking about. If you don't vote, it is hard for you to be counted; and if you don't fill out your form, then do you count? Mr. Clay. Exactly. Thank you for that response. Ms. Cumberbatch. Ms. Cumberbatch. I would echo everything that has been said so far. It does come down to education, people understanding what it is, actually seeing the form; that it is not intrusive, that it is confidential, it does not ask citizenship, it does not ask income, two concerns of most people. Connecting it with the importance of driving Federal funding to our localities for a variety of programs, that is a way of personalizing it, about schools, roads, etc., having that conversation. Again, all of this has to be in the context of trust. Mr. Clay. Right. Ms. Cumberbatch. And it comes down to the trusted voices and is it--you know, in New York City, as I said, there are some instances where folks are living double, tripled-up in a one-family home. That home is only going to get one census form, but there are three families living there. So those other two families either have to take it upon themselves to go to a be counted site to get a form or the one family that is there has to include them on that form. But that is a risk to them because they are saying, ``well, who is going to get this information.'' ``Is local government going to find out that there are two other families that live here and it is really a one-family home?'' If I am in a family and I have a sibling who is undocumented, do I put them on the form? So all of those factors a person is in a decisionmaking process about what are the benefits to providing some basic demographic information, and am I really going to see those benefits, versus is there a risk about something in my household being disclosed that I don't want someone to know. So, again, it is about trusted voices, enrolling a lot of diverse stakeholders and leaders in our local communities. You can imagine New York City is very complicated. We are very diverse. We have to reach out broadly and deeply to get that message out, and at the end of the day we get the message out, but come mid-March, when the forms are out in households, that is the call to action, that is when the real work starts to get people to actually fill it out and mail it back. Mr. Clay. Thank you for that response. Ms. Lemp, how do we get them to overcome their fear of filling out the form? Ms. Lemp. Well, in addition to everything that was said, definitely the trusted voices in the Latino community, that is even more important; the churches, the non-profits that the community works with. And I think the message about the value, because you get this form and what is in it for you; and I know in D.C. the value per capita for the 2007 allocation of funds was $3,500. So are you willing to walk away from $3,500 that goes to a concrete example of an organization or a way that it is benefiting that community? So this church or this organization or your school, by filling out this simple form, it means $3,500. Mr. Clay. And with the Hispanic community in some parts of the country, they are very fearful about even talking to anybody, anyone from Government. Ms. Lemp. Right. Mr. Clay. So what is the best practices there, to send people from that community? Ms. Lemp. Absolutely. Absolutely. Right. So a mass campaign on TV is not going to work, it has to be one-on-one conversations with those leaders in the community that are trusted, basically what everybody has been saying over and over; and it is really a conversation, me talking to you, it is not even necessarily a poster or a flyer or whatever that might be; it is really just the one-on-one conversation, I am doing it, you should do it, and this is why. Mr. Clay. Thank you so much. I thank the whole panel for their responses. Mr. McHenry, you are recognized. Mr. McHenry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for your testimony. Let's continue with this discussion here about mistrust of government or distrust, because I have a constituency where, in the mountains of western North Carolina, if you are not from that holler, as they would say it, you are not from here. And that may mean that you grew up 10 minutes down the road, literally 10 minutes down the road, and you are not from here. So, you know, you could take that same--what Ms. Campbell said, the person who knocked on your door and you say you are not from here. And we have a panel who obviously all five of you all are going to answer your census form, and if you are having that reaction, just imagine those people that have never responded. So if we could just start from Ms. Lemp, if you want to go from there and we will just go across the panel. If you can delve in a little bit more about what are the best practices for Complete Count Committees so that we can break through that. Ms. Lemp. And it is those conversations require Complete Count Committees because that is the only way, and it has to be Complete Count Committees, again, with the folks that have been dealing with these communities from the beginning. So a perfect example would be, in Washington, DC, there are a lot of non- profits, a lot of clinics. Even with health care, a lot of the Latino community doesn't necessarily go to a traditional doctor, they are going to go to the clinics. That is who they trust; that is where they have been. So meeting them exactly where they are. And the Complete Count Committees allow you to have those conversations, spreading the work of the census throughout these Complete Count Committees and allowing many feet on the ground to have these conversations. Mr. McHenry. It is interesting. Mr. Williams' testimony, our discussions before, as head of the planning for the county, you know where the next subdivision is going in or a semi- complete subdivision that wasn't on the map. What are those secrets that you could share with people, what you find that works? Ms. Cumberbatch and we will kind of keep going across. But I am looking for that something you found that kind of works that we can communicate to other people. Ms. Cumberbatch. Right. I mean, this is helpful because it is experiences from different areas of the country, rural, smaller cities, etc. You know, New York City is so large, so diverse, and obviously I have been looking for that magic thing to work in New York City. Honestly, there is not one magic thing. The approach that we have taken is to first try to map the city and understand how the city did in the last decennial census in terms of mail-in response rate, which is a good indicator on where there might be some challenges. But then to fast forward and look at some of the American Community Survey data that recently came out so we can see where new immigrant groups, because New York City is 40 percent foreign-born, where they have settled within the city in different communities so that we can anticipate that there might be some need to really do some serious outreach in those communities as well. So that was the first level of kind of analysis. And then trying to map out, OK, who is working within these communities in terms of community-based organization, faith-based leaders, elected officials, etc., to go out and speak to them about this is coming up, this is what went on in the past in the community in terms of mail-in response rate; here are a lot of new people that have settled in the area. What can we do now, early, to come together and bring our resources to leverage them to not only get the word out, but get the word out in a meaningful way to people, whether that is through their ethnic media, through ads, whether that is convening town hall meetings. But it is very labor intensive and it really does come down to that kind of organizing, mapping it out, and that kind of one-on-one conversation. The ad campaigns, newspapers, etc., are all important because that is an echoing of the message about this is an important thing to do. But, at the end of the day, people are going to trust because you have had a meaningful conversation with them about what they see in their future for their community and how this connects to that. Mr. McHenry. Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams. I would add everything that has been said and I would go back to the Complete Count Committee. One thing, as chair, that I am employing is that the volunteers, they need training and they have to understand. It is one thing to have a volunteer that will do anything that you ask them to do, but if they don't understand in terms of what community they are going into and how to approach, then they are probably not going to connect. So what we are employing is our Complete Count Committee to understand the landscape of Gaston County, try to understand different communities. Some are connected, some are sprawled, kind of spread out. May take a different approach. But they have to understand that so we will know what strategy to employ in particular locations. The one thing I always hit on, again, I hit on earlier, is someone mentioned a response rate, national response rate was 67 percent. Now, if I am at the Y and I am playing basketball or working out, I am talking to one of my buddies, I say, ``you know, we had a 67 percent response rate.'' That is more than 50. He might think that is a pretty good rate, when actually some people didn't get counted, and that is significant for Gaston County. So when you begin to say what does 1 percent mean, 1 percent means this in dollars. I think you alluded to it earlier. One percent means this in dollars. And when you begin to connect and explain it down to their level, see, as planners and people that are working with census, sometimes it is the jargon that we use and sometimes the language. We have to try to bring it down, and that is one thing we are going to approach. And we feel that if we do that it will make a connection. You mentioned in terms of language planning. We are going to use every resource that we have. We will use our GIS system, Geographical Information System; we will use our Building Inspections Department, not so much for them to go out and do, but tell us where some tough areas are. We will use our Gaston count, we use our police department to work with our community groups, community watch groups. They meet frequently, they know their community, and they really watch the community, and they can tell us, ``hey, this is going to be a tough area.'' So I think it was mentioned earlier it is going to be a myriad approach, but that Complete Count Committee is critical. But you have to give them the tools and understanding of what they are up against, so when they go out they are ready to make a difference; and I think we will be able to do that. Mr. McHenry. Thank you. Ms. Campbell. Ms. Campbell. Well, three things. I mentioned in my testimony that we made sure that we built a coalition that represents the full Black population, with something that is a little bit more unique, at least in my experience. So we have the African Federation, for instance, who is focusing on the African communities, which are very diverse, and making sure that the Complete Count Committees and what he is doing is, first of all, training folks on the ground, but also being able to know when do you go have the conversation. In a lot of communities, you may have to have the conversation in the evening. You can't just do it at the church. If people have gathering places, where are those gathering places? When is the time to have those really, really personal conversations to really make a difference? The Institute of Caribbean Studies is leading our efforts in the Caribbean community, and the cultural specific, knowing when and where is really critical so the Complete Count Committees are able to--there is no cookie cutter answer. The other is the Black population, when it comes to the numbers, is Black men and children 10 and under. So women, make sure that your Complete Count Committee has a very strong target to mothers, to women who are the caregivers, even to get to men, because in many cases it is the mother, it is the wife, it is the significant other in the home who is actually the one who is going to fill that form out. So it is just making sure that the Complete Count Committees--we have something called the Black Women's Roundtable that is made up of diverse women. We are utilizing that group to help us create the messages in local community. But the bottom line is making sure there is a Complete Count Committee for the Black population, which is my focus. It is very diverse based on what is really going on and looking at those numbers in your community to know that. It is all about relationships, relationships, trusted voices, and making sure that you target women in a real, real way to help bridge the gap for the Black population. Mr. McHenry. Dr. O'Hare. Mr. O'Hare. Let me respond by talking about a meeting that I was at in North Carolina, and it kind of ties a couple things together here, I guess. In August, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation had a meeting just outside of Raleigh, where they brought together 40 or 50 people from around the State involved in non-profit organizations and grassroots organizations; and throughout the day one of the things that came up over and over again was the willingness, the eagerness of these groups to work on census issues, but the lack of resources to do it. And they are already pressed in so many ways that we all know about that it was a frustrating experience for all of us because the will was there but the resources were not. And I think it kind of underscores what all of us in the Census Bureau knows: what is really critical in getting people involved in this, getting people to respond is these local trusted voices and the organizations that they know. That brings me to the recommendation I left with, I guess, early on, is that I hope we can work together to find some way to get these local groups the resources they need to do this job. I don't know if it will do it in time for the 2010 census, but I hope we put it on the agenda for 2020. Mr. McHenry. Thank you. Mr. Clay. Thank you, Mr. McHenry. I would like to ask unanimous consent that one of our newest Members to the House, Representative Judy Chu of the Golden State of California, be allowed to sit on the panel today. Mr. McHenry. I have no objection, but the gentlelady is OK to come a little closer as well. [Laughter.] Mr. Clay. Thank you for that observation. Ms. Chu, you are recognized for 5 minutes. Ms. Chu. Well, since my things are here, maybe I will just stick it out here. But thank you so much. I appreciate it, Mr. Chair and Mr. Ranking Member. I especially wanted to come to this hearing because I did serve 6 years on the REAC Committee, the Race and Ethnic Advisory, for the years leading up to the year 2000 census. I know what challenges there are. They are great in terms of trying to combat the under-count. So I am so glad that you are here and working toward an accurate complete count for this year 2010 census. So let me ask this question to Dr. O'Hare or Ms. Cumberbatch. California has cut its census funding for outreach to $2 million, which is a significant decrease from $24.7 million in 2000. I know that LA City funding has plunged by half. And these are the areas that are very difficult to count. In fact, LA is the No. 1 hard-to-count population in the country. Now, I know that in New York Mayor Bloomberg challenged the census counts and secured $77 million in additional funding for New York City alone. How was he able to get those funds and what will be the implications of the lack of funds in California and LA City? Ms. Cumberbatch. Just for clarification, so the city of New York, the mayor created the NYC 2010 Census Office as an office within the mayor's office, and our annual budget for this census, to help coordinate the city's activities and work with the regional Census Bureau, is actually $750,000. I wasn't around in 2000. Different administration. I can't say what it was then, but our budget for this cycle is $750,000. We currently have three staff people. I anticipate hiring two more staff. And then we have a pot of money that we are looking to figure out the best way to supplement and target either special events, targeted ad campaigns toward certain areas within New York City that are hard to count. Now, I will tell you that, based on our indices, New York City is probably the hardest to count city in the United States, with almost 71 percent of the census tracks being hard to count; and that has to do with, obviously, our large immigrant population. We are the most diverse city, but we are also a city of basically renters, a lot of singles; all the other indices around hard-to-count. So two things is, so $750,000 the city has committed directly for coordination of census activities. But that doesn't speak to the in-kind support that we have leveraged in other city resources using all of our agencies. So using our 311 system, which is our basic information system, using our intranet system, using all the agencies' contracting opportunities. So many of our agencies contract with CBOs on the ground to provide social services. So we have used that network to disseminate information to directly enroll them in getting the word out to their various constituencies. So we haven't put a money value on all that activity, but it is significant. In addition, the State of New York put aside $2 million for census outreach throughout New York State. They put an RFP on the street back in September. They are evaluating proposals. Some share of that money will go to non-profits on the ground in New York City doing outreach work. I work with them, share all the maps about response rate, where ethnic groups have settled so they can, when they do those funding decisions, do them with some information about where there are going to be challenges. In addition to that, a number of private foundations of New York City have gotten together to coordinate some of their funding of census outreach work. So we are kind of pulling together in these difficult economic times a lot of different ways to leverage resources on the ground in these hard-to- count, low response rate neighborhoods to increase the response rate in the first instance, and increase cooperation when folks do have to go--census takers do have to go door-to-door to collect that demographic information for those households. Mr. O'Hare. If I am correct, I think you may be talking about the challenge New York City made to the population, the post-census population estimates, so they raised the estimate and, therefore, New York City got more money---- Ms. Chu. Yes, actually, that is was it was---- Mr. O'Hare. OK. Well, I think that raises an important point because those estimates, which drive much of the $450 billion that are distributed each year on census data, are tied to the census numbers from the beginning of the decade. So if places are under-counted, they get underestimated throughout the decade, and that is the challenge that New York won and got millions of dollars more because of it. Ms. Chu. Right. Mr. O'Hare. I will just mention, though, in California I know there has been an enormous decrease in the amount of money the State has made available. I just mentioned that some of the foundations like the California Endowment and the Grant Makers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugee, and the Border Philanthropy Partnership have pulled together a couple million dollars to try and fill in that gap, and in my written testimony there are some details about that, if you are interested. Ms. Cumberbatch. So let me just add. Thank you for clarifying. One thing about New York City is we have a population division within our City Planning Department. It is part of an agency, a division. A lot of localities do not have a staff of demographers and experts to be able to evaluate each year census data that comes out and to challenge it in terms of whether it is a low estimate or a high estimate. Similarly, our Population Division is currently engaged in the LUCA Process, the Local Update of Census Address list, to look at that address list to make sure that it is complete, there weren't deletions or the additions that the city had recommended earlier in the year are included. So all of those things go to obviously helping us get an accurate count, the technical aspects of getting an accurate count year to year. But, again, that is something that the city has always budgeted in terms of a population division from our city tax levy money, it is not--and that is an expertise that has existed in the city probably for the past 40 to 50 years, in terms of a department. Ms. Chu. Well, it is great that New York was able to put together those sources to be able to improve their count. Let me ask this other question that has to do with bilingual questionnaires. When I was on REAC, I was a big believer and pushed very hard to have bilingual questionnaires distributed to areas where people speak other languages, and I was very glad to see, this year, for this census, that the Spanish language questionnaire is put together and is going to be mailed to places with high Spanish-speaking populations. But I saw that for the other languages--Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian--it is being translated, but not being mailed, and I think that is a huge deficit. What can you do to overcome this--my goal would be for year 2020 to change this so that they are mailed, because it is easy to determine where you have such a high population that they are primarily speaking that other language, and, thus, you can do better outreach for those populations. This is for anybody. Ms. Cumberbatch. Well, I totally agree with you. We actually know and have up on our Web site from 2000 the top five most spoken languages in New York City broken down by census track. So you can actually look at a map. Now, it has changed since 2000, but you can look at the map and you can see where there is a high density of Spanish speakers or Chinese speakers or Russian speakers, etc. So obviously, yes, it would make sense to say that, yes, they are mailing the form in Spanish to those census tracks with a high concentration of Spanish speakers, but they could easily, looking forward, look at other census tracks and other languages that are spoken in different localities, particularly New York City, and mail the form up-front to those households, in English as well; and that would cut back on the need for a lot of non-profits and community-based organizations to also then try to get the word out to those different communities and say, ``oh, if you need it in this language, we have it or we can help you get it and you can come in.'' I mean, that would be a huge improvement in the process of conducting the census for 2020, and I would look at an array of languages, because the data is there. The data is even there in more up-to-date terms in terms of the American Community Survey. So by the time 2020 comes, we are going to have a wealth of data from the past 10 years about languages that are spoken by census track to be able to do a decennial census that really, up front, deals with some of the language issues. Ms. Chu. Well, in fact, just to continue along those lines, it is my understanding that the American Community Survey is not translated in those same languages. Ms. Cumberbatch. Right. So that is an issue. Ms. Chu. It is a huge issue. Ms. Cumberbatch. That is a huge issue and that is something that has to be changed in order to get accurate, and particularly because it is a statistical sampling of the population. And in a place like New York City where, as I indicated, almost half of our population speaks a language other than English, it is a huge issue. So it does go to the accuracy of all the data that we obtain. So, yes, we would push for the American Community Survey being in language based on the information we know about New York City and all other jurisdictions, as well as helping, then, inform for the decennial census, since those forms are going to be mailed to every household, you know, where they should be in different languages or mailed in English and another language based on the density of foreign language speakers in that particular census track. Ms. Chu. I just hope that we remember the lessons for this census and push it for the year 2020, because I remember us pushing this for year 2000. Here we are 2010, but the lessons haven't been fully implemented. Mr. Clay. We certainly appreciate the issue that you raise and this subcommittee looks forward to your activism and interaction with it. Thank you, Ms. Chu. Ms. Chu. Thank you. Mr. Clay. I now recognize the gentleman from North Carolina for 5 minutes. Mr. McHenry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know votes are coming up on the floor, so I will try to keep this short. Mr. Williams, in our discussions you talked about forums with the Complete Count Committee and then your relationships with the individual towns and cities within Gaston County. I know others in the room won't find this significant, but we have a county with 200,000 people in it--it is in the top 10 in North Carolina population-wise--and we have 14 different municipalities, which kind of blows your mind; whereas, one borough of New York is larger than the population of North Carolina. So we have a little comparison here. But the difficulties of that in terms of reaching out to these local governments, how do you overcome sort of that divide of cities and then the rural areas as well? Mr. Williams. Well, Congressman, we have what you call an Elected Officials Seminar, where all the elected officials in the county come together quarterly to talk about issues, and I think Gaston County is doing a good job in terms of trying to build those relationships from the elected side. Also, from the staff side, we have started a group called GCAMP, which the acronym stands for Gaston County and Municipal Planners Group, which is a diverse group of people, of planners, but also people from affordable housing, housing, police, also from emergency management. And that group has laid a foundation by which we can address issues such as the census. So that is how we work. So when something like this comes about, for example, in Cherryville or in Mount Holly, for example, we already have that connection. So when there are difficult areas in and around those municipalities, they have an urban feel, but they are not as large as Gastonia, for example, that is the largest municipality in Gaston County, for example. However, they have a connection also to some of those rural areas. So we can work through them. Again, it goes back to who knows the community the best. So we go to those planning directors and that city staff, and they can help us. So that is what works. I would mention something--I don't mean to digress, but something you were asking earlier I think was left out a little bit, and that is, also, we plan to use the school system. I mentioned an art contest and I had to kind of go through that quickly. But we see the school system as an opportunity to involve elementary, middle, and high school. So if we can get them involved, hopefully they can pass that information on to their parents, grandparents, relatives and say, ``hey, this is important for us to do.'' But the number of towns can be tough in terms of planning and zoning, having different zoning regulations throughout the county. We worked on that process of trying to have one, but, at the same time, we have something such as significant and vital as the upcoming census. Having those guys on the ground, those different municipalities and those staff on the ground in those areas makes it a little easier for me, as Chair of the Complete Count Committee, to make sure that we don't leave areas out, be it urban and/or suburban, rural, etc. Mr. McHenry. Is that one way, working through the school system and working through the kids in getting the message out about the census, is that a way that you found to break through the language barrier that some in our community have? Mr. Williams. I think it will create an opportunity. I think so, it will create an opportunity to have that discussion, that conversation with school teachers and to talk to their students about the importance of census. So I think it would offer definitely the opportunity to enlighten their parents about it. In terms of someone speaking a different language, say the Latino population, you still may have some differences when the child goes home to talk to the parent if the language is primarily Spanish, so we are going to need to work on that. It is not going to be easy, but I think the school system is still just another tool that we can use to try to reduce the under- count and increase the response rate. Mr. McHenry. Absolutely. I certainly appreciate it and I appreciate you all on the panel, Mr. Williams and everyone else on the panel for testifying. I know some of you are back for an additional time, but we appreciate your testimony and your assistance, especially with such a vital function of government as the census is, whether it is a large urban area or rural areas, and everywhere in between. So thank you for your efforts and we would certainly appreciate any guidance or feedback that you could give this subcommittee to make sure that the census is the best that we have ever had in our Nation's history. Thanks so much. Mr. Clay. Thank you, Mr. McHenry. Ms. Cumberbatch, you indicated in your written testimony that you have had some interaction with philanthropic organizations. Have you secured any significant financial commitments and can you expound in that in detail, what has been the role of philanthropic organizations in enumerating New York City? Ms. Cumberbatch. There are a number of foundations in New York City that have expressed an interest and put together some funding to support. They haven't announced those grants yet, but have put together and coordinated their funding to organizations that are going to do census outreach work. What the city of New York did in that regard was to host a briefing early on in June of funders in collaboration with those private funders, a briefing about the census, just basic information. We had the Census Bureau there, we had community- based organizations that had worked on the 2000 census to talk about some of the challenges they had in doing outreach as a first step. So that gathering was a way to try to interest funders in obviously funding community-based organizations. Mr. Clay. This being tough economic times, I would assume it is a tough sale. Ms. Cumberbatch. This being tough economic times, while many private funders in New York City said yes, we see this as important, we see fantastic leverage--because for every person in New York City that is counted, it amounts to $3,000 a year in terms of Federal funding--that their funding is basically flat this year because their philanthropy is connected to the financial market. So because they have an obligation to current grantees in their ongoing work, whether that be social services, etc., it was hard to supplement, this year, some of those activities of those non-profits to specifically target census work. So it is a very limited pot. Mr. Clay. Dr. O'Hare, I assume other cities have also come to you and come to the Foundation to ask for financial support? Mr. O'Hare. Well, the Funders Census Initiative is kind of the model that has developed these kinds of activities. I think Chicago and the Joyce Foundation was probably the first to really take on this kind of mission, where they assembled more than $1 million from eight funders or so, and went through a process somewhat similar to New York. The same has happened in Los Angeles and some other cities. Certainly a move in the right direction. I think we are all feeling frustrated because the need is so big and our dollars are not nearly enough. Mr. Clay. Thank you for that response. Ms. Lemp, can you expound on your knowledge of a census boycott by some Latino groups and what additional problems does that create? Please detail your findings and explain what creative tactics your office is utilizing to combat that. Ms. Lemp. Right. The boycott was something that came out a few months back, and I have to say that with our contacts in the local communities--and connecting, just reiterating the message of this not being connected to any immigration issues and connecting the need to be counted to the funds and the resources that the city would gain from being counted. It really wasn't a big issue also because that message of boycotting was not a message from a local organization, so it wasn't necessarily a trusted voice in our D.C. Latino community. So it wasn't a big issue in Washington. Mr. Clay. Ms. Campbell, yesterday Census Director Groves and I, along with St. Louis city officials, rolled out a Census in the Schools Program. Do you believe this is an effective way to reach under-counted children? And please be specific. Ms. Campbell. Oh, very much so. One of the things that I mentioned about targeting women, targeting mothers, targeting caregivers, and not connecting the fact that what I also wanted to say was what we are focusing in on is developing not just-- for coalition 10 years ago, we actually did a poster contest that targeted middle school, elementary grade school. Now, the younger folks that are part of our coalitions are saying we have the social networking now. There are a lot of creative ways for young people to be able to express themselves in the process. So with the Census in Schools, working with community- based organizations, as well as the school system, the Census in Schools Program, but there are also opportunities for the community-based organizations to participate. So we are really excited that, as a part of what we are doing to be able to have young people express themselves culturally around what does this mean, you know, how I count, if you will. The National Conference of Black Mayors has an I Count. There are several folks who have this I Count campaign. We have not talked to each other. We had a conference call yesterday with our coalition and two people on the call, who had not talked to each other but were focusing on Black men and the conference, both had I Count campaigns. So there is something about I Count and the change message, especially with the young people being a part of this change era we are in, to be able to express that. So part of what we are doing this year is adding a part of our Census in Schools efforts to utilize social networking, to utilize Facebook, to utilize the YouTube and all the other social mediums that are out there for folks to be able to express. So we saw what could happen in the last election. And that is something that is low cost and people are able to express themselves creatively. And that same 81-year- old mother was a school teacher for 50-plus years, so understanding how that impacts and how teachers have an impact on young lives and the parents, more specifically, is definitely one of the No. 1 things we are going to be doing. Mr. Clay. Thank you so much. Dr. O'Hare, did you have something to say? Mr. O'Hare. Yes. Could I add a comment on the Census in Schools Program, which I wholly endorse, but I think it is important to recognize, when talking about children, which is the Casey Foundation's focus, is that the age group that has the highest under-count rate based on the 2000 census was preschoolers. Kids under age 5 had an under-count rate of 4 percent higher than people in their twenties and higher than school-aged kids. So I am worried that somehow we think we have taken care of all the children under-counting by focusing on school-aged kids, and it is critical to remember that is not the group that is missed the most. Mr. Clay. Thank you for that point. Mr. Williams, I am going to let you have the final word. Have you interacted with your regional and local census director or your regional director? Are you familiar with who they are? Have they come by to visit your Complete Count Committees? Mr. Williams. Mr. Chairman, they have. They have come by. We have a pretty good relationship with our local bureau partnership specialists is what they are called. They actually came to our first Complete Count Committee meeting; they made a presentation, they made all the material, handed that information out. And, again, in Gaston County we try to set a standard in 2000 with the census, and as a result of it, the Census Bureau felt like we had done a pretty good job in terms of promotion, so we already had that relationship built up from 2000. So when this started kicking off a couple years ago, they were ready to call us and see what are some of the things we can offer to help them out. So, to answer your question, yes, we do have a relationship with them. Mr. Clay. Very good. Let me thank the entire panel for your testimony today and thank you for attempting to make ``census 2010'' the most successful that this country has experienced. I appreciate your work in this area. That concludes this hearing. Thank you. [Whereupon, at 4:22 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]