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!!!STOP THE VITTER-BENNETT AMENDMENT!!!

The Vitter-Bennett Amendment, which proposes to include an additional question to the form to be used in the 2010 Census regarding immigration status, is expected to be voted on within the next 30 hours. We need another round of calls to key members of the Senate whose vote could determine the amendment passes or fails.
 
We understand the following points need to be made more strongly:
 
  • The Vitter amendment would waste $7 billion in research, planning, and preparation that has already occurred for Census 2010. Furthermore, Census 2010 would be completely derailed.
  • The Vitter amendment undermines the U.S. Constitution which is to ensure that we have an accurate portrait of America in every decennial Census. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution clearly states that the apportionment of members of the House of Representatives is based on a full count of residents in each state. We base apportionment on the need for representatives to represent all of the residents in their districts, not just those who can vote - for example, we count children in the Census for apportionment purposes.
  • The Vitter Amendment is intrusive and will raise concerns among all respondents - both native-born and immigrant - about the confidentiality and privacy of information provided to the government. The language proposed by Vitter is NOT the same question used in the American Community Survey (ACS). 

You should remind the Senator's staff that six former Directors of the Census Bureau, appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, have come out against the amendment saying, "Adding a new census question now would require redesigning and reformatting questionnaires and all related materials, such as language assistance guides and web-based instructions; redesigning instructions and training manuals for more than a million temporary census workers; reconfiguring or rebuilding data capture and processing software, which is designed for the specific questionnaire already in place; and revising a $400 million outreach and promotional campaign, much of it already deployed, which highlights the new short form's ten questions and often confirms that the census does not ask about immigration status."

Please click here for the names of key Senators, their phone numbers, and their staff contacts. Please take a few minutes to contact all or as many of these Senators as possible. Urge them to please vote against the Vitter Amendment.

Thank you. Keep up the good work. Take care.