!!!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. |