Transcript

ANDREW REAMER:  Census data provide key benchmarks for federal enforcement of civil rights laws and court decisions concerning work force and housing discrimination. Census data play an important role in a wide variety of federal programs and policies such as those concerned with adult education, small business development, veteran and senior citizen health, affordable housing, transportation planning, women in the labor force, farm workers, immigrants, disabled students, and ground water contamination -- to give but a few examples.

Very importantly, state and local governments rely heavily on census data to make investment decisions regarding, for example, the needs for school buildings, highways, affordable housing, work force training, and access to health care. How best to deploy criminal justice resources and how to plan for and respond to disasters.

The census has a pervasive influence on our economy. Businesses of all types and sizes use census data to identify markets, select sites for operations, make investment decisions, determine the goods and services to be offered, and assess labor markets. Hospitals and communities service organizations use census data to better serve the needs of their constituencies, and census data are essential to state and local efforts to promote business development and job creation. No small thing in this day and age.Census data then are essential to pretty much everything we care about. Well, maybe not everything but certainly democracy, public policy, and the economy. It's a lot.

So, what's it take to achieve a good census? Essentially two things are necessary. One is getting the census questionnaire into every household and group quarters in the nation; and the second is to get people to accurately complete the questionnaire. If the Census Bureau can do that, we're in good shape. But to do these things, of course, is no small matter, particularly among populations that traditionally have been harder to count, including Latinos and African-Americans. So, to obtain a good count, we need a widespread awareness of the importance of being counted; trust that being counted will not cause a problem; the act of collaboration of state and local governments to help identify addresses and promote participation; over a million capable census workers; census methods and technologies that work is intended; adherence to good plans and schedules; and, essential to all else, effective leadership.

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