The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Table of Contents

• Introduction

Executive Branch

• Looking Forward to New Blood in Washington
• Interview with Bob Edgar

On the Hill

• The Americans With Disabilities Act, Act Two
• As Home Foreclosures Climb, Efforts to Help Troubled Homeowners Continue
• The Year in Judicial and Executive Nominations
• Advocating for Federal Leadership on Education
• Facing New Challenges with the 2010 Census
• Modernizing the Federal Poverty Measure
• Piecemeal Legislation, Raids Take Place of Immigration Overhaul
• Below the Surface
• Interview with Kathryn Kolbert

In the Courts

• Wrapping up the Supreme Court’s 2007-2008 Term

In the States

• Colorado: Battleground for More Than Just the Presidency.
• Interview with Lilly Ledbetter

Leadership Conference Activities

• Preventing a Digital TV Divide
• Examining the State of Fair Housing in the 21st Century
• Bringing Diverse Communities Together
• 32nd Annual Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner
• Interview with John Payton

Facing New Challenges with the 2010 Census

Paul Edenfield

After ensuring that the U.S. Census Bureau had adequate funding to prepare for the 2010 census, civil rights activists spent much of 2008 working to ensure that the bureau's management of new technologies would not hinder its ability to administer a successful count in 2010.

The decennial census is very important because apportionment of representation in Congress and redistricting, as well as federal funding for services -- hospitals, education, child-care, and disaster preparation -- are determined by the census count. Undercounting certain populations, such as minorities or low-income people, may reduce federal funding for the services that these populations need most, or fail to accord them proportionate voting representation. 

This year, technological and other problems arose with respect to computer handheld devices that were to be used in door-to-door outreach to voters who failed to respond to the initial census mailing.  As a result, the bureau had to scramble to reinstate plans to use the old, more cumbersome pen-and-paper method. 

Moreover, cost increases due to this shift – as well as a need for additional resources for using handheld computers to canvass address locations – forced Census Bureau officials to request more funding from Congress in the spring of 2008.  Civil rights leaders helped convince Congress to include additional funding in an emergency defense spending bill over the summer.

In addition, civil rights organizations urged the Census Bureau to implement communications and outreach plans that use materials tailored to diverse communities and take into account the special challenges involved in reaching certain sub-groups, including Latinos, Asian Americans, African Americans and other hard-to-count populations.

Toward this end, civil rights organizations pressed for inclusion of money in the 2008 Census Bureau budget for the Partnership Program, which conducts outreach to historically undercounted communities by using trusted community leaders to assuage distrust toward the counting process and bridge language and cultural barriers.  The Partnership Program is intended to get a more accurate tally for undercounted groups, which include immigrants and language minorities, as well as seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income people. 

Civil rights groups also argued that the bureau must consult and work with ethnic media as it implements its communications plan. Ethnic media are a trusted source of information for many of the nation's hard to reach residents, and these media outlets have extensive expertise on reaching different population groups. 

Such steps are also important to deal with the fears generated by anti-immigrant rhetoric and the ever increasing immigration raids sweeping across the nation.

Reacting to these obstacles and to the fear that further disruptions could jeopardize an accurate count, civil rights leaders are urging the next administration to pay special attention to the Census Bureau and provide strong leadership for the 2010 count.  The Partnership Program still faces staffing shortages and implementation delays that must be addressed, and the communications plan must be finalized and operationalized. 

Though funding for 2009 and 2010 is critical, civil rights groups fear that Congress, disenchanted by the bureau's recent missteps and pleas for emergency funding, may be less generous with appropriations.

Paul Edenfield is counsel and policy analyst for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and specializes in workers' rights, census, and judiciary issues.