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Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is calling on the Senate to reject a proposed amendment that would require the Census Bureau to add a question on citizenship and immigration status to the 2010 census form less than six months before the census takes place on April 1.

In a guest blog on The Huffington Post yesterday, Henderson said the divisive amendment, sponsored by Sens. David Vitter, R. La., and Robert Bennett, R. Utah, would disrupt the census after years of careful planning, delaying the apportionment of Congressional and state legislative districts the allocation of federal funds, and the availability of data essential to corporate decision-making.

"At a time when the political process is mired in partisanship, public trust in government is at an all-time low, and the economy is stuck in a recession, the last thing the nation needs is a delayed and dysfunctional census," Henderson said.

A new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative investigating the 2010 census preparations of 11 major U.S. cities and found that six of these cities – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh - have less money and fewer staffers for census outreach than they did in 2000.

The 66 percent national mail response rate for the 2000 census reversed a three-decade decline in public cooperation, an achievement believed  to be due in large part to community-focused outreach and education activities in which state and local governments played a significant role. But the recession has hit many communities hard and state and local budgets are tight.

An inaccurate count can skew the allocation of vital program funds and political representation for the next decade.  The stakes are particularly high in many of the cities that Pew studied because they have high numbers of hard-to-count populations, including low-income renters, immigrants and minorities. 

Recognizing the importance of an accurate 2010 census and the limited funds of many cities, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the Asian American Justice Center, the NAACP, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and the National Congress of American Indians have launched the national "Make Yourself Count" campaign to educate Americans about the importance of an accurate count.  In addition, the campaign is working with local organizations and activists to increase census participation in 13 of the hardest-to-count cities, which includes seven of the cities Pew studied.

Today, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund released a report entitled, “Counting in the Wake of a Catastrophe.”  The report, released on the eve of the four-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, outlines a set of recommendations for achieving a fair and accurate count for the 2010 Census on the Gulf Coast.

The census determines the allocation of hundreds of millions of federal dollars, which go to fund public infrastructures such as transportation, roads, hospitals, and schools.  An undercount of the Gulf Coast population would cost the region millions of dollars, and would be detrimental to towns that are already struggling financially post-Katrina.

This video, featuring residents of Mississippi and Louisiana, explains why an accurate count in the 2010 Census is crucial for Katrina-impacted areas.

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Robert Groves to head the Census Bureau.

Groves will manage the 2010 Census, which will take place in April 2010.  The bureau is currently verifying addresses and, in the fall, will open the remaining local offices and recruit census takers.

"In confirming Dr. Robert Groves to head the Census Bureau, the nation will get a leader who is a widely respected survey methodologist and a leading authority on the issue of non-response in surveys," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of LCCR.  "With the census less than a year away, Dr. Groves will undoubtedly face some serious challenges, but we believe his training and experience have prepared him for this important job."

In an effort to better track its own demographic shifts and combat racial discrimination, France will consider conducting a national census that will account for race and ethnicity for the first time.

In France, unlike the U.S. and the U.K., it is illegal for the government to classify people by race, ethnicity, and religion, though it does make distinctions among native and foreign-born French citizens and noncitizen foreigners.

Yazid Sabeg, a close advisor to French President Nicholas Sarkozy, is leading an effort to change that policy. Sabeg recently told the BBC that data collection on minorities in France is "essential to measure how effective are official policies combating discrimination."

But opponents say that the plan would violate basic ideals of equality and conjures up memories of Nazi-generated lists used to exterminate millions of Jews during World War II.

Sabeg says that it's important to recognize how France has transformed. "People find it hard to look the reality of this country in the face, which is that the population of the country has changed," Sabeg said.

In 2005, riots in suburban Paris made international headlines and highlighted rampant unemployment, improper policing, and housing problems among second- and third-generation immigrant youth that many attributed to institutional discrimination.

The U.S. census does collect data on race and ethnicity.  Census data is used to track racial disparities in employment, homeownership, and health care, which helps the federal government distribute funds to communities as needed and enforce civil rights laws against discrimination like the Voting Rights Act.   

The next U.S. census will take place in April 2010.