In Ms. Magazine, Advocates Detail Unprecedented Attacks on U.S. Census and Urge Congress to Save the Count

Census and Data Equity News 12.16,20

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Charmaine Riley, [email protected], 202.548.7166

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Gary D. Bass, executive director of the Bauman Foundation and chair of a funder collaborative to promote a fair and accurate census, describe the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and accuracy of the decennial census in a two-part series in Ms. Magazine.

The authors discussed the Trump administration’s attempts to both shorten the 2020 Census and illegally manipulate census apportionment data to exclude millions of undocumented immigrants. The series calls on the Census Bureau to be more transparent in its decisions, and for Congress to pass an extension to the statutory reporting deadlines in a “must pass” bill.

“Organizations, individuals and state and local governments concerned about the abrupt shortening of the census and the Trump efforts to rig the apportionment immediately filed lawsuits to stop both,” the advocates wrote.

“It is important that as we look to restore Americans’ faith in our democracy, Congress and the Bureau restore Americans’ faith in the integrity of the census. Fortunately, there are actions we can take now to save the count,” they said.

Looking ahead to the 2030 Census, they added, “Steps are also needed to protect the next census in 2030, including rebuilding the tarnished image of the Census Bureau, preventing a president from again imposing a political agenda on a future census, and ensuring historically undercounted populations can trust the government enough to fill out the census. Like the Constitution mandates, all people in America count and must be included in the census.”

You can read part one of the series, “Fighting for a Fair and Accurate Census” here, and part two, “The Politics of the 2020 Census—and an Update on the Count” here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.