Earlier today, the Census Project Board held a Congressional Briefing on the American Community Survey (“ACS”). The Congressional Briefing sought to provide information on changes to the 2020 Census, benefits of the ACS, and consequences of the House of Representatives budget cut and actions in the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Bill, H.R. 5326. Crucial changes ACS plans to make to the 2020 Census: 1) drafting new questions relating to people of Middle Eastern and North African descent; 2) eliminating the Hispanic origin question and categorizing Hispanic as an race; and 3) providing an option for persons identifying as Asian to identify their specific country of descent. These changes are aimed at improving the accuracy of response rates to the ACS and reducing confusion in the race and ethnicity categories. These 2020 Census question changes will serve as test run in deciding how to word questions regarding ethnicity and race in the future as the United States continues to grow diverse, address issues of how persons of multiple races/ethnicities identify, and other minority groups. The Census Project and 2020 census will impact the Arab American community, as well as other minority groups. Arab American communities’ response to the ACS varies throughout the United States (“U.S.”). According to Phil Sparks, co-Director of the Census Project, in states such as Minnesota and Michigan the response rate is as high as 80 percent; in comparison to regions such as New York City and South Texas where the Arab American community response to the ACS is as low as 30 percent. This data is not only compelling of the impact of discrimination in these communities but also telling of how very little public and private resources and funding will be allocated or not at all to Arab American communities in these regions. There are concerns of how the 2020 Census will be used to encompass the undocumented immigrant population. The ACS does not inquire into the immigration status of respondents. Nevertheless, according to Phil Sparks, Max Sevillia, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the 2020 Census will be used to incorporate undocumented and documented immigrant populations’ needs, specifically in regard to English proficiency assistance. There are also privacy and confidentiality concerns for the 2020 Census, especially by minorities, such as the Arab American community, who believe they may be targeted or exposed to increase scrutiny. According to Max Sevillia, 2010 and effective in the 2010 Decennial Census, Congress administered a privacy protections memorandum to the U.S. Census Bureau. All information provided to the ACS is confidential and private. The U.S. Census Bureau is mandated to not use any information and/or data obtained in any other way then prescribed for demographic collection purposes. The U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS surveys the U.S. household population annually and is part of the constitutionally required decennial census. The ACS purpose is to provide more detailed information about the nation’s states, counties, cities, towns and rural communities to enable policymakers to understand and address the nation’s needs. The ACS benefits the nation and the local communities on both a macro and micro level. ACS data is used for but not limited to: 1) allocating $450 billion annually in federal aid to state and local governments; 2) implementing 184 domestic programs including funding to schools under the No Child Left Behind Act; 3) implementing 80 percent of funding for federal and state infrastructure, affordable housing, and Medicaid; 4) implementing the Voting Rights Act and enforcing equal opportunity laws (education and employment); 5) enforcing civil rights laws and combating discrimination; and 6) allocating the Department of Health, Department of Justice, and Department of Education resources. In 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives 1) cut $116 million from the Census Bureau budget and 2) voted to make the ACS response optional. 1) The budget cut and potential defunding of the ACS will eliminate the only federal survey and/or database that provide timely, objective, and comprehensive data about the U.S. population and housing for every community in the U.S. This is due to the fact that most public and private sector surveys use ACS databases to weigh in and/or fill in gaps of largely incomplete state surveys. 2) There is high probability that if the ACS becomes optional, responses to the ACS will drastically decrease and detrimentally impact the detail, accuracy and quality of the survey data. Current response rate is 97.38 percent. There would be virtually no data from rural communities. Detrimental impact on the ability of federal, state, public, and private entities to efficiently allocate resources and funding to best serve the needs of our nation and respective communities.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 20:04:43 +0000