hearing isn't titled the two thousand and ten census using the communications campaign to effectively reduce the undercount we will examine the census bureau plans to use  two thousand and ten integrated communications campaign to attain an accurate in numeration of traditionally hard to count populations we will also examine whether the bureau is on course to build on  successes of the two thousand census and we are privileged to have with us today several gas who are here we have  and without objection the chair and the ranking minority member will have five minutes to make opening statements followed by opening statements not to exceed three minutes by any other member recognition and without objection members and witnesses will have five legislative days to submit a written statement extraneous material well the record as i stated earlier we will focus on the u s plans to accurately  this is a vital constitutionally mandated survey that policy makers and demographers rely on to make decisions allocate over three hundred billion dollars in federal funding annually accuracy increase the mail response rate and reduce the differential undercount unfortunately cost overruns in other areas have concerns regarding the bureau's budget for the communications campaign given the high level of distrust of government and hard to count communities the bureau cannot risk finding the campaign which encompasses the successful partnership and sensors and schools program and wow i can appreciate the budget challenges that resulted from the bureau to revert to a  paper most would agree that the communications campaign is underfunded in order to duplicate the accomplishments of the two thousand census which under calif over three million people the communications campaign needs millions of dollars it is equally disturbing to learn and find they've outreach to minority communities as being cut or reprogrammed when these communities have the greatest and two thousand and ten census will leave many states without their fair share of federal dollars and will handicap local governments for ten years with less than two years until the two thousand and ten indicates we will examine the use of the census bureau communication campaign to help affectively reduce the undercount for two thousand and ten the bureau's communication in the campaign is a key component in the overall strategy to ensure a fair and accurate census i agree with chairman clay that as we move closer to census day we need to pay more attention on how we reach the traditionally hard to count areas we should also ensure that the guiding principle for the communication campaign is the same a guiding principle for the census to reach as many people as possible to be a truly effective communication campaign communication efforts should reach all those living in the united states and its territories is important to address the traditionally hard to count areas as we can all agree that an undercount in census does a disservice to all of those involved it is equally important however not to neglect other areas i hope this hearing will give us a better understanding of the bureau's effort to communicate to the american people of the importance of participating and our national census furthermore i look forward to reading about the types of communication strategies to be employed by the bureau with all of the tools available in today's information age to bureau should have a sound and relevant plan to make the best use of its resources since this day is april first two thousand and ten therefore with less than three years for the bureau to effectively communicate their message to the american people this hearing is timely as is relevant again i would like to thank the chairman for holding this hearing additionally i would like to thank the witnesses for their testimony and participation and with that thank you so much mr turner it is our privilege to have with us that determines representation in congress state legislatures and local boards and councils for the next decade in addition the data from the census is used to allocate billions of dollars in federal funds for housing social services and other vital programs therefore it is imperative that all citizens be fully counted unfortunately two thousand census is estimated to have missed six point four million people and double counted three point one million for a net undercount of three point three million i have a real real problem with this statistics because what it says shia as we know from our own experience is the people who are under counted in communities that are in the most need and the people who get all the counted all those people have second and third homes and therefore people who live in communities that have less need therefore i think it is very very important this year and view of what  experienced have been mr chairman with immigration issues with community responses to immigration with the catastrophic events that we roads provide health care in addition to drawing election district lines accurate census data is on the way to assure that local communities receive their fair share of federal funds and for people to get a fact their representation in the various elective bottas that's every available and execute the twenty two and the great a communications campaign i want to really emphasize that fact we are especially the house of representatives this is where constitutionally the money is supposed to start please make us aware of what the actual  who live in these communities who socialize in these areas at least on a much better chance of getting a good count to truly reach out to historically on the kind of communities the dear old must hire a only being a just hearing but also other here in such as we have to help those birdies representing the party and the communities from from the leadership level so i just want you knowledge of that  and let him know that you recognize with a living questions about the ability of census bureau to conduct a successful two thousand and ten census i'm very concerned about whether the bureau has the resources and commitment to place adequate focus on traditionally undercounted communities i want to thank chairman clay for his attention and commitment to reducing the undercount and increasing response rates within minority communities we are truly fortunate to have such a vigilant chairman on our side as chair of the congressional asian pacific american caucus and an appropriator on the commerce justice science subcommittee i myself will continue to keep a close watch on the progress of and funding for programs that seek to reach an outreach to asian american pacific islander another minority communities outreach to asian american pacific islander communities present particular challenges with this tremendous diversity in language culture income level geographic distribution in this country and trust in government i look forward to hearing testimony on the communications campaign the partnerships and outreach program and the census and schools program that we're each integral to reaching hard hard important and i represent a community that was seventy six percent below poverty level ninety three percent hispanic student body most of the not speak english and that's a major  congratulate leader cliburn for being here today it shows the importance of the democratic leadership places on a getting an accurate census and he builds on his record of being one of the leaders of supporting and making sure that we get  an accurate census and mr chairman you are to be commended for scheduling this vital oversight hearing the timing could not be more critical it comes on the heels of a decision by the department of commerce to cancel their long planned automation of and ten census data collection as well as press accounts this week of growing concerns about the planning and management of the descending census by this administration since the first american census and seven ninety the challenge for the career since as professionals has always been to improve on the most recent census they strive to make the next census even more accurate and to ensure to the best of their realty is that we count every resident in america today that challenge is the most difficult they have ever confronted by all measures the two thousand census was the most successful and the most accurate in history a great part of that success in two thousand was to the ever a first ever use of paid advertising into indeed president bush's good friend and former secretary of commerce don evans testified before the senate in may of two thousand and one and  made exactly that point and i and i quote from a secretary don evans quote since two thousand was an operational success with census bureau met or exceeded its goals including meeting the mandated deadlines for releasing data for us apportionment and redistricting the success can be attributed to the congress's commitment to providing full funding for a number of improved proven including unprecedented outreach programs to groups that historically had the greatest under quotes further on in his testimony secretary evans singled out and gave the most credit for this achievement to the advertising program the partnership program the census in schools and improved census forms without objection mr chairman i'd like to submit the entire testimony of secretary evans into the record and i believe it represents an important benchmark for us to measure against the current planning thank you amazingly and i hear ian's an impressive counts we are learning that instead of building  successful operations this commerce department is trying to scale them back you have shrunk the fences in schools program delayed by a year the start of the partnership program and in real dollars are spending less on paid media to a population that has grown as even and is even more diverse than the population in two thousand i have to say director murdock this makes absolutely no sense just when you're defending and isn't there crisis when the very programs proven to increase cooperation with the census through twenty two headcounts in our history the career professionals at the census bureau have set a new olympic record for accuracy and all but one as they prepare for the two thousand and ten census it seems their coaching staff has let them down and it is failing to give them the tools they need to succeed you instead are asking them to do much more with fewer resources our population is much larger than ten years ago more diverse living in more complex housing arrangements relying upon incredibly more varied media with polls showing historically low levels of trust in their government and leaders mr chairman i think it's very important that we use this hearing today to formally get on the record the scope and scale of the advertising partnership and promotion efforts being planned in two thousand and ten and how those plans compare with actual spending in two thousand i hope we can make again way deep into the details of how much is being spent to help cure the undercount that every census experience experiences and how much is being spent on those communities that are historically opportunity to participate in today's hearing on the two thousand and ten census integrated communications campaign i'm here today representing the congressional hispanic caucus even though i know i saw mr baka here a minute ago who is chairman of the  welcome one and all as far as the witnesses and i hope that we have a very productive hearing which i believe we will when i first arrived the house of representatives in one thousand nine hundred eighty i was tasked with leading the congressional hispanic caucus two thousand census effort at that time my colleagues and i were heavily involved in working with the census bureau and stakeholders with the express goal of achieving an accurate census as possible the partnership in marketing program as it was known then it was a first of its kind achieved its main goal engage in multiple community partners to get the word out about the census and increased response rates though we still ended up with a minority undercount it was less than it could have been i still think of that that particular count as a success i still i still hold hope that we can be successful today however all the commentary in the press recently telling us that the two thousand and ten census effort is in shambles and the dramatic changes are needed at the department of commerce in the census bureau management if we expect to execute a timely and accurate sense census certainly gives us pause and i hope that we can allay some of those fears and maybe even misconceptions i expected a hearing focusing on the communications communication plan while they are still in the planning stages and state they possess the resource the resources to perform their portion of the campaign i am disturbed by reports noting that bunting for the twenty ten census communications plan might same level of success this time as we had here in the last two thousand census i would note that now is not the time for the census to handicap its partners in such an important endeavor additionally i'm concerned with the decision  scale back the census in schools program fully eliminating any outreach to students in grades seven through twelve i know i speak for my colleagues when i say that i would like to see what data the bureau has to support the decision to curtail program that actually worked the last time i hope the witnesses today will able to explain whether we should expect to see an effort along the same scale as we had in the two thousand census the same breath the same scope or should we expect a reduced effort by the census bureau to reach out to our communities represented here today i look forward to hearing from our hearing from all of the witnesses this afternoon to answer these concerns and to share their inside on how we credibly move recommend i just want to take this opportunity to thank our the distinguished chairman william lacy clay and the ranking member michael turner as well as majority whip cliburn and i see the various chairs of the caucuses of color here on the hill as well as my colleagues for their participation in inviting me what this extremely important dialogue but before the subcommittee i also want to thank you witnesses for taking the time out of your busy schedule success of today currently it appears that we must urgently address the fact that the u s census bureau has customarily undercounted countless people of color when we look at for example the two thousand census it failed to count an estimated six hundred thousand african americans i want to put that into the context of today have been deemed that numbers correct when you look at what is happening in terms of mortgage foreclosures and homes closing and for communities like mine and in brooklyn new york the increased and heightened immigration enforcement  and the fear that has begun to permeate mixed communities of immigrants and citizens that makes your task even more important the u s census bureau is important to many communities of color because as we know the federal government uses the number to at these numbers to allocate funding for community programs and services such as education programs housing community development health care services for the elderly and job training state local and tribal governments you census information for planning and allocating funds for new school construction libraries and locations for police and fire department a community organizations used census information to develop social service programs community action projects senior lunch programs child care centers the list goes on and on the infrastructure of our civil society i'm concerned about the shortfall of funding required to make this effort successful i'd like to say at the end of the day that we are not doing an exercise of fertility certainly the variables that we see before us right now lead us to a conclusion that we are not for appear financially and otherwise  forth our best effort so today i look or to hearing all of the witnesses testimony so that we can come up with recommendations that can be legislatively inactive before twenty to census thank let me offer my greatest appreciation to you and the ranking member in the collective body of intellect and commitment and dedication to the cause of improving the lives of all americans since this is a live blood of this nation and might i take particular personal privilege to acknowledge doctor i'm calling him dr about the honorable steve murdock having rooted him self in texas and with a great deal of collaboration with a number of my particularly the president of the distinguished sorority dr barbara a mckinsey alpha kappa alpha for her presence here today in commemoration of this outstanding celebration to take place this week quickly i want to acknowledge the fact that we do not serve if we cannot count and it is important for the census bureau to recognize that it must be based upon the rooted people and communities familiarity does not breed contempt when you're knocking on the doors of neighbors and asking them to be counted i want to associate myself with my friend and colleague congresswoman clarke having experienced the abusiveness of ice raids deliberating across america and substitute a comprehensive immigration reform i know that populations of african americans hispanics and asians will be frightened from the very presence of a government entity coming to their door so we must find a way to balance the needs of this country to establish who it is lastly let me say that although i congratulate our majority whip for the funding that we already see incenses let me ask mr murdoch to be forthright and truthful on the needs of resources you cannot advertise on a thimble amount of money you cannot outreach on a thimble amount of money you cannot get those individuals who are willing to work on a thimble amount of money and so we want to hear from you to speak up so that we can be in the fight together i think there should be some policy changes as a chairman and i'd like to see that students are counted  where they live i'd like to see people in concentrated counted where they live with their grandmama but in any event let me conclude and thank the chairman and i look forward to the witness's testimony our goal is to empower america you empower hopefully be able to get some answers today this is a very challenging sense as we all know issues such as the foreclosure crisis the ice raids formerly incarcerated individuals all of those issues  provide an even greater challenge of this time and also i hope we can figure out what happened to the additional two hundred million plus that was appropriated and that there's a plan to utilize those resources and then to to make sure that all of our under counted communities are every individual is counted and we look forward to your participation in this process and i will recognize the chair of the c b c ms carolyn kilpatrick michigan and thank you the committee will come to order we will resume their hearing when we last we were on opening statements if there are no ensure that hard to count communities are not disproportionately undercounted it's very very important as we go in two twenty ten that we follow the  guidelines in this integrated to a program it's very comprehensive and it would strike a nationwide campaign that will use advertise seen in media relations specific events and other aspects of marketing and communication to reach diverse audiences we're so concerned i represent a district in california the largest state and the first state in the union to be a majority of minorities and within my own district i have a large number of armenians greeks pacific islanders hispanics i have all of korea town and what usually happens is that people who are in the country go to where their loved ones and friends are living and with the fear that comes along with ice and the raids and all you don't get accurate count so what i usually do is i call in the region no senses director and explain to them how to get a more accurate count you know go to the playgrounds on a sunday after church go to the parking lot families like to get out with their children so what we're doing is keeping an eye on how we get our people counted we're concerned about the budget which is two hundred twelve million dollars and we were informed that only twenty seven million will go to track blacks hispanics and so on and so we want to be sure that the economically disadvantaged which is the hardest and to count group and nearly fifty percent of the population in  this category is black in one third speaks a language other than english and so the ethnic enclaves this is the second highest hard to  count group sixty two percent are foreign born thirty four percent are linguistically isolated and fifty four percent spanish ship twenty percent speak  language other than english now our concern is that the preparation for the two thousand and one since is what their plans are to reduce the undercount and additional concerns are related to the cost overruns within other senses operations and will they impact on funding for the communications campaign also we're concerned about the draft f c b officials that officials have expressed a need for sixty eight million dollars more to conduct a communications campaign that is comparable to the two thousand campaign and despite anticipated the numer challenges within hard to count communities the proposed budget for minority outreach was in the campaign has been significantly decreased so chairman and our percenters this evening i am looking very forward to hearing what you have to present to us but in answering have you answer questions about our concerns i come from an urban district i mention the mix there and i mention the fact i think i did that we usually have a ten percent  undercount that's been historically the case so the thirty third district my district in los angeles has fifty percent of its population that speaks a language other  thank you mr chairman members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about the census bureau's integrated communications plan for the two thousand and ten census the two thousand and ten census communications campaign builds on the success of the census two thousand partnership and marketing campaign which helped tory verse a two decade decline in the national response rate the objectives of the two thousand and ten program as in two thousand are to increase male response reduce the differential undercount and improve overall accuracy and improve public cooperation with the numerator in your letter of invitation you mention the communications con the partnership program and sensors and schools each of these is important component of the overall communications plan for the two thousand and ten census none of them can be fully successful on their own the communications campaign will be integrated with the census  operations the partnership program sensors in schools national and local media and public relations activities to ensure that consistent messages are delivered and reinforced at every stage of the process success of each component is vital to achieving a complete and accurate count in september two thousand and seven the census bureau awarded its two thousand and ten communications contract to draft f c be drafted c b is a full service marketing communications agency that will team with other companies that specialize in reaching minority audiences there are two components to the media outreach effort using the expertise expertise of draft f c p the census bureau will mount a national media campaign in every broadcast medium to promote our messaging for two thousand and ten we will advertise on network television and radio sporting events like the n f l local and cable television ethnic programming and the internet the second key component of the media campaign will focus on specific minority populations ethnic media advertising will complement the national campaign bringing the message to hard to count populations each of draft f c b's contractors has proven experience reaching t communities and their efforts will be instrumental in addressing the differential undercount the partnership program is another key component of our communications program our partners who have great credibility in their communities will vouch for the importance of completing the two thousand census to people in inner cities on indian reservations in rural america and other areas this will be particularly important in areas isolated by language and or geography our partnership materials will be available in multiple languages and they will be customizable so that partners can tailor the message to their specific communities unlike census two thousand and one promotional materials were only available through a census bureau partnership specialist two thousand and ten materials will be easily access to the internet or as printed copy we also provide needed resources to committed partner organizations to the partnership support program as we did in two thousand the census in schools program is another key component of the integrated communications plan the program for two thousand and ten will focus on educating children on the importance of participating in the census the goal is to develop strategies materials and messages to reach parents through their children that the current pro plan provides for a program directed hard to count areas for grades k through six draft s c b is in the process of awarding a competitive contract to an experienced educational marketing firm to help implement a strategy with the census bureau another initiative language program will also focus on the hard to reach populations for the first time we will mail about thirteen million bilingual spanish english questionnaires targeted to areas with concentrations of hispanic population questionnaires will be available  five languages in addition to english and we will also provide language assistance guides to more than fifty in more than fifty languages the two thousand and ten census campaign integrates all elements provide better branding of the two thousand and ten cen us among all segments of the population improve delivery of promotional materials for regional and national partnership efforts and concerted time specific delivery plan and provide clear and accurate messaging the communications contract has a total lifecycle budget of two hundred twelve million this is in addition to funds provided for our regional and national partnership programs we are currently working with draft f c b on the on the budget associated with the various components of our integrated communications importantly budgets for the partnership program and the communications contract have not been compromised or reduced to meet the budgetary requirements of the fifth contract unlike many of the census bureau other major two thousand and ten contracts the communication contract much must be flexible our ability to react quickly to the fast changing media environment in two thousand and ten will be a key to an effective and wide reaching outreach campaign integrated communications plan is being developed with active input from our stakeholders around the country and throughout the census bureau we consider the plan in the budget to be a blueprint that will involve to optimize our resources we will review and adjust the program throughout the census to ensure that our resources are applied where they are needed most in closing let me stress that the communications program is in vital importance to the census bureau and to me we are counting on congress our advisory committees and our partnership organizations to work with us to a dental file improvements and to ensure the program meets the needs of communities they know best thank you for the opportunity to testify i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you so much and thank you for your draft s c b and our subcontractor partners thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about the integrated communications plan for the twenty thousand census today i am accompanied by laura marella vice chairman of global hue latino or hispanic partner stop us out president of allied media kevin williams senior v p group director of global hue and peter jennings the presidents of draft s c b new york during the last eight months are sub contractors and ourselves have spent considerable time and focus learning about the two thousand campaign the mood of the nation and its potential impact on two thousand and ten as well as the needs and recommendations of key stakeholders for the twenty two for the tw effort in that quest for learning our subcontractor partners and ourselves have visited with the census regional offices we have heard the insights and recommendations of the various advisory committees and importantly we have conducted primary research and analyzed reams of existing studies learning will be ongoing and continue to guide everything we do to build a successful two thousand and ten census overall and to reduce the undercount in fact learning will guide the campaign throughout its life cycle allowing for the first time real time adjustments to the effort to maximize response but right now we have a plan that is a work in progress it is a blueprint its structure is a solid foundation of mass media to motivate mass participation with substantial overlays targeted to race and ethnic populations focused on the hard to count but importantly it is an integrated approach that follows best practices in our industry and incorporates recommendations from the very successful two thousand campaign we have a timeline that tracks through the key stages where we develop creative materials and media plans for all audiences evaluate through research among its intended audience is the materials that will appear in the marketplace and provide ample occasions in time for stakeholder review and input the process as it were to and it's cumulative and right now it is on schedule and it is on budget we invite oversight and input because it will make the campaign better but as a result of gating in implementing countless similar marketing and communications campaigns we also know what we must do and when we must do it it has all been planned and with the census we also know there is no second chance no delays are possible so we will deliver a campaign that is on time on budget as well as on point well we can't show you yet how the materials will look or what the specific plans to each audience will be comprised of or even how much will be spent on each audience we can give you an idea of the experience of a real person will have from the in a gated campaign as he goes through his daily life ron he's a twenty seven year old single black mobile which is a traditionally undercounted audience he lives in philadelphia the twenty ten census will be his very first it is a low priority in his life he grew up in an environment that was cynical about government will be reached by the mass media campaign and the black audience campaign very importantly as we get to know him we will discover that beginning in two thousand and nine he will begin to see messages about the census for example in his barber shop when they start talking about census jobs on facebook where he reconnects with a buddy of his through historically black colleges and university newspapers at the link where the eagles play in philadelphia on a billboard on the school collect expressway at a black history month a vent in center city during a march madness telecast at church and i'm grey's anatomy etc beginning in two thousand and nine and peaking in two thousand and ten around the man around the mailings messaging about the census was around us building awareness educating and encouraging participation we can also give you a wimp's of some other work we have completed so far in are materials for partnerships and recruitment communications to reach people about census jobs in their communities our work has just begun our entire team looks forward to the discussions challenges debates the back and forth the late nights and weekends we will spend designing and implementing what we want to be the most successful campaign yet thank you for the opportunity to speak about this most important work that we're doing i'm very happy to answer any questions you may have thank you so much and we will bring big question and i will do for  throughout how will you monitor those and as you said mr murdoch that you know you get one chance at this i guess both of you had said that the how do we monitor how are we sure that we can go back and contractors we have a management program for every greater contract we have with people that are assigned to minister and to create metrics and other factors to be used to assess how well our contractors are doing for example we have a certain we have we have goals set up for our contractors relative to small and disadvantaged  businesses and they have a goal and they receive and they receive greater wards if they meet those goals relative to that kind of issue but we have a whole set of factors by which we assess how well they are doing  i executive director of the asian american justice center testified before the subcommittee last year that the bureau needed to improve its work on language translation and she noted that in two thousand was late in making critical decisions on translation materials and that there was no centralized clearinghouse  translated materials i had that problem in my district and to what do you attribute the problems and what has to be all done to resolve them on this round in two thousand we had very very separate programs one that was a media and advertising program and then our partnership program and and the census bureau provided most of the materials that went out and printed for the integrated part of this contract is to bring those together so that materials are available when they are needed by groups that may want to promote the census by our partnership specialists who need to to pass those out to groups that need them for promotion and in need to help their members understand the census so what has changed and changed significantly is that we have an integrated program with all of the timing phased out and set out so that we are will be much more certain that we will not have the problems we had in timing because we did have yes we have problems with serious being way too i mean too too well actually too late in terms of meeting the needs that we have and that's one of the reasons we went to an integrated program that integrated the advertising the media part of this program with the with the partnership program are you sure that you will have like trying to i find that you are more effective when you go in to do the outreach  non english speaking communities that you have someone who speaks a language looks like them has some recognition in the community so are you mom or jane to see that the  then match demographics both in terms of hiring of enumerators and particularly as we talk about the partnership program this group of about six hundred eighty people that will have across the country their very purpose is to get involvement of local community people religious leaders elected officials others who people know they can help to spread the message that it's safe to respond to the cens because we know very well that anyone coming from the outside has much less credibility to me or to anyone than someone you're growing and who can and when that when that face that you know says this is something that you should do this is something important for our community has a much greater meaning than than someone who is not familiar to the person and that's really the basis of a lot of the success of our partnership program for coming to the c b c yesterday and as i mentioned to you i have all of koreatown in my district in los angeles it's the largest korean community in the country and so can you tell us about the funding you mentioned the funding for african americans and other minorities probably from african american islands and i mean and islands and so on so how much funding is being allocated share that with us to reach people in these communities well that the final distribution of that is still being worked out by the contractor of c b s and the sub contractors some of the initial work that we we had showed up about a seventy six million dollar general media i mean a group wide kind of advertising campaign and meaning it was for the generalized population on top of that because i think it's important understand that we're really talking about kind of a layering of the messages one is there's a there's a general media campaign that should appeal to populations of all different groups and then we do have specific sub contractors as my friend on the left indicated that try specifically to look at different populations in the most recent data i've seen in this is not definitive because it's still being finalized because our plan for this program is just now being being finalized we had a draft plan earlier we asked for revisions of that and now we're getting a more definitive plan showed about twenty seven million for example for black and hispanic audiences about thirteen for asian audiences about six for american indian alaskan native about two point eight million for puerto rico  have input the other suggestion i would like to make and this would be the last question as a suggestion is that regionally you meet with some of the minority representatives of your regional people so that we can have this whole process more localized and we all have input i think our churches can be very helpful  and in the los angeles area that i represent we have the mega churches with thirty thousand membership one sunday you could reach maybe as many as five hundred thousand people an announcement so if funds i think we're all committed to adequate funding there are some issues about certain requests being made and how we get the money to you but i think that's all to be resolved but look into the future and what you're going to be utilizing and is attempting to do through the integrated communications program and so on so let's just start off when we talk about the internet using the internet i know mister referenced it as a way of communicating the existence and the awareness of the internet and not necessarily using the internet as a method to respond or report or fill out whatever is necessary in the my space whatever it is then i also want to talk to exactly what that arrangement is and make a suggestion or two but there's been discussion about the use of the internet and i don't know that's coming out of the senate or not what does that involve what are we talking about and what stage of development are considerations we find ourselves today well as part of our replan effort we have really looked at the option of providing the internet as an option  for response let me make it very clear that we have not finalized our analysis of that and we are diverting no descending funds at this time towards that process  that we're being now doing now is by our division which is funded out of another part of the of the census bureau and and what we're looking at is simply this as a as another alternative that we can provide to people  potentially can provide when we get done with the analysis will be glad to come back and and report that let me say something about what you said at the beginning there has been since i've been here right now no diversion of funds from this set of enterprises and i will be willing to commit to all of you here that tomorrow best of i power there will be no diversion from these two programs as you know representative i was in texas for nearly thirty years working in this area i very strongly believe in this program i saw the programs the partnership program etc work very effectively in texas i saw it work and in the colonias of south texas and increase the response rate not to a perfect level but to a level that was certainly much better than what we had had in previous censuses so there are no plans and i commit to that that i have no plans for sure to take resources away from this program i think it's a very important program very critical to the census and i appreciate that it won't be the diversion or whatever but it does add an additional layer of funding there is no doubt about that and so i'm just going to cost benefit analysis of whatever you're going to be doing as you contemplate something else whether it's the internet or whether it's a sweepstakes i'm just concerned about that we have to let me let me make it very clear about those because i've been a lot of mis understanding about both of those there's been work about incentive programs and where they where those are as we have provided to the department of commerce our previous analysis that was done in previous census  looking at this and the department of commerce we are diverting no resources at this time and have no plans at this time to have any thing related to incentives sweepstakes and all the other things that have sometimes been covered in the papers the internet will be provided if it is feasible if it does not mean the deterioration in things let's use this program and if we find out that it might in fact help us in some circumstances if we have some kind of crisis and need to provide a another way for some people to respond to the census we are not herding resources from any part of this descent and particularly not from this program to look at either of these and i know it's a sensitive topic but i think that the majority whip cliburn referred to it i think congressman watts and referred to it and that is the real objective here is greater participation we know that in this universe of responders that we have a certain segment or a sector that we really don't have much of a problem with it's really the effort in the concentration of monies and effort and everything else is really into other categories that congress our reference economically disadvantaged and the ethnic enclaves too i'd venture to guess that the advantage homeowners which have the lowest hard to count score six in the highest male return right eighty three percent is probably that particular audience that you'd be reaching if in fact you invest any substantial buns and the internet i mean that's the way the real world works and i'm just saying i hate to get diverted to it and i love the internet we try to utilize it to the extent that we can but i just don't really feel that the amount of attention or funds would be a diversion and let me go further as to the reason that we think it could be counterproductive it's just not the under count it's the overcount in congressman our leader whip cliburn made reference to that and there's a there's two ways that this thing works against the communities of color undercount but also over count and there i think there's real danger on the internet responses and making it even harder for you guys to figure actually double and triple reporting and mr chairman i know that i've gone over my time and i'm hoping that we might have  complete count you know there's two things we worry about we worry about the accuracy of the count which is its completeness and the timeliness of the senses and nothing we're going to do is going to do endanger either of those we won't do something that are highly influenced by word of mouth you know i don't know what types of studies you did to complete to support this conclusion or what types of nontraditional media forms will be used so maybe you can give us insight into that but what is your plan to reach black in rural areas about in many parts of the country rural areas are uniquely challenging because of the sparsity of population and because of lots of other issues that are sometimes involved our partnership program isn't just one that works in large cities it's one that works and in rural areas as well and then ten of that program is to go particularly to hard to count areas to become involved with the population with organisations with churches with community groups with elected officials all with the intent of increasing awareness and involving local people in the census one of the things that represent blots and said that is very very true is that local involvement is critical and what we try to do with our partnership program is not to have a partner come in and  you know take the census not to have that person come in and substitute for local people but in fact to work with local people to empower the local people to get involved in census because that's the census works when insight or the strategy about the word of mouth being important to the black community from our global partner as one of the insights that they brought to the table about the black community and i believe that what they are talking about is that there are certain segments of the population that are much more influenced by person to person communication than by mass media commercial communications and the value of that person to person communication and where where there's affinity a relationship created is very critical that is really the only way to get certain segments of the population to overcome their fears because mass or third party messages don't really motivate them because they don't necessarily trust the third party but a personal message that is generated that they trust  much more meaning and motivation for them given the fact of the total black population is born outside of the united states i notice that creole is the only foreign language in which messages are another five languages that would be for promotional materials but very important in addition to that all of the partnership promotional materials will create what we would call a template so that fifty and swahili is one of the languages for which there are language guides so in terms of the overall program obviously we cannot provide an in every language that prevails with the with the groups in the united states we're trying let me clarify a couple things first of all we are using handheld in the address canvassing part of our our program what i think the confusion was is that we were part of our processes after we received all the  mail responses and then we have something we call non response follow up and that's when we go out and start knocking door to door we did a very careful analysis and a very sobering analysis suggested to us  funds on that project but we know that six hundred million was for the total contract if it included the nerve to part of the process so we have not spent six hundred million dollars we've spent  sorry and we will then be negotiating with them for the additional parts of the process that that they will be doing they are doing down there doing operational control systems they are doing a number of going over my head in terms  after c b officials claim they need an additional sixty eight million dollars to conduct a communications campaign that is comparable to the two thousand campaign they believe the current budget of two hundred seventy million dollars does not take into account several factors including media inflation that is predicted to be met at thirty five percent the increasing degree of difficulty calls by more diverse population continuing fragmentation of the media marketplace and and declining response rates does the bureau believe that two hundred or seven million dollars is sufficient to understand that when we look at this full program there's that there's the communications part of it which is two hundred twelve million and then there's partnership programs that are not included in that two hundred twelve million  we believe what we have is sufficient for where we are at this point in the process but let me tell you that this is an evolving process it's one that we're now just finalizing the plans and if in the course of the process we see that we need to look at alternatives we will be back in cooperation with commerce with with us stakeholders and others we will look at what  we need to do to attain a pro resources for this program thank you for that response according to the under count african americans by six hundred twenty eight thousand program that we did last time that gave us the most successful senses ever which was a paper based non response follow up this is a data collection effort and it does not necessarily substantially think has great deal of value to it partnership specialist but our recollection is that they were thinly spread in the past senses and so my question is do you intend to expand that program extensively where do you intend to hire from those particular individuals who will reach out to different partners and how  do you have a plan to recruit these partners from the under served underutilized areas let me begin by saying me let me begin by saying that we will have about the same number  as we had in two thousand that was about six hundred eighty to six hundred ninety persons they are recruited by our regions in our regions and  throughout those regions what is attempt that what we attempt to do is find people from individual communities from areas within the region that represent different ethnic and other kinds of groups racial groups a d to get them involved hired to be part of the partnership program because we do know that what works best in terms of getting responses is people from local areas that people identify with that people come to trust and know that they are part of their communities and they understand the context from which they are responding to the census or any other matter so we recruit locally and our regions or regional directors  are charged with ensuring that we represent the groups in their regions monuc is that budget directed or is there a chain of command with the secretary of commerce is aware of the efforts and has indicated that six eighty six ninety is what we need to know that was not that was decided in a planning effort by the census bureau it was not decided by the department of commerce well let me just suggest that that are you saying that the number for the nation for the nation yes well the g a o indicated that you were thinly stretched pretty pretty far in two thousand if we are going to up the numbers of the undercount and you filed you yourself as indicated that these are effective tools would it be appropriate to represent to the census bureau to go back and reconsider that number here we are ten years later and we've got under a thousand in terms of community partners in a nation that's three hundred million plus well understand that we're not talking about community partners we're talking about specialists working absolutely ok and i appreciate what you're saying i absolutely know that and if you are encouraging elected officials nonprofits and interested persons to go out and find as many community partners as possible then those specialists who are outreaching to them certainly i believe need to be an started which is simply beginning we are in the planning stages and as we look at this program as we look at it if we see that there are needs to  addition steps we will work with congress will work with our partners with bloke with congress to find the appropriate resources and that includes to appropriate number of people i'm going to officially request that you have that you consider that obviously are committed we realize that we think you need as much help as possible let me try to quickly i assume someone has tackled this last name while i was not here and so what is your last name sir culturally distinctive areas and do you have in your mind beyond your sub contractors a format for the media outlets that are most relevant to certain populations whether it be hispanic african american asian and how important do you place it in your plan a lot of the media outlets i believe that you talk about are local media outlets as opposed to national media and while right now the plan is just that is a plan as opposed to something that is etched in granite almost fifty percent forty five percent of the money of the of the budget that we have is allocated to local media outlets as opposed to national media but the infrastructure is there to go about creating that we are doing outreach to small businesses as part of our commitment on this plan to make sure that we learn about and that we give local media outlets particularly the kinds that you i think are referring to every opportunity to become part of this contract in addition we are relying on our subcontractors who have expertise in this area to help us to find those local media outlets and then fourthly the partnership effort is another source of information to come back to us in terms of what some of those outlets are and how they could be utilized for the benefit of the census campaign what's your overall budget the overall budget that we began with was two hundred seven million we were recently informed that it's two hundred twelve million one hundred for the whole media outreach for the entire increase beyond yes to two hundred which is that take the number up to two hundred twelve million one hundred thousand they intend to raise the amount that's being spent in the african american media yes i hope it's going to be increased beyond the present number to me it looks like that number is not has any relation to reality we have asked our african american partner to plan and a higher level based on the two hundred twelve million one hundred thousand in addition to the money that you're referring to that are currently being planned terms of how you relate to communities that heretofore have been unreached and had such high numbers of an undercount and the work with minority papers radio stations but also contractors the hard to count population and i hope that we can all agree on that it's already it's a bad situation to start with we start off with and anything that goes wrong has a disparate impact so i want to discuss fingerprinting  and then some of the potential negative consequences for that which may be a noble goal or to accomplish here on the fingerprinting the f b i will be in if you're  to fingerprint all the individuals that are out there basically hard involved in the data collection one is going to be cost but two is just can be the logistics of doing that in f b i s could be charged with that i can assure you  my past experiences with other departments and agencies there's just no way it's going to be done without doing something for the f b i to accommodate that kind of a task so i want to know where you are on the fingerprinting issue and then any concerns that you have one as i said as far as a delay that could be education but even going beyond that is there some other impact as we hire individuals that we feel will be more welcomed in certain neighborhoods that have an aversion to anyone that is so shaded with the government let me let me explain where we are finger printing and why we're there we have decided we have to do fingerprinting and here's the pros and cons the cons are clearly it is expensive we are concerned as you are that there will be people who will be concerned about involvement with the census as a result of that process it is a process as well that that  is it is a difficult one for us but one that we will do or the f b i will come in is it that way after we complete the fingerprints they will do the assessment to see if there is any record of problems with the individuals whose whose fingerprints we have sent to them but here's the other side the other side is that we have to be very careful about the security and safety of the american people it is the law of the land we saw and with the agencies that are responsible for this o p m said you have to do things are pretty we went to the f b i and the f b i last time gave us an example because they could not process the forms they tell us this time they can process the forms they told us ways that we could get exemptions if we if we we have under certain circumstances but they ended their letter by saying we highly recommend that you do fingerprinting the difficulty we have and i have as a census bureau director is if i or my successor were to be in a situation where there was an event and there's a very low probability we've had very low probabilities of any difficulties in the in the past and so it's another factor that that makes it difficult to make this decision but if there were a vent  at the beginning of the census and you had to explain to the public to the media to others that first of all you had not complied with the letter of the law that you had gone against the advice of the chief law enforcement agency of the united states and other advice from other appropriate parties i think would be disastrous for that so the census bureau director and others now the of ways that that that could be addressed but it can't be i don't see a way for us to address it as a as a federal agency as a federal entity unless we are given some kind of exemption of some kind we really don't have a choice i believe in into as a responsible party the only thing this director f b i is going to be able to perform as they're promising on a timely basis and it's not going to result in any delays i mean this would be disastrous and the whole thing is that you're going to have to turn around midstream on this thing when the f b i tells you they can't meet certain deadlines you've got to have your people out there so then you're going to tell the american people well we were going to do this to safeguard you but circumstances such as that we just can't and that troubles me but so i think we do need to start off with what i think might be hopefully an accurate statement have we occasion certain problems in the past because we did not fingerprint individuals it's a very low incident and i'm heard two or three or four out of how many we had we had about four cases in the last census very very low three of the cases there were dismissed or acquitted and one case there was a plea bargain down to a a lesser offense so yes it's a very low probability and these were individuals had previous criminal records of some sort that we missed and then they went in allegedly committed a criminal offense of some sort these are these are persons who are found nothing on them when we did what we did in the past which was name check and name check if it came up problematic then we did fingerprinting for those individuals but yes i mean we fully agree in the in those in terms of those three factors are are ones that would the advice of the chief law enforcement agency of the united states and against bias of o p m is one that is a very serious administrative issue for a director and i understand i mean it's hard for me are for you to argue against that basic proposition i'm just saying as a practical matter can you do it and secondly again you're going to cost benefit in three is it really a false sense of security that you're given the american people and i think that it is but that's just an argument but i'm just saying if that's what we're let's make sure that we find it number two deadlines now that have been added as a result of this particular consideration and whatever help you need we're going to be here for it but i have serious question about the necessity well we absolutely understand we have looked at this very thoroughly and and you know if we if in a perfect world we would have liked not to have had this requirement  could ensure the safety and security the american people if we could have been in compliance with the law we certainly have issues and concerns about some of the elements that you have said we have repeatedly asked the question of can these forms be processed and we are sure that they are that they can we have to go i think in a good faith effort that when an agency tells us they can do that they can do it don't be surprised you know thank you so dr roderick harris director of the data bank at the joint center for political and economic studies and welcome dr harrison the next witness will my again introduce one of our distinguished esteem to witnesses as the honorable and i'm going to call to her honorable because she is our grand a national president the three hundred member alpha kappa alpha sorority who will be celebrating its one hundredth birthday here in washington d c beginning tomorrow night and running through next week i am proud to say i am a member a long with my erstwhile colleague on my left and  she can probably make remarks too but jackson lee represented jackson lee and myself was so proud to have you here and i just want to sound to everybody that all next week you're going to see the colors she has on green and pink it will look like a flower garden of green and pink because we're expecting up to twenty five thousand members of the panel at a console and  we're so proud to say that we were the first african american greek organization formed right here in washington d c at howard university so you will hear a lot from the pink and green apple kappa alpha sorority which was the first and this is not grand bass was so welcome and our other witnesses are distinguished too but i had to point out that this is a point in history for us our sorority and w character building and challenge for leadership as well as the record of service and as the plan program describes this coming week for those of you who will be here in washington it will be a happening that you have never experienced before many look forward mr chairman to the inaugural parade but let me suggest to you that on a certain day this week all of washington will come to a standstill because the ladies represented by dr mckenzie will take to pennsylvania avenue absent because we will join the throngs of public servants and leaders of high character with this great and wonderful sorority that was founded as my dear friend and colleague is said here in washington d c with seven sisters says she's nodding her head seven sisters and i think that is a symbolic number i thank the chairman for allowing me to welcome you but also to express to those in the audience and for the record that we are grateful for your service and leadership but more importantly for you to take the time out to explain to us about the two thousand and ten census committee and i know the role that our sorority w play in making sure the under counted will never be under counted again and that two thousand and ten will be a new moment in america's history on ensuring the counting and the securing of good health quality of life  think much of what i had in the written testimony has already been mentioned quite more effectively by some of the representatives in their statements there always has been an undercount we didn't really begin forty census and there was seen to be for example about a thirteen percent undercount of blacks in the draft age a male draft age population  principal method for estimating the on the county has been demographic analysis that is comparing the census numbers with population estimates based on births deaths immigration in the records of the people in the samples back to their census returns and if they did not have a census return to match it to that meant that the count had missed them so that's where we get the counts it's been mentioned in several of the things of the numbers of people that census missed the census also does double college students others and that is the overcount the net under count that the overcome the subtracted and the point was made very effectively by representative claiborne i would just underscor characteristics of people who are double tap to do usually very different so even if you're getting something that's what good enough for the portion of ports is you're getting data that is is  weaker than we could possibly want for understanding the characteristics needs etc of these populations the good news is that the about one point six percent of the population one point two percent population down from one point six this was the initial estimates on which the decision to not adjust was based in fact because demographic analysis suggested that the undercount was much smaller and the perhaps tradin in overtown these analyses were redone in very complicated things and the bureau's final numbers suggest an over count of the population in two thousand and six overcoming of one point nine million and the revised undercounts for blacks was one point eight percent down from two point two percent undercount net undercount and the undercount for hispanics fold point seven one american indians on reservations in that over count of point eight eight both of which are not significantly different from zero so as far as a statistician can get you you're getting as close to an elimination of the undercount except for the black population in two thousand as you can possibly get now the estimates that are used to measure the out are frankly you don't want to look into the sausage factory too closely and again i think the key point is the number might look good but it's balancing overcounts in undercounts which does not address some of the concerns here so i think the question really is why was two thousand census so successful relative to others what do you need to do again that might may or may not be happening now to do it some of the things should be happening right now the address lists the use of the handheld to collect addresses half of the undercount is mr housing units so working with local officials to correctly identify units and the other thing the partners have to be concerned with a lot of the missed units are converted garage is subdivided apartments illegal that have not been registered in the permit so part of the message just says there's a message you can trust the census not to it's not going to get into your immigration status your status on programs just as important is convincing people who may have been renting out a garage that in fact they need to get the form to get to that so working with local officials on completing the address list getting is a complete a list of housing units as possible sending that massive army one hundred thousand additional numerators were sent to hard to enumerate areas in since two thousand so you're talking about you have your surge in iraq he was essentially need your surge in in here and then the partnerships the evidence is that the partnerships were particularly successful for the black population less successful for language populations i think that's in part of some of the complexities in not just getting out the county but explaining to people who they should report that's going to be need to be a lot of training of the partners in that the one hundred forty thousand partners in  karen clay of the distinguished members of the panel it's a pleasure to be able to hear a thought with the members of this elite group about the leaders of members of the national panel and a council regarding the tw census partnership program the national ballot in council was founded here in washington d c in one nine hundred thirty it consists of nine major for dirties and sororities predominantly african american we have nearly two million members and more than six thousand chapters many african american leaders are among our members and with the acknowledgment of two of our personal members but our long hailed spirited tradition of public service led us to participate in the two thousand census and it calls operatives of a should in the two thousand and ten census in the past our communities have been difficult to fully count because of fear advocacy and other comments that have already been made and i won't be repetitive even today though amidst a national housing crisis some african americans feel their needs will never be met in america and we have concerns regarding the accuracy of that count do that due to the impact of this current crisis when the skeptics receive though positive feedback from neighbors and leaders and friends that they know they are far more likely to fully participate this was the contribution that we were able to make in the two thousand census and it's our commitment to do so in twenty t n we were deeply involved in two thousand in the partnership program we gave it a high priority when it was over we look back to identify what had worked best and what we learned from what we had done three things i'd like to highlight we learned that we provided the census with trusted access to after american communities throughout the nation and throughout our leadership through our nearly two million college trained educated members we also learned that our time tested improvement infrastructure of chapters and members proved to be invaluable not only in the initial coude but in the recount many of our members went all out to use their networks to support this effort we also took time to a did a fine aspects of the program that we thought could be improved from what we learned in two thousand we learned that we needed to start most things much earlier than we had there was a need for increased program funding we needed to diminish duplicative efforts particularly as it related to partners who might have simular synergies and  strategically and tactically do things together we also knew that we needed to increase the panel and involvement of member organization and devise more ways to officially use the full range of proven information technology as we've begun work on the twenty ten cents of their three principles that the rule has adopted that should be fully implemented we believe in this partnership program of the twenty ten census integrated communication campaign urges all of us to cultivate a large and diverse group of trusted voices within the african american community and act through specific outreach effort and other is that this group has said to assure full participation in the census the effort must be community focused high spirited and positively influenced by word of mouth communication finally the partnership graham itself has noted that partner organizations have the unique ability to service advocate we went for the in a didn't find the best practices in issues that we felt we could share with you in the of recommendations principles that the bureau has articulated to guide the full enumeration of the two thousand and ten census the following recommendations we present we need to better coordinate the efforts of all partnership organizations across the spectrum if we are going to be truly effective we need a national twenty tin census engagement project for both the national panel in a council organization and others to increase our effect and as in ensuring an accurate out in particular of african americans that project could support a more structured panel and a council involvement more concentrated efforts better resource management for organizations and the bureau more effective assistance with other two thousand and ten initiatives such as the non response follow up recruitment of census staff access to minority small businesses work with elementary and secondary schools involvement of minority oriented advertising agencies more intense you lose a should have national panel any council networks and more importantly at the end of this process better metrics to monitor major aspects of the effort as it's under way beyond these improvements the census bureau must more broadly and deeply involved community based organizations and leaders to be successful in twenty t n we heard earlier the efforts that are playing and what we didn't hear is the execution we need to work together on these issues appreciate the subcommittee's ongoing interest in the sense of schools program founded in one hundred twenty global children's publishing education and media company dedicated to helping children around the world to read and learn scholastic is committed to helping teachers by producing quality instructional materials that reach ninety seven percent of schools across the nation additionally our website over two million unique visitors each month for the one nine scope expanded to include all fifty states the district of columbia puerto rico island territories as well as tribal and bureau of indian affairs schools and in addition what was initially envisioned as a program for k twelve schools was expanded to include pre k programs and adult education programs for english language learners as the scope of the program expanded over one hundred ten unique components were produced principals parent where trend projections in the fifty five percent response rate for the census two thousand and four the actual response rate was sixty seven percent this was the first ever increase in response financial savings by reducing the need to send human a about schools schools with thank you sixty five percent would use those additional census teaching materials if they were made available and sixty three percent agreed that the student take  materials for an effective communication tool of equal importance is a value that the community partners placed on the materials excluding the sample census form itself the census and schools materials were ranked as the most helpful information tool to one hundred forty thousand community partners to reach targeted populations and let me repeat that if i may exclude the sample census form following a scalable and flexible plan that combines schools two thousand experience with current technologies and teaching environments second a combined use of print and digital media for promotion educational tools and outreach to the home and finally a capacity to allow more teachers to easily identify and use census materials that match their students needs and align with national standards in closing the census the two thousand census and schools  you know there was a g a o report that came out in one of the concerns and i'm trying to figure out how this lack the ability to maybe conduct a dress rehearsal to the extent degree that it has in the past ten and then in mr lang's written testimony he makes reference to a dress rehearsal in two thousand and i'm just wondering how does what i think is what the bureau is facing is maybe an inability to conduct a dress rehearsal to the extent that it did in the past does that impact communications hyun that we've been discussing and it's the subject of the hearing today i think that any time that you try to do something like this campaign reach people convince people to participate the dialogue that will accomplish that has to be reached by trial and error one of the strengths of partnership that is people who have been communication with so i would suspect that you would learn something in a dress rehearsal that would hope you develop a more effective national campaign once you get there so other things being equal yes i think you can expect that people might learn early in the campaign if that's right i mean these populations hard to count populations their children are spread out through k through twelve they're not all concentrated it's six strikes that i'm correct thank you very much you and i'll start first i think my colleague and friend congressman jefferson that was detained but many of us know the travesty that occurred in two thousand and five hurricane katrina that store largest evacuation i believe that we have witnessed in history of this nation short of the voluntary go west young man and young woman i assume in the eighteen hundreds so as we look toward the census and we know that one state has been depleted of almost a million persons many of whom consider themselves placed or still placed in that state what kind of policy should we be looking at in order to be fair to a state like louisiana that has many of its constituents still viewing themselves as displaced and still viewing themselves as residents of louisiana that's one question the second question is what in your mind do you think the cons that was and there must be some high order to it of owning johnny may's grandson and i i don't want to stereotype us in so and so's prison as having resided in that prison when johnnie mae is still counting or mrs jones or mr johnson is still counting that person as a resident in their home and most often that home is in a under served needy area and so that count is diminished because those numbers are counted in some way far away rural communities and you question whether the resources come back to the real community anywhere equate to the need in as much as there are individuals incarcerated and being paid for my last policy question to you would be the issue of students who likewise are counted in the area that they are and maybe there is more of an explanation there but again i wonder about the areas of which many of them come from but these penetrating questions there's a legal answer and there's a social policy answer and i'm afraid th number which essentially implies residency in the state this i think has been interpreted to mean that if you're displaced as a victim of as a displaced by katrina or some of the recent flooding in the mississippi river if you're a prisoner residing now in prison in different states and if you were a student going to school in different state you would be a resident of the state in which you are residing even though i think most social planners and for most of the fortune how many students might be returning to their needs their needs as students at a university are very different than the needs as a resident wants the complete their studies and etc so i think that some of what that we're this is mandated by a constitution that is over two hundred years old and clearly did not anticipate some of these things i think if i may say so i want to move to dr mckenzie but i like the way you framed it let me just ask for a quick yes or no is it something you think is worthy of a congress reconsideration short of a constitutional amendment i mean there are ways of looking at the constitution and modifying the interpretation by statute by case was it worth is it worth considering i think the congress could give serious consideration in funding for formulas to save that we want the count's not to be the resident rules that govern apportionment but we want the county be the place of origin the the home state of the student of the prisoner it's set in so that for some funding particularly programs targeted to those populations there might well be  testimony was you know what we need what you didn't do and your memory question earlier to mr murdoch about the partnership specialist six hundred eighty four countries large and what you're suggesting to us is and ten committee is ready to go and if you expand all of the various partners then you need resources and i assume those specialists are helpful in getting you materials what is your assessment of the mindset of our senses this  time around are they getting it about needing more resources getting it out to you quickly having these special partners and do we as a congress need to make sure that we you know get the engine behind the thinking of the census bureau it seems like they're repeating where they went where we were in twenty in two thousand where we were right back where we were before mr lang if you would just follow up quickly by just indicating whether you are getting the attention you need for your school effort through the census bird the short answer is that they're committed but they've started very late there's not enough funding and they are taking in an analogy a shotgun approach when it needs to be very precise and the chairman indulges me for your final answer the answer is yes we've had very  in depth discussions with draft point out that we have not been selected we're still in the competitive bidding process so they've been very receptive to our information they have provided us with a lot of information as well so i think there's a very good dialogue there in the selection process and i know you would hesitate to comment but in any event let me thank you mr chairman i just indicate that i want happy as to where we are this is a very important hearing that you're having and however i can be of help in terms of turning on the light about what is needed i would be happy to do so and maybe we might have some legislation on some of the policy questions that i asked dr harrison so  because we are personally involved and the panel represents all the african american greek organizations i have read your summary and what unique features can the panel linnik bring to the twenty ten and i could read through i have and i know what they are but i'd  like the rest of our audience to hear how we can be so effective because we're unique well one we're volunteers but what is unique i mean our greatest asset is our infrastructure six thousand chapters around the world and rule in urban communities with members ready to execute a very precise pla is an asset that we bring to this partnership because we also have a passion about an accurate count and that really is a very unique asset that we do bring and so the advertising is good but what works for us is long term planning so that we can make sure we are activating ninety percent or more of that six thousand chapter network to count and recount until we know everything's been counted and that is what we think we have it's very unique that the current plan doesn't seem to work not because it's not planned well but there's just not enough time for example the department represents and that we're having conferences the summer as you noted ours is here there the other nine are having i'm also while the bureau will be at our conferences they will be there in the way of what we would call advertising what we really would what i would have liked to seen in ours given twenty five member thousand members here is rolling out very specific tasks that could be done on the beginning this fall before next spring that would insure and identify issues that would allow us to make account work so w we're getting the awareness out there but it's in our community then after that it's the so what so i get the sense that we have not started early enough getting that awareness out  i think about the homeless population in my own city in an evening's time it could be anywhere between eighty and ninety thousand people homeless they don't know about the census they don't have an address and we did address that by letting them register at a shelter homeless shelter but what does it mean to them and so are we working on interpreting why an accurate count can really impact on them in a positive way are we doing any of that dr mckenzie that would require awareness education a play in an example with the bureau if it is determined in an urban area that are approaching is a which would include homeless population as executor of but in rural areas it may be what we have in group is that once we roll out an urban plan in a rural place and and once our volunteers have executed it they can also do the same thing other places around the globe than it that's that infrastructure potential that i speak to and we've not been able to effectively move our partnership program from what we did in two thousand to how do we get better at this in two thousand and ten what is kind of  disappointing to me is that the budget has mad increase for this effort where our pop and i'm being very personal i'm looking at my own state and my own district grow by two thousand per day also people are moving out to other places as well our state is on fire right now where deaths are for the most part and we have a huge shortfall a budget but still the people that are there need to be counted and i don't think that the budget set aside for this outreach integrated outreach into minority communities is recognizing the changing demographics in the last ten years i think that's unfortunate and so i think your argument and composed of men and women with college educations and a commitment to service can speak loudly and between now and the time we begin a process i would like you to go to the press through your various organizations and let them know what is needed in our respective communities and i think you can do that and i know very often we use our sorority and fraternity houses as a place for training and for providing materials and i think through that network that you have we can speak to that guy who's sleeping on the streets and doesn't really understand why it's important to be counted and the lady who's in the apartment and she comes to the door and says there's only two of us that live here and really twelve a hotbe d you know something about that i always tell the numerators i said go up over the liquor stores and see who's living over the cleaners and also come out on sundays and holidays where people get out of the small apartments and play with their and you can get some sense about the numbers so i think we play a very crucial role in determining one thing we can learn from the two thousand census bureau was up until january one thousand nine hundred ninety nine when supreme court ruled that it could not adjust for the was planning to conduct a census in which it would adjust for the when it was not permitted to do that the bureau had less time than it currently has to completely redesign the two thousand census and achieve the results that the improvements that we saw in two thousand i think it would take the top to prove the director of the two thousand census i think just have to say i did a remarkable job i think you need leadership you need management and it's dr mckenzie said i think you need a great deal more intensive focus right now the the campaign is if we use football analogy is the air getting to the ground game is what the bureau needs to pay attention to  now the ground game is getting the numerators in place identifying the places where you can to target more numerators the be counted clients and campaigns all of these things are which will be practiced in dress rehearsal but that is where i would urge the committee and others concerned with this to pay very detailed attention to the bureau's plans for the address list non