Despite their key role, some partner organizations feel neglected. Glenn Magpantay is census project director for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York. Magpantay also felt that the Census Bureau's outreach to the Chinese community has not been well-targeted. We saw a partnership specialist who speaks Mandarin and lives in Long Island, when the Chinese community that's undercounted and language-isolated speaks Cantonese and lives in Chinatown and Brooklyn. We certainly advocate everyone getting involved in the census, but we believe that resources should be spent on communities that are undercounted.
Limited funding is another concern.
Other groups echoed the sentiment that they are being asked to do outreach without financial assistance. Angelo Falcon, senior policy executive with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, another census partner, criticized the Census Bureau for not supporting a bill introduced in the House of Representatives in March 1999, to authorize the awarding of grants to improve public participation in the 2000 census. The 2000 Census Community Participation Enhancement Act did not pass, in part because Prewitt did not want to involve the Census Bureau in grant-making. Falcon believes the Census Bureau's bureaucratic structure has interfered with communication and logistics. This could create a very negative perception in terms of people who are suspicious that there's a link between the two agencies.