The US Secretary of Commerce announced on Monday that the self-response and door-to-door data collection will conclude on Oct. 5, 2020. This announcement comes despite a federal judge in California’s ruling last Thursday that the census counts be continued until Oct. 31.
If your head of household has not already responded to the census, encourage them to do so. The data collected by the census will impact the next 10 years of federal funding and determine your representation in Congress. Hundreds of billions of dollars depend on accurate data. Funding to over 100 programs like Medicaid, Head Start, block grants for community mental health services and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP are determined from the census data. The census data also determines the number of federal dollars that go into communities for things like hospitals, school lunch programs, fire departments, and infrastructure like roads.
The census data is used to determine the number of seats in the US House of Representatives. The data is also used to redraw electoral districts for state and federal seats.
Do your part. Make sure that your community receives the funding that correctly reflects its actual population, as well as making sure it is represented fairly. Submit your response to the US Census by Oct. 5. Visit the US Census 2020’s website for more information and to submit your response.
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