Good morning. As chair of the congressional Asian Pacific american caucus, i am proud to join my colleagues in hosting this press conference to ensure that every community is fully counted in the 2020 census. Effort of the congressional black, hispanic, native american, and asianpacific caucus, and we are so honored to have speaker pelosi, majority leader hoyer, chair jeffries, and vice chair clark to join us today to assure the American Public that the census is safe, secure, and confidential. There is so much at stake in the 2020 census that will shape the lives of americans over the next decade. The results of the 2020 census will determine how over 1 trillion in federal funding is allocated to states and localities to fund hospitals, roads, and other Critical Resources in our communities. It will also determine how countless policy and Business Decisions are made, as well as how many congressional seats are apportioned across the country. Thats why a successful 2020 census count is essential to making sure that historically undercounted populations, primarily communities of color, get the resources that they need. So we are here today to encourage everyone living in the United States to participate in the 2020 census. April 1 is considered the official census date. But actually the start of the census is exactly one week from now, march 12. That is when the first outreach effort will go live. And any household will be able to respond to the census online by entering their address. Some households will also begin to receive paper census forms to fill out, followed by a massive nationwide mobilization to households across america. Doors will be knocked down by the census staff. Mailing will go out to households. And Community Leaders across the nation will ask their neighbors to get counted. It a topwe have made priority to ensure Asian American, native hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders are fully counted, because we know an undercount would be devastated for devastating for our community. They have historically been undercounted due to the fact that 70 of Asian American adults are immigrants, and one third are limited ingress english proficient. As a result many are either unfamiliar with the census or worried about how the census data will be used. Unfortunately there is still a lot of misinformation targeting immigrant communities. So i want to make it clear once and for all that there is no Citizenship Question on the 2020 census, and more importantly, all of the information you provide in the census is completely confidential and cannot be used for deportation purposes. Closely also worked with the Census Bureau to ensure that online census forms are accessible to nonenglish speakers. And we are thrilled that the online census forum will be available in 12 nonenglishlanguage is, including spanish, chinese, vietnamese, tagalog, and japanese. There will be census language guides available in 59 languages. So i am confident that with the work of all the caucuses represented here today, we will be able to engage historically undercounted populations and ensure our communities are fully counted any 2020 census. Next, we are so honored to have the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. For pelosi thank you enabling me to fill in here at this point because we have because of what we have going the rest of the day. But im honored to be with all four of you here, champions of who we are as american. In addition, carolyn maloney, has been for 10 years talking about the census, working in the Appropriations Committee finding it with all of these advocates. And grace, who has a very diverse district, has had many of us up there to talk to our constituents to say, be counted. Do not give a victory to the other side by falling prey to their fear campaign. The republicans have put out, this administration has put out something that says this is an official document, fill it out. It is not a census form. But i particularly annoyed by facebook. Official an announcement from donald trump saying fill this out, this is a census form. It is not. It is an absolute lie. A lie that is consistent with the misrepresentation policy of facebook. Now they are messing with who we are as americans. I know the profit motive is their business model, but it should not come at the cost of the counting of who is in our country, so that we can provide the services and the rest. The beautiful diversity of america is what this administration fears. They want to undercounted. They misrepresent it on facebook and facebook is saying this misrepresentation is consistent with their policy. I called this to your attention because this is new and fresh, and it is causing quite a stir, because as the distinguished chairwoman just said, we are excited about the online census, and the fact that it is in multiple languages, and the rest. But right now, this is on the part of facebook, a robust, unacceptable interference in the census, and the company will not take the deceptive ad out, as it clearly violates the census, but does not necessarily violate their untruthful policies. With that, i yield to the distinguished leader of the house, mr. Steny hoyer of maryland, a champion of this issue for years. Rep. Hoyer i want to thank all the members of the caucuses that are here. Our chairman of the caucus, the entire caucus, mr. Jeffries, vice chair clark, i imagine ms. Maloney will be here. As the speaker said, she has been an extraordinary advocate of not only making sure the census was adequately funded, but that it was adequately empowered to count every american. Native american caucus as well. She represents the native american. We have a diverse caucus. We representso, all of america. And all of America Needs to be counted. Our Founding Fathers did not cite every citizen, every property owner, every white person. They excluded some people in terms of the laws, but they said that every person ought to be counted. Why . Because they knew it was critical for the successful operations of government, for the distribution of revenues from the federal government to the local governments, to assist every american. That everybody be counted. And we know where they live, what community they live in. But i want to echo the comments that were made by congresswoman chu. The law provides that this information be used for nothing other than counting americans. When i say americans, every person, whether they are an american citizen or not. They did not mention citizens. Cesar chavez, one of the great civil rights leaders for farmworkers in our country, he said we do not need a perfect system. We do need perfect participation. Knowing full well that the system may not be absolutely perfect, but if we perfectly participated and made our voices heard in voting, but also in being counted, that our country would be better off. That wecount would mean dont accurately distribute funds. I am proud to stand with my colleagues to urge every Single Person who lives in this country, in my district, in my state, in my country, make sure that when they get the form, respond in whatever way they feel most comfortable. Paper, telephone, electronic device, respond. So that people will be counted. I want to thank the people ahind me, whose voice is such strong voice on behalf of every person who lives in america. So im glad to be here working with all of you, and i hope that everybody watching, everybody that you write to, will understand, this is important for them. Its important for their children. Its important for their families. Its important for their communities and their neighbors. Fill out that form, and we will do everything to make sure that we believe the law will be filed followed. Used only forbe the purposes of counting. And now, highyield let me see, i have to look at the paper who was next on my list here. The chairman of the congressional hispanic caucus, congressman castro. Rep. Castro good morning come everybody. Thank you to the journalists who are here to cover this very important issue for the american people, and particularly for people of color. It is an honor for me to be here as chairman of the hispanic caucus and a representative of texas and also the leadership of the caucuses, Democratic Caucuses and the house of representatives. It is a challenge every 10 years to get any american fill out the census. Some people feel as though you are invading their privacy, as though it is intrusive. Some people are fearful of giving the government more information. Thatvery 10 years, challenge has been especially tough in minority communities, who are sometimes even more disconnected from the government than other communities. This year, the Trump Administration has compounded that problem. First we had to fight off the Citizenship Question that the admits rating the administration wanted to put on the forms. Then the republicans sent out forms that seemed to mimic census documents, asking people to send them back. I imagine with the intent either to get peoples information, or to make people feel like they have already filled out the census so that when they get the official form, they do not do anything with that form. So, i hope that people will not be fooled. The official census documents are going to be in the mail very soon, so people will receive them soon. There is a lot at stake for the Latino Community, as i mentioned. Every 10 years the Latino Community has been undercounted. For states like mine, texas, other states with large latino populations, florida, arizona, new york, many others. When folks are undercounted, that affects formula funding. Everything from highways to housing to health care, anything that involves federal monday federal money. If it is undercounted, you are going to get less than than your fair share of federal money, even though you still have to serve a Larger Population then you are being funded for. Apportionment in politics. For example, texas is expected to get three new congressional seats after the next census. But if people are fearful of filling out the census form, if there is a severe undercount in the Latino Committee or texas or another places, that means that our state would lose out on congressional representation just because the Trump Administration has played games with the census and tried to make people fearful of filling it out. So we wanted to come here today to ask americans to be undaunted, to full out the official census form and send it back to the United States government. And as has been mentioned before, it cannot be used for any other purposes. But that is important that people step up and be counted. So, i want to thank everybody for their efforts. The chc has been reaching out to state and local governments, to groups, our own communities. We have been making an effort to engage people to fill out the census, and i know that capac and cpc and the House Democratic caucus have as well. So i want to say thank you to everybody for their efforts. Next i would like to introduce my colleague who chairs the congressional black congress, congressman from los angeles, karen bass. Is the most important year i believe that we will experience in a long time. What happens this year is going to impact us not just for 10 years but potentially for a generation. The Congressional Black Caucus is very concerned about the census, and concerned that the way it is set up this year where it is going to be online first is a concern that it is a structural way to undercount the black population. 2010, last census in 800,000 africanamericans were missed. Canng the census online potentially be a way of continuing to undercount the black population. You have to think about areas where they do not have broadband, areas where they have broadband but it might be too expensive. Understanding that a paper form will come, might come. It can be very, very confusing for folks. Historically, that has always been an undercount of the black population. If you think in the 150 years after the u. S. Was formed during the period of enslavement in the south, black people were not even considered full people. We were counted as 3 5. The undercount is something we have had to deal with historically, but seeing how it is going to be done this year gives us greater concern. The Congressional Black Caucus was so concerned that we decided to form a specific task force to look at our districts and to make sure that we count everybody. We are talking about the black population, which includes folks who were not born here, immigrants, people from around the world, to make sure that they are counted. Because even though the Citizenship Question is not on the form, so much publicity happened around it that we are very concerned that people will be afraid of the census. And so getting out and doing the work is a top priority of the Congressional Black Caucus. Stephen from the great state of nevada chairs the task force on the census for the Congressional Black Caucus. I would like to thank everyone for being here today and bring up the chair of the Congressional Black Caucuss task force on the census. Thank you very much, chairwoman bass, and to our leadership. Our our speaker and i am from the vet congressional district. 4throm nevadas congressional district. I am the first person of color to represent nevada in our federal delegation. So representation does matter. My home state also received about 6 billion a year of federal funding that comes from information that is collected from the census. So as everyone has stated, this is very important to making sure that we have adequate resources in our schools and our hospitals, for affordable housing, for free and reduced meals for our children, and for Small Businesses who also receive grants from information that comes from the census. But all of the work that has everyone by the cbc and member of the tricausus, we are focused to make sure everything a person is counted in the 2020 census. After months of meeting with stakeholders, local organizers, and the Census Bureau directly, i am excited that census day is nearly among us. Invitations to participate will begin to arrive in homes the week of march 12, and with census day approaching, we must now redouble our efforts on removing roadblocks to census participation for all of the communities that we represent. We know that people of color, particularly black people, are among the communities most at risk of being missed in the census. And the same forces that are trying to discourage communities of color from voting are the same that are trying to discourage and suppress census participation. Sadly, including the Trump Administration. The undercount of the black community in the 2020 census was estimated to be about 3. 7 million people, according to color of change. And estimates for 2020 put that undercount at around 4 million black people, according to the urban institute. This is real funding that we would lose if we are not counted. And make no mistake, the money still gets allocated, it just does not come to our communities, some of the most underserved in the country. So as everyone has said, this impacts everything from medicaid, to snap, to infrastructure, to education grants. And we know that there is a deliberate Misinformation Campaign underway to discourage communities of color from participating in the census. Unofficial mailers from the party of our colleagues across the aisle has been sent out specifically to deliver inaccurate information to our constituents. We reject that, and we would call on the administration to turn away from those efforts. But again, i want to thank all of my colleagues, our leadership, but most important lead to our constituents. Be counted. Representation matters. Funding matters. You matter. And that is why we want you to be counted. Thank you. And i will turn it over to our chairman of the House Democratic caucus, hakeem jeffries. Rep. Jeffies thank you. And to the leadership of the tricaucus and certainly to judy chu for convening all of us together. The constitution of the United States requires that every 10 years the government count the entire population of the United States. This of course is known as the census, and it is incredibly important that every Single Person, north, south, east, and west, participate in the census. April 1 is census day, and we want everyone to get ready. Because it is incredibly critical to the wellbeing of your community. Participation in the census of course impacts legislative representation at the city, state, and federal level. Losecommunity could representation, and diminish your voice if you fail to participate in the census count. Impacts thelso allocation of federal resources, and could deny your Community Federal share of funds in areas like health care, housing, or transportation. The census count also impacts the provision of basic services, such as classroom size, or sanitation pickup at the local level. Its incredibly important that every Single Person in this country participate, but particularly in the historically undercounted communities. The asian and Pacific Islander community, the Latino Community, the africanamerican community, the native american community. Our call is to make sure that every sickle child, every every single child, every single adult, every single household, every single block, and every single neighborhood stands up and is counted in the census. We want every person in this great country to participate in the census as if your life depends on it. Lifese your quality of absolutely depends on it. Yield tos my honor to the distinction vice chair of the House Democratic congress, katherine clark. Rep. Clark thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you to all the leadership of the tricaucus and the Democratic Caucus for being here today, and for their work on making sure that every single american is counted. I want to talk to you about how important it is to count our children. Andyoungest americans need deserve the resources that are vital on getting an accurate count of children. Nutrition assistance, headstart, school funding, afterschool programs, school lunch programs, childhood insurance programs, and other vital programs. But we have known for decades Young Children have been undercounted in the census at a higher rate than any other age group. Census, nearly one million children were not counted. We know that many children live in the hard to count neighborhoods, and that up to 40 of children under five lived in complex arrangements, often between parents and other adults. So we want to emphasize how important it is for parents to count all Young Children who live with them fulltime, and children who live with them most of the time. Parents also should be sure to include children born in 2020. And we want to make sure that it is accurate if you are living in subsidized housing, how many children live in each unit. Please remember, this census is confidential, it will not be shared with landlords or with immigration and customs enforcement. That ouro help ensure children have all the resources they need, and the way to do that is to make sure we make every american count. Tonk you, and i will yield our chairwoman, carolyn maloney. I want to thank all of my colleagues in the democratic leadership and the tricaucus for all of their work in making this happen. As we all know, the census is a cornerstone of our democracy. It is the greatest peace time participation in our country. And it is really important for two reasons. Representation. If you are not counted, you are not represented. Secondly, based on census trillion inr 1. 5 funding is disturbed every single year. And we are already underway. In just seven days on march 12, families will be receiving, residents will be receiving their census forms to be filled out in the mail. As chair of the Oversight Committee, i am committed to doing everything we can to ensure a full, fair, and accurate census, continuing the legacy of my predecessor, the great chairman elijah cummings, and the Oversight Committee has conducted rigorous oversight. We fought hard to fight the president from undermining the census through an illegal Citizenship Question and we won. The committee and many of us filed a brief that went all the way to the supreme court, and weak won there and we won there. We have learned there have been missteps in recruiting, signing up of Community Partners, and developing Critical Technology for the nations first online census. The bureau needs to correct these problems now to ensure a full and accurate count. The Oversight Committee is especially concerned with that certain communities maybe undercounted, such as black americans, latinos, africanamericans, who have all been undercounted in previous censuses. That means this communities have missed out on representation and on crucial federal funding. Here are some of the things that the Census Bureau has done. We have had four oversight hearings on readiness, and we have released a list of over 300,000 local Census Bureau partners organized by states and congressional district. This is very good news. These are hundreds of thousands of people who want to be partners, working with our offers offices and communities with the Census Bureau to get an accurate count. We have released what we call the toolkit to give members of congress and members of the Community Information of where to go. We are using libraries to help fill out forms and to help organize, and this is crucial information. It is on our website. And my absolute personal favorite is the census card to count map. Go to census hard to count map 2020. Us. This was developed in the community i am privileged to represent. It is called the hard to map project. This will allow residents and other organizers to go to this website and download census areas by congressional districts. It will show where the undercount was last time. This is my district. The undercount is the red area. You see all this red area tells me that is where i have to work with my community to make sure people are counted. Technology,h new they will be able to update the maps as you go forward, showing what areas knowll let communities they are under representative. Counted, youis not lose that money for a full 10 years. To bevery important counted and represented. Need to ensure every community is fully counted this year. We have the tools and will be working with more tools to get an accurate count. Of our communities is ours to shape through getting an accurate count. You can shape the representation and services and dollars that flow to your community, and it all starts with a fair and accurate count. I am thrilled to be working with my colleagues to make this the best senses ever. Now i would like to introduce the chair of Appropriations Committee, is he there . Yes, from the great state of new york, the cochair of the senses caucus in the chair of the Appropriations Committee that funds the senses. He has done an incredible heroic job getting it funded this year. Congratulations. Thank you for joining us today. Chairman, we had to fight for every dollar last year to ensure we had the resources. It,ite efforts to underfund we successfully made sure the beer has funding to communicate with constituents, reach out to communities, and show how our nation has grown and changed in the past decade. Starting next week, households will begin receiving mail, asking them to respond in whatever format they are comfortable with. There are numerous Language Options for the 2020 census. Hownnot emphasize enough the allocation of funding dollars are determined by the accuracy of the census count in our neighborhoods. In total, it will help determine one point 5 trillion in funding over the next decade and where it will go. We are here today to urge everyone to make sure they get counted. E have dealt with the fears there is a mailer going out. The official census form, no information can be given to anyone else, not your landlord, immigration department, not to congress, other than numbers in general, so please be counted. This is very important for all of us. To our last to turn , the cochairaker of the native american caucus. Good morning. Andk you for being here interested in what we are trying to do here. For theirhat leaders work to ensure we are counting every Single Person in this country. It is about more than being counted. It is about her familys, communities, ensuring we have our fair share of resources. New mexico is one of the hardest states to count, and i am the member of a community that is most undercounted in the country. , native americans were undercounted by 5 , exacerbating the disparities in health, poverty, violence, and education. Representative kendra horn of oklahoma with the help of the congressional native american caucus introduced a resolution recognizing the importance of an accurate count in the 2020 census, encouraging federal, state, and local governments to work with federal nations to encourage participation. It is critical for the government to get a complete census count. Being counted and being seen by the rest of the country is crucial for the future of our families. Accuratete and in census threatens to make undercounted and vulnerable communities even more undercounted and vulnerable. Next week when Congress Gets going we will show everyone we will not be intimidated and we will be counted. Andcensus is safe, easy, important. Together we can make it count because every person in our country matters. We are here to tell everyone to do their part, fill out the census and make sure your friends and family do the same, and thank you again. Votes have been called, but we will take one question. You talked about the importance of counting every , but the census , so why other questions is it so important . American Community Survey goes into the detail youre talking about, done on a yearly basis. Is critical,s especially for simplicity, the basic questions that are asked, and it is undocumented how many people are really in this country. It is our constitutional responsibility to get every person we can to answer that question, and we strongly believe that having a Citizenship Question definitely would have decreased the Response Rate to that. We will take the first few and then you. [indiscernible] well, let us us look into that. I know their desire is to reach out to as many communities as possible. Let us look to their criteria for how they go about selecting these stations. There are concerns about misinformation and disinformation. Has enough been done to address that . Are you worried about the impact . , this piece of misinformation is the most notable one, but what we are is what willut happen after the senses takes place, so thats why we are being proactive and we are out there in our Community Partners are out there talking about what is on the senses and paying attention to any kind of fraudulent mail is out. Thank you all very much. He announcer our cspan campaign 2020 team is asking what voters should president ial candidates address. Moste issue that is important to me is foreign policy. I think it is important for the issuestes to focus on they constitutionally have a lot of control over. It is one area that there is a lot of due direct control over. There are three, im looking for the stance on the second amendment, immigration, and abortion. For me in this campaign is health care. Friendsmy family and have struggled to meet their medical bills and medical debt, so medicare for all would be really beneficial for everyone i know, so that is the main issue i have for this election. Issue is Climate Change and how we can address it by addressing economic disparity in order to be more sustainable. The