IV 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 521 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 9, 2009 Mr. Dent (for himself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Ms. Norton, Ms. Clarke, Mr. Cao, Mr. Ruppersberger, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Chaffetz, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. Moran of Virginia, Mr. Sestak, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Pierluisi, Mr. McHenry, Mr. Westmoreland, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Petri, Mr. Meeks of New York, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Honda, Mr. Serrano, and Mr. Kanjorski) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to the importance of having a census that is complete and accurate.

Whereas the decennial census is a responsibility of the Federal Government, mandated by article I, section 2 of the Constitution; Whereas the enumeration of the population of the United States, as determined by the decennial census, is used to calculate the representation of each State in the House of Representatives; Whereas a State’s total representation in Congress, which is equal to its number of Senators plus the number of seats apportioned to it in the House of Representatives, determines the number of electoral votes afforded to that State in Presidential elections; Whereas the census has been taken every 10 years since 1790, when it was first taken under President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and was carried out by the marshals of the United States judicial districts; Whereas the Census Act of 1840 first established a central, national Census Office during years of enumeration and specified that inquiries be made to include the pursuits, industry, education, and resources of the country; Whereas the census subsequently became a source of data on a number of issues of national importance, such as school attendance, educational attainment, and employment; Whereas in 1902, the formerly temporary Census Office was reorganized into a permanent Bureau of the Census and has since evolved into the Nation’s central organ for generating, compiling, and making available statistical demographic information; Whereas data generated by the Bureau of the Census are used by agencies of the Federal Government to allocate funding and to forecast need for a wide range of programs, including Medicare, Social Security, assistance to farmers, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, road and highway construction, community development grants, Federal housing assistance, veterans’ health services, and others; Whereas these data are also used by private businesses to make sensible decisions concerning where and how to expand their activities; Whereas areas are ultimately underserved by the Federal Government when significant portions of the population, especially those in low-income and minority neighborhoods, fail to participate in the census; Whereas full participation in the census is necessary to ensure an accurate depiction of our Nation’s population; and Whereas April 1, 2010, is the date for the 2010 decennial census of population: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)recognizes the importance and significance of the census, and encourages full participation in this critical process; and (2)urges State, local, county, and tribal governmental entities to promote awareness of the census and to actively encourage their constituents to make every effort to be counted.