New: Report Highlights Dire Costs of a Census Undercount for California’s 36th District
Dr. Ruiz Sounds Alarm to Participate in Census Ahead of September 30th Deadline
Palm Desert, CA – Today, Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. released a new report prepared by the staff of the Committee on Oversight and Reform and Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties detailing the dire costs of an undercount for California's 36th Congressional District. With just 20 days left to respond to the Census, Dr. Ruiz is urging residents to complete their Census forms immediately before the impending deadline.
"We are woefully behind the rest of California in completing the 2020 Census," said Dr. Ruiz. "We are running out of time, so I urge everyone to respond to the Census right away. It is more important than ever to have an accurate Census count for our community, otherwise we will lose out on millions of funds for our health, economy, and community, which will make our economic and public health recover from the pandemic that much more difficult. This is our moment to be counted."
As of September 9, California's 36th Congressional District had a self-response rate of 57.4 percent—over 10 percent lower than the State of California's self-response rate.
Dr. Ruiz is urging households in the district who have not already done so to fill out their Census forms right now by going online at https://2020census.gov/, calling 844-330-2020, or filling out the forms they received in the mail. The 2020 Census has only 12 questions and does not ask about citizenship status.
Data collected by the Census is used to determine how much funding the district receives for critical services like education, medical care, foster care, roads, public transit, and job programs. Census data also helps local governments enhance public safety and prepare for emergencies like wildfires.
By conservative estimates, for every person that does not get counted, communities lose $1,000 per person per year for 10 years. Based on data from the 2017 American Community Survey, if minority populations in California's 36th Congressional District are undercounted by the same percentage as they were nationally in 2010, the 2020 Census would miss:
- Over 5,000 Hispanics; about a $50 million loss in total funding over 10 years.
- Over 680 American Indians and Native Alaskans; and about a $6.8 million loss in total funding over 10 years.
Click here to read the full report.