WHEREAS, The United States Constitution requires an enumeration of the population every 10 years, which is known as the United States decennial census; and

WHEREAS, The United States decennial census is important because it determines congressional representation, state redistricting, federal formula grant allocations, state funding to local governments, and local programs and planning activities for the next 10 years; and

WHEREAS, California, with the eighth largest economy in the world, a population of more than thirty-seven million (37,000,000), a territory of 163,696 square miles, and significant geographic, racial, and ethnic diversity, has experienced a historical undercount in prior censuses; and

WHEREAS, A complete and accurate count of all residents in the 2010 decennial census is vital to ensure fair political representation and distribution of funding in California; and

WHEREAS, Now, more than ever, in the face of a record state budget deficit, a complete count of all Californians in the decennial census is critical; and

WHEREAS, The next decennial census of the population will be conducted on April 1, 2010, and the United States Census Bureau and the Demographics Unit of the California Department of Finance already have begun planning to ensure its success; and

WHEREAS, The California Complete Count Committee, created in 1999, directed an extensive outreach campaign with a budget of $24.7 million to encourage full participation in the 2000 decennial census by all Californians, especially historically undercounted populations; and

WHEREAS, Despite limited time for outreach, the campaign still was successful in reaching various segments of the population and contributed to a mail-back response rate of 70 percent for California, which exceeded the national response rate of 67 percent; and

WHEREAS, Despite these outreach efforts in connection with the 2000 census, 522,796 Californians were not counted, which resulted in a loss of $1.5 billion in federal funding for the state; and

WHEREAS, Residents are more likely to respond to the census questionnaire if they are informed about the census and better understand the census process; and

WHEREAS, Future outreach efforts depend on strong partnerships with state, local, and tribal governments, community-based organizations, faith-based groups, schools, businesses, the media, and others; and

WHEREAS, A sufficient amount of time is necessary to develop and implement education and outreach strategies to complement the United States Census Bureau’s regional efforts; and

WHEREAS, The Select Committee on the Census held its first hearing on April 4, 2008, and through testimony, determined that California must now begin to develop a work plan and determine if resources need to be budgeted in 2009 and 2010 to promote the census; now, therefore, be it