City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: APRIL 17, 2019
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of a Resolution in Support of an Accurate 2020 Census without Citizenship Question. [ROLL-CALL VOTE]
BODY
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ISSUE: Oppostion to the Addition of a Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council adopt the attached Resolution in support of an accurate 2020 Census without the citizenship question.
BACKGROUND: The 2020 Census is the opportunity to collect the most accurate count of United States residents for the next decade. An accurate count is critical to ensuring that all residents are fairly represented in federal and state government each time legislative districts are drawn and that Alexandria gets its fair share of resources to provide public services. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that any person not counted in Alexandria results in the loss of $20,000 of funding over 10 years. On March 26, 2018, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross agreed to a Department of Justice request, and added a citizenship question to the 2020 Census questionnaire, after the opportunity for testing the effects of the question on data collection had passed, citing the need for better voting rights enforcement. The Census Bureau submitted the Census 2020 questionnaire to Congress, including a question on the citizenship status of residents. The decennial census has not included a citizenship question since 1950, prior to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Councilman Aguirre who chairs the City's Complete Count Committee initiated this resolution as part of the work of that committee. The City's Human Rights Commission also reviewed the resolution.
DISCUSSION: The City of Alexandria is one of 190 cities, counties, and state and local officials around the country ...
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