Gov. Tom Wolf Friday signed Executive Order 2018-5 creating the Governor’s Census 2020 Complete Count Commission, which will make recommendations for the most accurate count of Pennsylvanians in the upcoming census.
“The census data impacts all of us, from the number of seats Pennsylvania has in Congress to the amount of federal funds we revive, to the decisions government, businesses and non-profits make,” said Gov. Wolf. “This commission will help our state to have a full and accurate count of our population. We need all people to be counted, from our biggest cities to our small and rural communities.”
The commission will coordinate Pennsylvania’s involvement with the census, which occurs every 10 years.
The commission will help the U.S. Census Bureau to recruit Pennsylvanians to be census workers, educate the public about the importance of the census, develop partnerships with public and private sectors to achieve an accurate count, and create a strategy to reach hard-to-count populations.
The governor will appoint up to 45 members to the commission from businesses, academia, community and nonprofit organizations, religious and health care communities, elected and appointed officials, employees from all levels of government, and the Pennsylvania State Data Center.
There are far-reaching implications if Pennsylvania’s population is undercounted in 2020. If the data snapshot does not include all residents, the Commonwealth could lose seats in Congress, receive billions of dollars less in federal funds for a variety of services and programs, and the data used by the public and private sector could be impacted.
Census Day is April 1, 2020.
Click Here for a copy of Executive Order 2018-8.
No comments:
Post a Comment