Over 40 children’s advocacy organizations sent this letter to Congress requesting that the U.S. Census Bureau receive at least $2 billion in funding in FY2022. This increase is necessary for the preparation and planning of the 2030 decennial census as well as improving the American Community Survey and continuing the pulse surveys.
Excerpt from the letter:
The needs of our nation’s children continue to grow both as a result of the pandemic and of neglected investment for the past decade. Investments in our children deliver a tremendous return, improving their near- and long-term outcomes and healthy development, benefitting society and our economy. Assistance for children included in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has the potential to cut our national child poverty rate by more than half in 2021. This plan represents the biggest opportunity to reduce child poverty in a generation, yet to fully understand where to target this assistance and assess the true impact of these investments on child well-being, we must have accurate data to help identify geographic disparities in child outcomes on the state and local level.