Council member urges funding to protect New York City's census count, warns citizenship question could cost seats and funding
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Summary
A City Council member marked National Census Day, highlighted the city's $40 million 2020 outreach effort and warned that reinstating a citizenship question could depress responses, costing hundreds of millions in federal funds and possibly two to three congressional seats. The speaker also noted the council passed a bill creating a permanent census office and urged more funding ahead of 2030.
On National Census Day, a City Council member told colleagues and advocates in New York that the city must secure more funding and outreach ahead of the 2030 census to avoid a damaging undercount.
The council member said the city's 2020 efforts were decisive: a $40,000,000 city investment, partnerships with more than 150 community organizations, roughly 7,000,000 text messages sent, about 5,000,000 phone calls, and 36 media campaigns in 27 languages. "We want to count every single New Yorker," the council member said, urging continued investment in outreach.
Why it matters: The speaker emphasized that an accurate count affects hundreds of programs and billions in funding. "We know that over 300 vital programs depend on how we do on the census," the council member said, citing programs such as SNAP, Head Start, public school funding, transportation and public safety allocations.
The speaker warned that efforts to reinstate a citizenship question could suppress participation among immigrant communities, particularly where immigration enforcement is active. The council member recalled working with New York Attorney General Tish James and others to sue a prior administration over a citizenship question and said such a question's return "would be disastrous for New York City." "If it is put back onto the census, it will mean that we will lose hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for our great city. It will mean that we could lose between 2 and 3 congressional seats," the council member said.
Local policy: The speaker noted that the City Council previously passed the speaker's bill creating the city's first permanent office of the census, intended to prepare city outreach and operations ahead of the 2030 count.
What comes next: The speaker closed by calling for additional city and state funding to bolster outreach and to defend against changes that could reduce participation. No formal vote or motion was recorded during the remarks.
The remarks were delivered at a City Council event marking National Census Day. The council member did not identify themself by name on the record in these segments; references above use the role expressed in the transcript.
