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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Census citizenship question could be costly

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Lauren Tara LaCapra -


An array of US companies have told the Trump administration that a citizenship question on the 2020 Census would harm business if it leads to an undercount of immigrants, undermining the data they use to place stores, plan inventory and plot ad campaigns.


Corporate executives, lobbyists and representatives from major industry groups like the Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the International Council of Shopping Centers have raised the issue in meetings with government officials, according to more than a dozen sources familiar with the matter. Some meetings date back to 2017, when the administration was first mulling adding the question.


Industry officials continue to seek assurances from the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department that the question’s impact on the quality of Census data will be minimised, according to the sources, who described the meetings on condition of anonymity.


The pressure reflects the economic importance of the decennial count of America’s inhabitants.


The Census is used to draw voting districts and divide some $800 billion in federal programmes. For companies, it provides the most detailed picture available of consumer and labour markets. Under the administration’s proposal, the Census would ask whether respondents are citizens of the United States for the first time in 70 years.


Corporate America finds itself in an unlikely alliance with immigrant advocacy groups that have sued to block the question on the basis it could scare immigrants out of participating, and therefore cost their communities funds and political representation. The Supreme Court plans to hear arguments on the case next week.


Clothes-maker Levi Strauss & Co, transport companies Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc and media group Univision Communications Inc are among a handful of companies supporting that lawsuit. In court documents, they said the citizenship question “threatens to undermine (the) reliability of Census data and therefore substantially reduce its value to businesses.”


Few other companies or trade groups, however, have been willing to discuss their opposition to the citizenship question publicly. In interviews, sources said they are only voicing opinions in private meetings, out of concern about a White House backlash.


Spokespeople for several major trade groups along with big name companies like Walmart Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc and many others either declined to offer a statement for this story or did not respond to requests for comment. “While corporations and business groups are reluctant to enter the political turmoil surrounding the citizenship question on the 2020 Census, they nonetheless depend heavily on accurate Census data for their operations,” said DeVere Kutscher, who was until recently executive director of the Census Business Coalition, one of the main groups advocating on behalf of industry.


“As a result, they are focusing their efforts on what they can do to support a complete, secure, and accurate count, and are understandably concerned about the impact of any factor which could jeopardise that,” he added.


Underscoring the political stakes, earlier this month President Donald Trump ripped “radical” Democrats opposed to the citizenship question on Twitter, saying a Census without such a question would be “meaningless.” The Census Bureau has taken pains to ensure everyone is counted, Burton Reist, a longtime Census official who oversees decennial communications and stakeholder relations, said in an interview. In response to questions about the business community’s view on the citizenship question, a spokesman pointed Reuters to the Census Bureau’s official responses to stakeholders.


The Commerce Department, which houses the Census Bureau, provided a statement detailing the planned communications and outreach spending that will encourage people to respond. The budget is $500 million, up from the $376 million. — Reuters


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