The $14.7 Billion Census Count Starts Today
Uncle Sam to Americans: Stand still so we can count you.
March 15, 2010 -- And we're off!
The U.S. government's once-a-decade attempt to document the country's population kicks off today as over 120 million census forms start arriving in mailboxes nationwide.
The 10-question forms are used to count the U.S. population, allocate seats in Congress, and dish out $400 billion in federal funds.
"When you receive your 2010 census, please fill it out and mail it back," Census Bureau director Robert Groves said in a statement. "It's one of the shortest forms in our lifetime with just 10 questions very much like the questions James Madison and Thomas Jefferson helped craft on the very first census."
The more Americans mail back completed census forms, the more taxpayer money will be saved. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. The Census Bureau saves around $80 million for every one percent increase in the number of people who mail back their completed forms.
"It's a lot less expensive to get responses back by mail than it is to send census takers to knock on doors of households that failed to respond," Groves sa`id. "It costs the government just 42 cents for a postage paid envelope when a household mails back the form. It costs $57 to send a census taker door-to-door to follow up with each household that fails to respond."
In a 30-second ad released last month President Obama urged Americans to participate in the government's once-a-decade attempt to paint a portrait of the country's population.
"Every 10 years, our Constitution requires the federal government to conduct a census," the president said. "This helps determine your representation in Congress, as well as how federal funds are spent on things like schools and roads and where businesses decide to put new stores and factories."
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