Sean Patrick Maloney: “Census day, April 1, may be 17 days away, but the census has begun. Almost 100 million questionnaires have been…”

“Census day, April 1, may be 17 days away, but the census has begun. Almost 100 million questionnaires have been delivered by the postal service this week, and 22 million more are being delivered by the Census Bureau in rural areas. I received mine the other day, and I urge all Americans to fill out their questionnaires and mail them back. It is the civic responsibility of every American to participate in the census. The news on preparations for the census is good. Things are going well. So far, over 2.4 million people have returned their forms to the Census Bureau, and they have actually processed over 1.5 million forms already. On Monday alone the census questionnaire assistance phone handled 636,000 calls, 636,000 calls in 1 day; and they handled 434,000 yesterday. That is over a million calls in 2 days. All 520 local census offices are up and open, computers and phones are operating, and the major data capture centers are tested and are already working. Though there are localized problems, recruiting is already ahead of schedule nationwide, at about 80 percent of the total needed. Given the prosperity of our Nation, it is very impressive, with this historically low unemployment, that the recruitment is going so well.”