Rubén Hinojosa: “I am very pleased that he mentioned California because California was the hardest hit in terms of the loss of resources.…”

“I am very pleased that he mentioned California because California was the hardest hit in terms of the loss of resources. It was estimated by the GAO report that approximately $2.2 billion was the biggest loser on the fact that we did not utilize sampling during the 1990 census. The Census Bureau estimated that 835,000 people were not counted in California. Of those, it is also interesting to indicate that over half of those individuals not counted in California were Hispanics, and the population figures are used again. It is important to note that the population figures are used by 22 of the 25 biggest Federal grant programs. So if people are not counted, such as Medicaid, then they will not be able to receive those resources. If people are not counted such, we will not be able to use the resources for how reconstruction. So it is important for us to recognize that it is key and it is important that everyone. It is hard to think that if 5 percent of the Hispanic population is not utilized, that Hispanics are only worth 95 percent instead of a hundred percent, and we also recognize that there is an overcount, and we have a large number of individuals that are the rich that are being overcounted because they have several households. So we ask, as we move forward, that we get an accurate count.”