Earlier this month, representatives from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) met with Thomas Mesenbourg, Acting Director of the US Census Bureau, and his senior staff to discuss concerns for the 2020 Census in regards to the underrepresentation of Latinos.
The Census Bureau has created a new National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations (NAC) group, and that his staff will be making every effort to assure full Latino participation.
“We expect that the expertise of this committee will help us meet emerging challenges the Census Bureau faces in producing statistics about our diverse nation,” says Mesenbourg.
Currently, the National Advisory Committee has only three Latinos among its 32 members, and Latinos make up only 7% of the Census Bureau staff. In order to increase those numbers, Mesenbourg said that NAC would open its membership to form three Working Groups on specific topics that will provide more opportunities to include Latino experts.
Members of NHLA will be meeting with the Commerce Secretary to discuss ways to increase the appointment of Latinos to senior policy level positions within the Census Bureau and other agencies of the Commerce Department.
NHLA also proposed an idea to create a special task force focused on Latinos. Associate Director Steve Jost agreed to develop a media strategy specific toward Latinos on career opportunities in the Census Bureau.
“By helping us better understand a variety of issues that affect statistical measurement, this committee will help ensure that the Census Bureau continues to provide relevant and timely statistics used by federal, state and local governments as well as business and industry in an increasingly technologically oriented society,” added Mesenbourg.
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