WASHINGTON, DC – Legislation sponsored by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney which aims to ban non-government mailings which mimic the look and feel of official census forms passed the House today unanimously, 416-0. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll097.xml “With millions of census forms due to hit mailboxes within days and a multi-million advertising campaign meant to encourage completion and return of those forms, too many non-governmental organizations are trying to piggy-back on that brand awareness by labeling their envelopes “Official Document” and “Do Not Destroy” in plain black-on-white typography,” Rep. Maloney said. “By purporting to be an official document, the sponsors of these mailings deliberately reduce the effectiveness of the authentic Census—which costs taxpayers money. It’s not right, and this bill will help prevent that confusion.”



“Returning a census form every ten years is essential to fair and equitable distribution of government resources, so we must do everything possible to protect the integrity of the results. Mailings that are not sent by the Census Bureau risk confusing people into believing that they have completed their official census form, lowering the census response rate. That lowered response has a real impact. PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that areas most affected by Census undercounting lose about $2,913 per uncounted person in federal funding. And every 1 percent decrease in the mail response rate costs taxpayers approximately $85 million to send census workers back to re-count,” she said.



“I want to thank Chairman Towns and Ranking Member Issa for their leadership and support of this legislation,” Maloney said. “I hope the Senate acts quickly and we can get this important legislation to the President’s desk in short order.”



The legislation, H.R.4621, the Prevent Deceptive Census Look-Alike Mailings Act, would require any mailing with an envelope marked “Census” to clearly indicate the sender and return address. It would also trigger an existing requirement in federal law to include a disclaimer that the mailing is not from, or affiliated with, the federal government. The bill would not prohibit the use of the word “Census” on a mailing, but the mailer must make clear that it is NOT sent by the United States Census.



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Background. Last December, Rep. Maloney and Chairman Clay wrote to the U.S. Postal Service about direct mailings sent by the Republican National Committee signed by RNC Chair Michael Steele which were labeled “Census Document Registered To” above the address of the recipient and “DO NOT DESTROY/OFFICAL DOCUMENT” without any return address. Ten years ago, similarly-labeled mailings by the Southwest Legal Foundation were ruled unacceptable by the Postal Service. In January 2009, the USPS ruled that there was “no basis for action” on the RNC mailing. Similar census-style mailings have been reported more recently.



