California governor creates committee on census outreach

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Jerry Brown has created a committee to help ensure the 2020 census reflects an accurate count of the state’s population.

The Democratic governor says an accurate census count is essential to the state because it determines representation in Congress and federal funding.

His Friday announcement comes amid worries immigrants will be afraid to participate in the census because of a citizenship question the federal government is adding to the survey. California is suing to bar that question from the census.

The 25-member committee will submit a report in October outlining outreach ideas to ensure Californians participate in the census count.

The census is intended to be a complete count of the entire United States population and is conducted every 10 years.