For census advocates who continually struggle to encourage participation, the guarantee of a short questionnaire has reinvigorated the grassroots push. On October 1, a coalition of Latino organizations and national Spanish-language media outlets kicked-off their campaign, "ya es hora HAGASE CONTAR!" (It's Time, Make Yourself Count!), to motivate U.S. Latinos to participate in the 2010 Census. In the Chicago region, the Census Bureau has recruited 10 former National Football League stars to visit classrooms. They will give out autographed photos that carry a Census message on the back. Perhaps the most creative attempt to encourage participation has come from the U.S. Spanish-language network Telemundo, which will introduce a census worker into its soap opera Mas Sabe el Diablo ("The Devil Knows More") to help characters (and thus viewers) understand the process and why it works.

Despite these colorful attempts to educate about the census and amplify its importance, proponents have been facing a new barrier in recent weeks that has nothing to do with language.

Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennet (R-UT) have introduced an amendment to the spending bill that funds the Department of Commerce (which oversees the Census Bureau) that would perennially bar funding for the census if it fails to ask about a person's citizenship status.

Though the census is known superficially for collecting data on the country's demography, this information is used to make vital decisions like apportionment in the House of Representatives and appropriations of federal aid. Fearful of losing congressional representation in his state, Sen. Vitter explained that he wants to prevent other states' numbers from being inflated by undocumented immigrants. "Certainly, Louisiana is directly impacted," Sen. Vitter said in an interview. "We lost a seat in 2000."

In today's New York Times, an editorial denouncing the Vitter amendment asserts, "As required by law, the Census Bureau gave Congress the exact wording of the survey's 10 questions in early April 2008 -- more than 18 months ago. Changing it now to meet Sen. Vitter's demand would delay the count, could skew the results and would certainly make it even harder to persuade minorities to participate."

The Times also notes that adding an eleventh question to the census will require the rewriting and reprinting of hundreds of millions of census forms and instructional and promotional materials as well as reprogramming software and scanners at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

An eleventh question about citizenship means we can forget about the participation of undocumented immigrants and possibly their friends and families. Already fearful of being deported, these residents are suspicious of admitting their existence on a government document (even though the law requires that all information be kept confidential by the Census Bureau).

Sen. Vitter's eleventh question will not only cost millions of dollars, it might cost us millions of responses. Ramifications of inaccurate census statistics will be reflected everywhere: from school funding to congressional representation, from block grants to social service programs, from hospital subsidies to highway safety. The Census Bureau's strategy for simplicity will promote the greatest participation and the most accurate distribution of resources.