From Military.com:
“Utah Man Pushes for Census to Include
Veterans Question “
The former head of the Utah
Department of Veterans Affairs is pushing for the U.S. census to include a
question about veterans next year. Terry Schow, a Vietnam veteran, wants the
2020 census to ask about veteran status so the state can have a more accurate
count of people with military service, the Standard-Examiner reported Saturday.
"It's really just one question: Are you a veteran?" Schow said. The
Census Bureau pulled the veteran status question from the questionnaire in
2010, according to the agency. The bureau continues to collect data on veterans
through three smaller surveys: the American Community Survey, the Current
Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation. These
surveys only go to a portion of the population, Schow said. The American
Community Survey, the largest of the three, is sent out to about 3.5 million
people each year. Current counts of veterans from the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau are likely missing a significant number
of people, Schow said. The department lists about 152,000 veterans in Utah
while the bureau says the state has about 144,000. A state database indicates
Utah has about 180,000 veterans, Schow said. The VA uses census data to
determine spending on veteran housing, hospitals and assistance programs, Schow
said. Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop sent a letter to the bureau's director
earlier this month, asking for the veterans question to be included. "I
believe this small change will have a big impact on our ability to take care of
our nation's heroes and the proper allocation of resources for veterans
cemeteries and homes," Bishop wrote.
^ The veteran question should be
on all Federal Government Censuses. It is the perfect way to know exactly how
many veterans there are in the country as well as in each region and each state.
That will show where veteran-related programs should go and only help those men
and women who risked everything to protect our country. ^
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