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Congressman: Let postal workers do Census

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WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- A member of Congress suggests U.S. Postal Service carriers could conduct next year's Census, since they already visit everyone almost daily.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, plans to introduce a bill that would temporarily add the Census to postal responsibilities, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday. The bill would declare a "postal holiday" for the count.

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"They really have the workforce in place to do this," Chaffetz said. "They already go to everybody's door."

Chaffetz said the numbers show is idea is a good one. There are about 760,000 postal workers, and the Census plans to hire 750,000 temporary workers, while the estimated cost of the Census, $1 billion, is the size of the postal deficit.

The congressman fears organizations like ACORN, a community group that became a Republican target during last year's presidential race, might get involved in the Census.

"The ultimate underlying thing here about the Census is trust," Chaffetz said. "And people trust postal employees a lot more than somebody just off the street."

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