Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community leaders witnessed Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak sign two bills as part of his Las Vegas tour on Friday, June 14.
During a ceremony at Chinatown Plaza hosted by the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC) and Nevadans Count Coalition, Sisolak signed SB 504, which would allocate $5 million in outreach funding for the 2020 Census.
“It’s important to ensure that every single person is counted so that…dollars go towards the communities who need it the most and deserve it the most,” Sisolak said in his remarks. “Those communities are notoriously undercounted and we need to change that.”
He noted that AAPIs make up about 10% of Nevada’s population and are considered the fastest-growing ethnic group in the state.
“Nevada will rely on the results of the 2020 Census to determine funding needs for infrastructure projects, economic development programs, job training, schools and other activities for the next decade,” the governor added.
The state is currently at risk for losing millions of dollars in federal funding if the population is undercounted.
“This funding is crucial to ensuring a complete count of Nevada, which has undergone a population boom since the last census was conducted in 2010,” said Vida Lin, ACDC founder and president.
Sisolak also signed SB 211, which would appropriate funding to the Commission on Minority Affairs, which advocates for minorities on education, housing, employment, civil rights, health, political empowerment and economic development.
Present at the Chinatown Plaza event were First Lady Kathy Sisolak, Lt. Governor Kate Marshall, Congresswoman Dina Titus, and Executive Director of Silver State Voices, Emily Zamora.
The Nevada governor also made several stops in the Las Vegas area, where he held similar bill-signing ceremonies for legislation, such as three health care-related bills, a ban on “bump stock” devices similar to those used in the 2017 Vegas Strip mass shooting, and a law compensating those wrongly convicted.
