Probing Question: Why is the census important?

Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau undertakes a mammoth task: tallying up all the people living in the United States and recording basic information such as age, sex, and race. The founding Fathers thought this data, called the census, was so important they mandated it as part of the Constitution. But today, some people question the importance of the census, and some complain that it’s an invasion of privacy.