| |
|
CENSUS QUESTION CONTROVERSY DELAYS
2010 FUNDING BILL FOR COMMERCE DEPARTMENT;
FORMER DIRECTORS WARN OF
"INCALCULABLE" COST AND CENSUS DELAY
- House Members urge higher Senate funding level for 2010 count
- GAO cites "noteworthy gains" in 2010 census preparations; tight timeframes still pose challenges
- Pew report: Philadelphia census prep lagging; cities lack resources
- Stakeholders "Rock the Count!": 'Indian Country Counts' launch; new toolkit available for nonprofits; and more
|
PROPOSAL TO ADD NEW CENSUS QUESTIONS
DELAYS COMPLETION OF 2010 COMMERCE FUNDING BILL
Former Census Directors warn of delayed census &"incalcuable" costs;
Vote on Vitter-Bennett amendment could come this week
The
U.S. Senate failed to complete work last week on a massive funding bill
that includes the Census Bureau, in large part because of controversy
over an amendment that would require new questions on citizenship and
immigration status in the 2010 census, according to both Democratic and
Republican leaders. Democratic efforts to end debate on the bill
failed earlier in the week, prompting the Majority Leader to accuse the
amendment's primary sponsor, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) of "injecting
partisan politics into a debate that is already well-settled, at the
cost of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars." Sen. Harry
Reid's (D-NV) spokesman, Jim Hanley, said in a statement (10/15/09)
that, "Most mainstream Americans ... should be offended that Senator
Vitter would mislead the American public about the important work that
the Census is undertaking."
Sen.
Vitter and Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) filed an amendment to the Fiscal
Year 2010 (FY2010) Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill
(H.R. 2847) on October 7 that would cut off funding for the upcoming
decennial count unless the Census Bureau asks respondents if they are
U.S. citizens or in the country lawfully. The sponsors said their
intent is to exclude undocumented residents from the state population
totals used for congressional apportionment. (See the October 9,
2009 Census News Flash #78 for a full explanation of the amendment and its potential consequences <www.thecensusproject.org>.)
A
procedural vote to end debate on the Commerce appropriations bill
(called a "cloture vote") failed on Tuesday, leading Democratic leaders
to postpone further consideration of the measure until some time this
coming week. The Majority Leader will likely try to close debate
again, which requires 60 votes to pass. A successful "cloture"
vote could put an end to consideration of the Vitter-Bennett amendment
if the Senate Parliamentarian finds the proposal in violation of
chamber rules regarding spending bills. Failure to invoke cloture
means the Senate would proceed to consider all pending amendments.
Sen.
Vitter said in a subsequent statement on the Senate floor that he would
modify his amendment to require only a question on citizenship, if the
proposal came up for a vote. The senator said he didn't believe
any non-citizens should be counted in the census for purposes of
allocating seats in Congress among the states, maintaining that states
with smaller numbers of non-citizens should not be "penalized."
Sen.
Thomas Carper (D-DE), chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the
census, also filed an amendment aimed at mitigating the consequences of
the Vitter-Bennett proposal. The Carper proposal would allow the
Secretary of Commerce to reject any census questions that would prevent
the Census Bureau from meeting the "constitutional mandate to count the
whole number of persons residing in each State."
Former Census Directors weigh-in on consequences of last-minute census changes: Eight
former Census Directors urged lawmakers not "to place a decade of
careful and demanding preparations at risk" by adding new questions
only months before the start of the decennial count. Appointed
during both Republican and Democratic Administrations, the directors
said that changing the census form now would entail redesigning and
reformatting questionnaires, language assistance guides, and related
materials; revising instructions and training manuals for census
takers; rebuilding data capture and processing software; and
overhauling the $400 million communications campaign. The cost of
such a "massive revision," the former agency heads warned, is "almost
incalculable." Adding untested questions to the 2010 census
"would put the accuracy of the enumeration in all communities at risk
and would likely delay the start of the census and all subsequent
activities," the directors wrote in a statement issued last week.
Federal
law (13 U.S.C. §141(f)) requires the Census Bureau to submit to
Congress the topics and actual questions it plans to include in the
census, three and two years, respectively, before Census Day. No
member of Congress objected to the content before the Census Bureau
finalized the 2010 forms for printing.
The former directors' letter (reissued with additional signatures on October 16) is available on the Census Project web site at www.thecensusproject.org.
"Late design changes" add cost and risk to census, GAO has observed: The
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) also has warned about the
risk of last minute changes to the census design, in reports to
Congress over the decade. In 2004, GAO highlighted the importance
of a "stable environment" in preparing for the census, to avoid "a
repeat of the 2000 census when disagreement over the Bureau's
methodology led to late design changes and additional costs and
risks." (Cost and Design Issues Need to be Addressed Soon, GAO-04-37,
1/15/04) In testimony two years later, congressional auditors
again cautioned that the Census Bureau must "stay on schedule, as the
census is conducted against a backdrop of immutable deadlines and an
elaborate chain of interrelated pre- and post-Census Day activities are
predicated upon those dates. ... As Census Day approaches, the
tolerance for any operational delays or changes becomes increasingly
small." (Planning and Testing Activities Are Making Progress, GAO-06-465T, 3/1/06)
Justice Department opinion on constitutional apportionment mandate unchanged over time: Despite
Sen. Vitter's contention that many states would "lose representation
from what they would otherwise have if illegal aliens are counted in
congressional apportionment," the U.S. Department of Justice has
consistently held that the Constitution requires the census to include
"inhabitants of States who are illegal aliens," according to a
September 22, 1989, letter from Assistant Attorney General Carol T.
Crawford to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), then chairman of the census
oversight subcommittee. The department's legislative affairs
chief was responding to a query from Chairman Bingaman regarding the
constitutionality of legislation to exclude undocumented residents from
the census for apportionment purposes, introduced on the eve of the
1990 count. "[W]e have found no basis for reversing this
position," Ms. Crawford, an appointee in the George H.W. Bush
Administration, wrote.
Stakeholders urge opposition to Vitter-Bennett amendment: Dozens
of stakeholder organizations working to achieve an inclusive census
expressed their strong opposition to the Vitter-Bennett amendment,
calling the proposal "unworkable," "unconstitutional," and
"scientifically and operationally irresponsible and risky." The
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, chairs of the Census Bureau's
Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees (in their private capacities),
NAACP, MALDEF, Japanese American Citizens League, Association of Public
Data Users, and the ACLU were among those sending letters to the
Senate. Almost 40 organizations representing a wide range of
stakeholder interests also objected to the amendment in a letter
organized by The Census Project, a nonpartisan coalition of groups
advocating for an accurate 2010 count. The National Association of
Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund issued
a statement on Friday condemning what it said was "an unconstitutional
and costly effort to suppress Latino participation in the decennial
Census <http://www.naleo.org/pr/pr10-16-09.html>.
Senior Representatives urge House negotiators to accept higher census funding level: Senior
members of the congressional minority caucuses, House Democratic
leadership, and census oversight committee urged House appropriators to
accept the higher level of funding for the Census Bureau included in
the appropriations bill pending before the Senate, in anticipation of
negotiations on a final bill.
In a letter to Rep. Alan Mollohan
(D-WV) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman and ranking member,
respectively, of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce,
Justice, and Science, eight lawmakers said the Senate-committee
approved $7.324 billion would "best prepare the Census Bureau for the
2010 Census." The House of Representatives approved $7.169
billion for the Census Bureau, $206 million less than the agency
requested, which the letter noted would force the agency to "reduce its
Contingency Fund, leaving the Bureau ill-prepared to handle any
unforeseen events like natural disasters ... or pandemic
illnesses." The lower funding level, the legislators wrote, would
"increas[e] the risk of missing certain populations, or the risk of a
major operational failure in conducting the 2010 Census."
Signing
the letter were Reps. Mike Honda (D-CA), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Carolyn
Maloney (D-NY), William Lacy Clay (D-MO), Ed Towns (D-NY), Jose Serrano
(D-NY), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and Charles Gonzalez (D-TX).
After
the Senate passes the appropriations measure, a House-Senate conference
committee must iron out differences between the two versions of the
bill. The Census Bureau and most other federal departments and
agencies are currently operating under a short-term Continuing Funding
Resolution, which expires on October 31.
|
GAO FINDS "REMARKABLE PROGRESS" IN READINESS FOR 2010,
BUT "SMALL SETBACKS" COULD SPELL BIG PROBLEMS
Congressional
auditors said the Census Bureau has made "noteworthy progress in
mitigating risks and keeping the decennial on track," pointing to
improved IT systems management and testing and completion of last
spring's address canvassing operation ahead of schedule. In
testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial
Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International
Security on October 7, GAO Director of Strategic Issues Robert
Goldenkoff also observed that the "2010 census remains a high risk
area" because of tight timeframes for remaining work and "inherent
uncertainties," including the public's willingness to cooperate.
"[T]here are no timeouts, no do-overs, and no reset buttons" at this
stage of the process, Mr. Goldenkoff emphasized.
Mr. Goldenkoff
noted progress in end-to-end testing of data control and processing
systems but said the short amount of time remaining will make it
difficult for the Census Bureau to complete all recommended evaluation
of key systems. The agency's 2008 decision to revert to a
paper-based follow-up operation for unresponsive households led to late
deployment of a system to track the enumeration's progress.
GAO
also monitored the spring 2009 address canvassing, which auditors said
most local census offices finished ahead of schedule because of "prompt
resolution" of problems with GPS-equipped handheld computers and
lower-than-expected attrition rates and more available work hours on
the part of address listers. Preliminary evalulations show that
the address verification work added 17 million addresses, marked 21
million for deletion (for example, a nonexistent address), and
identified 4.5 million duplicate addresses on the original Master
Address File of 141.8 million housing units, according to GAO.
The early figures do not represent final actions taken with regard to
the address list, as Census Bureau staff must review all possible
changes to the list, and some local governments will have a final
opportunity to appeal proposed modifications before the census
starts. Mr. Goldenkoff noted, however, that the Census Bureau
exceeded its estimated cost for address canvassing by 25 percent, or
$88 million, bringing the total price tag to $444 million.
Fingerprinting
of temporary employees for address canvassing was "problematic," GAO
reported in its testimony, primarily due to unclassifiable prints that
the FBI could not process. About 35,700 workers -- 22 percent of
the 162,000 address list employees -- had unclassifiable prints, which
GAO said was likely due to inadequate training and work environments
for census staff tasked with obtaining fingerprints. The nearly
36,000 workers whose prints could not be processed were hired based on
a name background check only, "consistent with FBI guidance." GAO
said readable fingerprint checks identified about 1,800 applicants (1.1
percent of total hires) with criminal records that were not revealed by
the name background check.
Census Director Robert Groves
and Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser also testified at
the hearing to review the status of 2010 census preparations. A
full set of testimony and statements is available on the subcommittee's
web site at http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=2b916175-78ba-4673-ae82-0b1e5b6dd4ac.
(We will report in more detail on the Inspector General's ongoing
monitoring and evaluation of 2010 census operations in a future Census News Brief.)
|
NEW REPORT FINDS MAJOR CITIES LACK RESOURCES
FOR CENSUS PREPARATIONS
PHILADELPHIA LAGS BEHIND OTHER LARGE MUNICIPALITIES
Compared
to 2000, many major U.S. cities have fewer resources to promote the
2010 census, and Philadelphia is less prepared than most to mount an
effective 2010 census campaign, according to a new report from The Pew
Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative. "Preparing
for the 2010 Census: How Philadelphia and Other Cities Are Struggling
and Why It Matters," examined preparations for the upcoming decennial
count in eleven major cities, including the nation's six largest and
five others with similarities to Philadelphia.
Almost
all of the cities studied are devoting less money and fewer staff
resources to promote the 2010 census than they did for Census 2000, the
study found, leaving the municipalities to rely more on unpaid
volunteers and community-based organizing. For example,
Philadelphia, which committed $200,000 and raised an additional
$165,000 from private donations to promote the 2000 count, has not
appropriated public funds specifically for 2010 census activities; it
will rely instead on existing resources and staff. Some local
philanthropies, including the William Penn Foundation, are supporting
the effort, as well.
Author
Thomas Ginsburg, the Philadelphia Research Initiative's project
manager, said in a statement that census preparations at the local
level are important, "with very real ramifications that will be felt
for the next 10 years." On the positive side, the researchers
found, all of the cities studied are participating in key technical
programs to lay the groundwork for the enumeration, most notably to
help the Census Bureau ensure a comprehensive address list for mailing
questionnaires and visiting unresponsive households. The Pew
report is available on-line at http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=55390.
|
|
NEWS FROM CAPITOL HILL
- New House bill would add citizenship, legal status questions to census
- House hearing to examine census address list issues
New House bill aims to prevent "distortions" in congressional apportionment: Rep.
Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced a bill to require people to provide
their citizenship and and legal status in the decennial census, in
order to "prevent congressional reapportionment distortions" by
excluding all non-citizens from the population totals used to allocate
House seats among the states. H.R. 3797 mirrors the intent of
legislation offered last month (S. 1688) by Sen. Robert Bennett
(R-UT). (See the September 20, 2009 Census News Brief #75 for background on S. 1688 <www.thecensusproject.org>.)
Rep. Foxx said in a statement that, "Accurately counting the number of illegal immigrants in our country is
a matter of equity and justice for American citizens and those legally
present in the U.S." H.R. 3797, referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, currently has 16 cosponsors.
House subcommittee hearing will focus on census address list: The
House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives
will hold a hearing on October 21 to examine the accuracy of the Census
Bureau's Master Address File, the comprehensive list of all housing
units in the country that is the basis for the decennial
enumeration. The hearing will start at 2:00PM in Room 2154
Rayburn House Office Building.
|
STAKEHOLDERS "ROCK THE COUNT!"
American Indian leaders, Census Bureau launch full count campaign: Census
Director Robert Groves joined leaders of the National Congress of
American Indians (NCAI) in launching "Indian Country Counts," a
campaign to promote the importance of census participation among
American Indians and Alaska Natives. NCAI President Joe Garcia
said census population numbers "will affect policy and human service
programs for Native communities for generations to come" and that an
accurate count of Indians is an important step "on the path to
regaining our economic, social, and governmental strength as Native
people."
At the October 12 event announcing the campaign, Dr.
Groves signed a reaffirmation of the Census Bureau's first American
Indian and Alaska Native Policy statement, saying the agency has a
"very strong campaign to reach and inspire American Indians and Alaska
Natives to participate in the census." NCAI, a member of the
Census Bureau's 2010 Census Advisory Committee, is the nation's "oldest
and largest organization representing tribal governments."
Other
Native organizations supporting the "Indian Country Counts" campaign
include the National American Indian Housing Council, National Indian
Health Board, National Indian Child Welfare Association, and National
Council on Urban Indian Health. Leaders of these groups noted the
importance of accurate census data to address issues such as
overcrowded housing, substance abuse and diabetes, and family and youth
support programs.
Go to http://www.indiancountrycounts.org/splash.cfm for more information on the "Indian Country Counts" campaign.
New toolkit available for nonprofits supporting the census: The
Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network's NONPROFITS COUNT campaign has
prepared a free toolkit to help organizations educate their
constituencies about the importance of the 2010 census and promote
participation. The toolkit features fact sheets in English and
Spanish; sample questionnaires in seven languages; information about
uses of census data; and multimedia resources. Nonprofits may
order the toolkit on-line at www.nonprofitscount.org.
Civil rights coalition running census ads in buses: The
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) Education Fund launched a
series of public service announcements on buses in six cities to
educate residents about the upcoming 2010 census. LCCR President
Wade Henderson noted that census information determines the allocation
of more than $400 billion annually for health care, education,
transportation, and other community services. The ads, running
from October 5 - December 27 in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, New
Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle, highlight how an accurate census
helps ensure equal representation and equal access to government
resources for all communities. Some PSAs are translated into
Spanish and Chinese.
New York State Senate launches 2010 census web site: The
State Senate launched a web site to "help ensure all New Yorkers will
be counted," according to a press release announcing the "Count Me In"
campaign for the 2010 census. Senate Democratic leaders
highlighted the use of census data in decision-making affecting jobs,
schools, hospitals, health care, and affordable housing. Visit www.nysenate.gov/Census for information on the campaign.
|
|
|
Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal,
an independent legislative and policy consultant specializing in the
census and federal statistics. All views expressed in the News Briefs
are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the
information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K@aol.com.
Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested
individuals and organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is a consultant to the
nonpartisan Census Project, organized by the Communications Consortium
Media Center in Washington, DC. Previous Census News Briefs are posted
at www.thecensusproject.org.
|
|
|
|
|
