They’re counting on it

By Max Cacas
FederalNewsRadio

The U.S. Census Bureau is pressing on with preparations for the 2010 decennial census. And a Senate committee yesterday focused its latest census oversight hearing on concerns that the every-ten-year population count be as accurate as possible.

By now, just about everyone is familiar with the reasons why an accurate count in the next census is so important:

• Seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned state-by-state according to population.
• Congressional and state legislative district boundries are drawn according to census data.
• Federal funds of all sorts flow to the states according to census data.
• And, both the private and public sectors depend on population and demographic information gathered and provided by the Census.

So it’s little wonder that Senator Tom Carper, (D-Del.), and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information Services, and International Security, has concerns about a possible “undercount” in the next census:

The (Census) Bureau’s own Accuracy and Cover Evaluation survey revealed that 6.4 million people were missed and 3.1 million were counted twice. In other words, the 2000 census produced a net undercount of 3.3 million people.

The undercount would be less problematic if it were evenly distributed among all Americans. However, studies show that undercounting tends to have a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities, children, and immigrants. In 2000, Asians were missed nearly twice as often as whites; African Americans nearly three times as often; and Hispanics were missed four times as often.

Carper expanded on the implications of an undercount of significant proportions in the next count, citing a Price Waterhouse Coopers study showing that the undercount in 2000 cost states $4.1 billion in a loss of federal funding to the states. In his opening statement, Carper also said an undercount skews the makeup of the House, resulting in some commiunities being underrepresented.

With that as a backdrop, Carper invited Census chief Stephen Murdock to testify on preparations for the 2010 census. Murdock says that a key to avoiding the dreaded undercount is to make the master address file as accurate as possible in the years leading up to census time in Spring of 2010, including turning to a familiar outfit whose big brown delivery trucks need to know addresses very, very well:

We’ve been using more frequent updates of UPS (United Parcel Service) information to update our mailing lists. We’re using a GPS during the address canvassing to update households. We’ve had a more consolidated and activistic LUCA (Local Update of Census Addresses) program, and we’ve had very good participation.

Also discussed at the hearing were the implications for the census undercount of the decision not to use the much-ballyhooed handheld computers for one of the final phases of the census: the non-response follow-up, where census takers go door to door, seeking information from those who did not return the mail-in census form. Bob Goldenkoff, director of Strategic Issues with the Government Accountability Office, says all eyes will be on the Census Bureau this December when a key field test of the handheld computers will take place.

They’ve had a bunch of technological problems that have reduced their reliability, so what happens in December will be key to what we can see when the address counts actually starts.

Finally, Chairman Carper addressed the fact that Congress is about to pass another continuing resolution to keep the government running through March of next year because they’re hoping to finish work on the financial market bailout plan before the upcoming Jewish holidays, and are also trying hard not to have to return for a lame duck session.

This CR would fund most agencies at Fiscal ’08 levels, but Census director Murdock says that would have harmed the census.

If we were to have to continue with our budget which we have for this year, which is about a third of what we’d need next year, it would have devastating effects on the 2010 census. We would not, for example, be able to open all of our local census offices, the first 150 that are critical for the address count.

A draft of the continuing resolution now being circulated by Democratic leaders indicates that the Census Bureau is one of 18 agencies whose spending will be allowed to rise above the FY 08 baseline through March of next year if the CR is approved by Congress, and signed by the President.

——
On the Web:

FederalNewsRadio: Counting on fingers and toes . . .

FederalNewsRadio: GAO: Census needs performance metrics

(Copyright 2008 by FederalNewsRadio.com. All Rights Reserved.)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.