Fate o' the Census

HOUSE CUTS $58.3M FROM CENSUS BUDGET; SENATE PANEL APPROVES $50M LESS THAN BUSH REQUEST

PLUS: Hand-Held Computers in Census, and Group Quarters in ACS, at Risk, Agency Says; Stakeholders Caution Lawmakers About Consequences of Funding Shortfall; SIPP Funding Increased in House

In a June 29 vote in the House, $50million was shifted from the Census Bureau to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. The purpose of JAG is to improve the criminal justice system, and I'm not prepared to argue that this is or isn't needed. However, this issue isn't as clear as it would seem since the criminal justice system USES Census data in determining how best to allocate resources.

Ideally, a study would be done of the impact of Census funding cuts on various programs (including transportation!) before the cuts are made, but there is never time for such frivolousness in government.

Other programs that received money previously allocated to the Census Bureau $5million towards the Violence Against Women Act and $3.3million for the FBI's Innocent Images program, which tracks Internet predators.

Perhaps the reallocations aren't a bad idea (I'm not going to attack this one without further study), but the fight is not a fair one with no Census lobby on Capitol Hill. Fortunately some groups with foresight are banding together and doing their best to get the Senate to reverse course when they discuss this issue (scheduled for July 13 - yesterday).

Interestingly, the Census Bureau claims that the funding cuts will not allow it to proceed with its plans to use GPS-equipped handheld devices to track down nonresponders, and therefore they will have to revert to a paper-based system adding $1billion to the overall 2010 Census cost.

So.. a $58.3million cut means the Census will cost an extra $1billion?! So if they're going to have to presumably take $ from other Census programs to pay for the paper-based system.. then couldn't they take this $ to continue towards a GPS-based system? There's something I'm missing here.

Other Census activities that will be (at least temporarily) abandoned: group quarters coverage in American Community Survey, aligning TIGER digital mapping system with GPS coordinates in all counties, new initiatives to reduce undercounts and overcounts

More info can be found here:
The Census Project (http://www.thecensusproject.org/)
Brookings Institution reports (www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/reamer/20060626.htm, www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/reamer/20060710.htm)