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
The U.S. House of Representatives approved three amendments that would
cut a total of $58.3 million from the Census Bureaus 2007 budget before
passing the Science, State, Justice and Commerce Appropriations bill
(H.R. 5672) on June 29. The reduction would leave the agency with
$815.7 million, about $14 million over current year funding. In 2007,
the Census Bureau must prepare for the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal and
2007 Economic Census and Census of Governments, award an advertising
contract for the 2010 census, and continue large contracts to develop
the data integration and processing infrastructure for the census.
The U.S. Senate began consideration of its own 2007 funding bill today,
with the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science
approving roughly $828 million for the Census Bureau, about $50 million
less than the Presidents request of $878 million. The funding
reduction will affect programs in the Periodic Censuses and Programs
account, not the Salaries and Expenses account, but no further details
are available about which activities might be affected. The full
Appropriations Committee will take up the bill on July 13.
House questions need for increased census funding: In the House, the
largest single funding cut came through an amendment sponsored by Reps.
Mark Kennedy (R-MN), Lee Terry (R-NB), and a bipartisan group of
legislators, which shifted $50 million from the Census Bureau to the
Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. The
amendment passed by a vote of 291 129.
Supporters of the amendment noted that the Administration had eliminated
funding for the Byrne JAG program in its proposed Fiscal Year 2007
budget. The Appropriations Committee approved $367 million for the
grants, but program advocates said that amount still represented a
significant reduction from the previous high funding level of $600
million. During the debate, many legislators highlighted local law
enforcement efforts to combat methamphetamine use, which they called an
epidemic.
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) countered that
the Kennedy amendment would devastate the census and impact
fundamental missions of the Census Bureau. The immediate
ramifications are a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations,
irretrievable loss of testing opportunities to identify problems, the
chairman warned, referring to efforts to improve coverage of
historically hard-to-count populations in the census. Noting that the
Census Bureau is vulnerable to cuts to fund other popular programs,
Rep. Wolf said, There is not a lobby downtown for the Census Bureau.
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), ranking Democrat on the Appropriations
subcommittee, also opposed the Kennedy amendment, calling the offset of
census funds unacceptable. Rep. Mollohan pointed out that law
enforcement uses census data to determine how to allocate manpower and
equipment.
Supporters of the Kennedy amendment did not criticize the Census
Bureaus work, but several noted that the Appropriations Committee had
increased the agencys budget by $72 million over the 2006 funding
level. We are talking about funding cops, the war on drugs, homeland
security, or $72 million more for the Bureau of the Census, Rep. Jim
Ramstad (R-MN) offered. To me that is a no-brainer: We fund Byrne
grants, which every law enforcement official in America is pleading
for. Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) called the choice a matter of
priorities. Right now, we need more help on the streets with crime
than we do in the Census Bureau. The mandate for every 10 years is
every 10 years. Rep. Souder, who had previously served on the census
oversight subcommittee, also suggested that the private sector could pay
for some of the Census Bureaus other tasks if they need the data.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), a long time member of the Census Bureaus
oversight subcommittee, countered that, The Census doesnt just appear
in an instant and then disappear every ten years; it is a constant,
massive effort that never stops. She reminded her colleagues that the
distribution of [Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants] is based on
population and crime statistics, both of which are based on Census
statistics.
The House also approved, by voice vote, two additional amendments that
shifted funds from the Census Bureaus Periodic Censuses and Programs
account to other anti-crime programs. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL)
authored a proposal to increase funding for the Violence Against Women
Act by $10 million, with $5 million coming from the Census Bureau and
the other $5 million from the Justice Departments administrative
account. The amendment further specified that $2.5 million of the
Census Bureaus cut would come from economic statistics programs (which
include the Economic Census) and $2.5 million would come from
demographic statistics, which includes Geographic Support System
activities that help keep the Master Address File accurate. Rep. Nancy
Johnson (R-CT) and Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) sponsored an
amendment to increase funding for the FBIs Innocent Images program
(which pursues on-line sex predators) by $3.3 million, with the money
coming from the Census Bureau.
Reengineered census at risk, agency says: Following the House action,
the Census Bureau issued an impact statement, saying the proposed
funding reduction would force it to abandon plans to use GPS-equipped
hand-held computers to collect information from unresponsive households
in the census. Reverting to paper-based operations will add at least
$1 billion to the overall cost of the 2010 census, the agency said.
The bureau said it would put off aligning the TIGER digital mapping
system with GPS coordinates in all counties, a project currently
scheduled for completion in 2008. New initiatives to reduce undercounts
and overcounts in the 2010 census also would be compromised, the
bureau wrote.
Funding at the House-passed level also would result in cancellation of
group quarters coverage in the American Community Survey (ACS),
according to the Impact Statement. Group quarters, which include
nursing homes, college dorms, military barracks, and prisons, were first
added to the ACS this year. Ultimately not including the GQ population
in the ACS means the ACS cannot fully be the replacement for the long
form in 2010, the Census Bureau said.
Stakeholders convey support for census funding to Senate: A diverse
group of census stakeholders, under the umbrella of The Census Project,
sent a letter to all Senate appropriators yesterday, urging support for
full funding for the Census Bureau. The letter was signed by 25
organizations representing local governments, scientific professions and
researchers, the business community, housing and social justice
advocates, and organized labor. The letter is posted at
www.thecensusproject.org.
The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, published two
editorials, explaining how census data are used to administer effective
law enforcement programs and to prepare for and respond to disasters.
To Take a Bite Out of Crime: Safeguard the Census
(www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/reamer/20060626.htm) and Anticipating
the Unimaginable: The Crucial Role of the Census in Disaster Planning
and Recovery (www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/reamer/20060710.htm) are
authored by Andrew Reamer, Brookings Fellow and Deputy Director, Urban
Markets Initiative, Metropolitan Policy Program.
SIPP funding partially restored in House: The House Committee on
Appropriations allocated $29.2 million for the Census Bureau to continue
fielding the Survey of Income and Program Participation while the agency
designs an alternative program to produce data on the dynamics of
economic well-being. The Bush Administration has proposed eliminating
the survey next year, saying the current design is burdensome for
respondents and that data processing is time-consuming and difficult.
The President requested $9.2 million to close out data collection in
2006 and begin developing a replacement program.
House appropriators, however, approved an amendment offered by Rep. Jose
Serrano (D-NY) to restore $10 million for SIPP in 2007. In addition,
the committee report accompanying the Census Bureaus appropriations
bill directed the agency to use $10 million in mandatory funds
previously designated for other data collection activities related to
welfare reform, to continue the SIPP while it develops a new system.
The total amount included in the House bill for SIPP is $29.2; the
survey cost about $39 million to administer in 2006.
Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent
consultant in Washington, DC, with support from The Annie E. Casey
Foundation and other organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is also a consultant
to The Census Project, sponsored by the Communications Consortium Media
Center. 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 202/484-3067 or by e-mail at
TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to
other interested individuals and organizations.
--
Ed Christopher
FHWA Resource Center
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