[CTPP] Census News Brief (No. 64)

HOUSE APPROPRIATORS APPROVE 2010 CENSUS FUNDING; GROVES NOMINATION ON HOLD IN SENATE House appropriators fended off a proposal to strip $100 million from the Census Bureau’s 2010 budget before approving the Fiscal Year 2010 (FY2010) Commerce, Justice, and Science and Related Agencies spending bill yesterday, allocating the full $7.375 billion for the agency that the Administration’s requested. The proposed funding level is $4.235 billion more than this year’s appropriation; the Census Bureau received an additional $1 billion for 2010 census operations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill). Almost all of the increase would go towards the decennial census under the Periodic Censuses and Programs account, which received $7.116 billion in the committee bill. Roughly $6.9 billion of this amount is for the 2010 census, which includes the American Community Survey (ACS), leaving $214.6 million for other cyclical programs such as the Economic Census ($111.7 million) and annual (“intercensal”) demographic estimates ($10.4 million). The committee bill appropriates $259 million for the bureau’s Salaries and Expenses account, covering ongoing economic, demographic, and social statistics programs such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which would receive $4.6 million more than in Fiscal Year 2009 for a total of $50.3 million. By a vote of 21 – 30, the Committee on Appropriations defeated an amendment offered by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) to shift $100 million from the Census Bureau to the Justice Department’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which the President had slated for elimination in his own budget. All Democratic members of the committee who were present voted against the amendment. (There are 37 Democrats and 23 Republicans on the committee.) California historically has received about 40 percent of SCAAP funds, and the Census Bureau has been the target of similar off-setting amendments to increase funding for law enforcement programs in past years, although none had proposed shifting such a large amount of money. Some apportionment projections for 2010 show that California could be at risk of losing one of its current 53 congressional districts after the census. In the committee report accompanying the spending bill, appropriators expressed particular interest in 2010 census outreach, promotion, and paid advertising activities. They noted that a Census Bureau advisory panel had characterized much of the proposed paid advertising campaign as “obsolete,” and they directed the agency to ensure that all communications activities focus on increasing mail response rates, especially in historically hard-to-count communities. The committee asked for more information on the language assistance program, saying that it was concerned that the Census Bureau “has not adequately planned for assistance in languages other than Spanish for the 2010 census and ACS.” The report called on the Census Bureau to ensure a diverse temporary workforce for the decennial census, as well as to improve the diversity of its full time workforce, “including at the senior management level.” The committee bill would provide $7.7 million less than the President requested for new initiatives at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the second Commerce Department statistical agency housed in the Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA). Committee documents indicate that lawmakers reduced funding “to support higher priority activities.” ESA would receive a total allocation of $97.2 million, an increase of about $6.6 million over 2009. Appropriators agreed to fund two proposed new BEA initiatives, to develop new estimation models for financial services statistics and to enhance and accelerate county-level economic statistics. The Appropriations Committee approved the $64.4 billion Commerce spending measure – overall, about $200 million less than the President requested – by voice vote. The full House is tentatively scheduled to take up the funding bill on June 16-17. “Objection” puts Groves nomination on hold in Senate: The nomination of Dr. Robert Groves to be Census Bureau director remains in limbo, a possible victim both of specific concerns about his candidacy and of partisan maneuvering over unrelated issues. Late last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called up Dr. Groves’ nomination under a “unanimous consent” request, a procedure sometimes used to uncover specific concerns any senators might harbor about a nominee and to move a nomination more quickly to a vote. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected to consideration of the nomination, saying he did not yet have the consent of all of his party’s members. Any senator who wants to delay a vote on the nomination has six Senate business days (from the time of the unanimous consent request) to come forward. The Majority Leader’s effort to bring the nomination up for a vote in the full Senate has been hampered further, however, by controversy over another nomination. Republican senators reportedly have decided to delay consideration of all nominations (except for some key Defense Department posts), to protest the Democratic majority’s decision to start hearings on Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor in early July. Legislative update: Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA), joined by a bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers, introduced a “sense of the House” resolution (H. Res. 521), highlighting the importance of a “complete and accurate” 2010 census. The measure notes important uses of census population numbers, including congressional apportionment, make-up of the Electoral College, decision-making by businesses, and the allocation of federal funds for a wide range of programs. “[A]reas are ultimately underserved by the Federal Government when significant portions of the population, especially those in low-income and minority neighborhoods, fail to participate in the census,” the resolution notes. Rep. Dent’s bill “encourages full participation” in the census and urges State, local, and Tribal governments to promote awareness and cooperation with the count. The resolution, which must only pass the House of Representatives and would not be signed into law, was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 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(a)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. -- Ed Christopher 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA RC-TST-PLN 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461