[CTPP] Census News Brief - June 15, 2005

CENSUS NEWS BRIEF HOUSE CUTS $20 MILLION FROM CENSUS BUREAU BUDGET; 2006 CENSUS FIELD TEST COULD BE SCALED BACK The House of Representatives approved an amendment yesterday to cut $20 million from the Census Bureau's fiscal year 2006 budget, with $10 million coming from the Salaries and Expense account, which funds ongoing demographic and economic surveys, and $10 million from 2010 census planning. Preliminary information from the Census Bureau indicates that the 2006 Census Field Test, currently planned for Travis County, Texas, and the Cheyenne Indian Reservation in South Dakota, could be scaled back to one site if the funding is not restored. Alternatives include canceling plans to test a dual English-Spanish language questionnaire and a targeted second mailing to households that don't return the first census form. The Census Bureau is unlikely to deploy new procedures in 2010 that are not tested in advance. The amendment to cut the bureau's funds was offered by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA). It was approved by a vote of 260 - 168. The money was shifted to the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both within the Justice Department. Rep. Baird said increased funds were needed for local law enforcement and international interdiction to fight the growing use of methamphetamines. He questioned the Census Bureau's need for so much money, saying the agency had already received several billion dollars since 2001. "Ask your average man and woman on the street * where should we spend the money? Billions of dollars for the census, or to intercept international narcotrafficking *?" the congressman asked during the debate. Rep. Baird also accused the Census Bureau of wasting money, saying they had handed out paperweights, calendars, and other trinkets during the 2000 census. "I used to teach research design," Rep. Baird said. "I cannot fathom that it costs this much money to modify this census." Lawmakers speaking in opposition to the amendment were sympathetic to the need for more drug-fighting money, but they suggested that the Census Bureau also needed funds to prepare thoroughly for the next census. Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), chairman of the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, which oversees census programs, said, "It sounds pretty simple, paperweights versus crimefighting. * But it is just not that simple. The census provides information vital to how we as a Nation operate." Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), a former ranking member of the census oversight subcommittee, concurred, noting that federal and state funds for education, housing assistance, day care, hospitals, and programs for the elderly are distributed based on census data. The House is considering the Fiscal Year 2006 Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R. 2862). (Debate is continuing today.) Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Ranking Minority Member Alan Mollohan (D-WV) opposed the amendment, saying that the committee had done its best to balance competing priorities in the massive spending bill and that the Census Bureau needed the funds approved by the committee. (For further information on the committee bill, see the June 12th Census News Brief.) Rep. Baird was the only lawmaker to speak in support of his amendment. The vote on the Baird amendment can be found at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll248.xml. A similar amendment to last year's appropriations bill, which also would have shifted funds to the COPS program, was narrowly defeated by a vote of 206 - 212. The Census Bureau's Salaries & Expenses account is now reduced to $198.029 million; the Administration requested $220.029 million. Funding for 2010 census planning is reduced to $453.596 million, with $10 million specifically coming from "Reengineered Design Process for the Short-Form Only Census." The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science is scheduled to consider its version of the fiscal year spending bill next week. Last year, the Senate failed to approve any increase in funds for the Periodic Censuses account, which includes the decennial census and American Community Survey. Most of the requested funds were restored in negotiations with the House, although the Census Bureau was unable to include group quarters in the first year of the ACS survey. Proposed Constitutional amendment would exclude non-citizens from census: Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) introduced a bill to amend the Constitution, to require that only U.S. citizens be counted for purposes of apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. H.J.Res. 53 would change the word "persons" in the Fourteenth Amendment to "citizens." (The relevant section of the Fourteenth Amendment currently reads: "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.") There are currently four cosponsors on the bill, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. "I find it absolutely outrageous that people who are not in our country legally are having such impact on our political system," Rep. Miller said in a press release. Previous proposals to amend the law, most notably before the 1990 census, have sought to exclude undocumented residents, but not non-citizen legal residents, from the state population totals used for congressional apportionment. Constitutional amendments must pass both the House and Senate by two-thirds votes, and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years. 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.