[CTPP] CENSUS NEWS BRIEF (Feb 23, 2009)

STIMULUS PACKAGE BOOSTS 2010 CENSUS FUNDS BY $1 BILLION; FOCUS TURNS TO FY09 & FY10 BUDGETS Plus: Commerce Secretary Nominee and Leading Contender for Census Director Withdraw; and more. The “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” (Public Law 111-5) that President Obama signed into law on February 17 includes $1 billion to “ensure a successful 2010 Decennial” census, according to the explanation accompanying the compromise package. The final measure omitted language in the Senate-passed version of the bill that would have required the Census Bureau to spend the funds by the end of fiscal year 2010, several months before the census is finished. Report language explaining the $789 billion conference bill (House Report 111-16) says that the $1 billion should be used to “hire additional personnel, provide required training, increase targeted media purchases, and improve management of other operational and programmatic risks.” Appropriators directed the Census Bureau to spend “up to” $250 million for the Partnership Program and outreach to “minority communities and hard-to-reach populations.” Several members of Congress specifically praised the inclusion of money for the census in the stimulus package. In an article posted on Politico.com (Feb. 12, 2009), Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), praised the Obama Administration for its support of an additional $1 billion for the census, which the lawmakers said would “instantly go toward job creation across the country in the next two years and will be crucial to ensuring an accurate count.” The Census Bureau has said that it will use the stimulus funds to recruit as many as 2,000 additional Partnership Specialists this year ($120 million) and expand advertising, especially in areas with historically low mail response rates ($100 million). It is less clear how the Census Bureau will apply the remaining stimulus money to improve census operations in 2010. Congress turns attention to funding for current and next fiscal years: Congress must now complete action on regular appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY2009), which began on October 1, 2008. Most federal agencies, including the Census Bureau, are operating under a Continuing Resolution (Public Law 110-329) that expires on March 6. The temporary funding measure, which left many agencies operating at 2008 spending levels, included an exception for the 2010 census, allocating the full $2.9 billion the Administration had requested to carry out final preparations for the decennial count (under the Periodic Censuses and Programs account). Congress must reaffirm that amount, or approve another funding level, in the final appropriation for FY2009. Congress also will begin considering appropriations for Fiscal Year 2010, which begins on October 1, 2009, when President Obama releases his budget request for the federal government this Thursday. Historically, the Census Bureau has requested roughly one-half of the census lifecycle cost in the year it conducts the count. Last spring, the Commerce Department estimated that the 2010 census would cost $13.7 - $14.5 billion for the full cycle of testing, planning, and implementation. Top positions at Commerce and Census Bureau remain unfilled: Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), the President’s second nominee for Secretary of the Department of Commerce, which includes the Census Bureau, withdrew from consideration for the post earlier this month. In a statement he released on February 12, Sen. Gregg said that he had “found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns.” While a number of news editorials suggested that controversy over the role the White House would play in overseeing the 2010 census was a significant factor in the nominee’s decision to pull out, Sen. Gregg said at a news conference the same day that the census dispute was “a slight issue” for him and “was not a major issue.” In discussing his withdrawal from consideration as Commerce Secretary, Sen. Gregg told an interviewer on CNBC (Feb. 13, 2009) that the Administration was prepared to select Dr. Kenneth Prewitt, Census Director during the 2000 count, as the new head of the Census Bureau. Sen. Gregg, who chaired the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funded the Census Bureau during the last count, said of Dr. Prewitt, “I think he did an excellent job.” However, late last week, several on-line news sources, including a New York Times podcast, reported that Dr. Prewitt, currently a professor at Columbia University, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the top Census post. Lawmakers highlight concerns about census: Two House members responsible for oversight of the Census Bureau urged the prompt appointment of a Census Director, saying in a joint February 12 statement, “We need to have a Census Bureau director nominated and confirmed as soon as possible.” Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), who chairs the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, expressed deep concern about the status of planning for the 2010 census. ““The Obama Administration inherited a Census Bureau that has failed to demonstrate its ability to successfully carry out the 2010 Census. We are deeply concerned that the Census Bureau will not be able to complete its constitutionally mandated responsibility to count U.S. residents without immediate and sustained attention from the Administration,” the representatives warned. They said they are “committed to strict bipartisan oversight” of the census “so that the fairest assessment of the American population is reported.” On February 12, House Republican leaders held a press conference to announce the formation of a Census Task Force to “examine all issues of the 2010 census.” Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said in a news release, “The American people expect the Census to be fair, impartial, and free of politics. … If this process is controlled by political operatives at the White House, instead of experts and statisticians at the Census Bureau, Americans are right to lose confidence in it.” A day earlier, Boehner and other Republican members had sent a letter to President Obama, expressing concern about what they viewed as politicization of the census (see February 11 Census News Brief). Also at the press conference, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the senior Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the Administration’s “[c]ommanding the Census Director to report directly to the White House is a naked political power grab and transparently partisan. There is only one possible reason for it – political interference in the 2010 census and partisan manipulation of the results.” The congressman said Republicans would consider a lawsuit against the Administration over the line of authority between the White House, the Commerce Department, and the Census Bureau. Rep. Issa noted “the need for an independent Census Bureau” and that “every living former Census Director is on record supporting an independent Census Bureau,” referring to a letter the directors wrote last year in support of a bill Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sponsored to establish the U.S. Census Bureau as an independent federal agency. No Republicans co-sponsored the “Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008” (H.R. 7069, 110th Congress), which Rep. Maloney said she will reintroduce shortly. Rep. Maloney, a member of the census oversight subcommittee, called the Republican press event “a show about nothing.” She noted that the White House had issued a statement clarifying its intended role in overseeing the census and quoted spokesman Benjamin LaBolt as saying that the Administration “has not proposed removing the census from the Department of Commerce, and the same congressional committees that had oversight during the previous administration will retain that authority.” Rep. Maloney called “the Bush Administration’s woefully inadequate planning and preparation for the next census” the “only true political machinations” surrounding the census. Seven legislators, representing three House committees with jurisdiction over the census, reapportionment, and redistricting, will serve on the Republican Census Task Force: Reps. Lynn Westmoreland (GA), who will chair the Task Force, Darrell Issa (CA), and Patrick McHenry (NC), from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Reps. Lamar Smith (TX) and James Sensenbrenner (WI), from the House Judiciary Committee; and Reps. Dan Lungren (CA) and Gregg Harper (MS), from the House Administration Committee. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), a member of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, said in a statement, “We applaud the Obama Administration for making a full and fair 2010 Census a priority, and we welcome the Republican Task Force to the bipartisan conversation on this vital issue.” ---------- Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, a consultant to the nonpartisan Census Project, organized by the Communications Consortium Media Center in Washington, DC. 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. Previous Census News Briefs are posted at www.thecensusproject.org -- Ed Christopher Resource Center Planning Team Federal Highway Administration 19900 Governors Drive Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) 708-283-3501 (F)