Re: [CTPP] Census Funding

This used to happen each decade when Congressman would respond to their constituent's complaints about the intrusiveness of the questions -- by the way, our question on time left home is often a big (maybe the biggest) source of complaints along with "with whom do you share a shower? " just posturing for the folks back home. Alan E. Pisarski From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Patty Becker Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 11:22 AM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net; ctpp-news maillist; ctpp-news(a)ryoko.chrispy.net Subject: Re: [CTPP] Census Funding We are a long way from the ACS actually being eliminated. However, action is required NOW. Sign on to thecensusproject.org <http://thecensusproject.org/> to see what's happening and what you can do, especially in the form of having your organization sign on to the letter that's going this week to the Senate appropriators. There is no rhyme, reason, or rationale for the House having eliminated funding for the ACS. It's a political gambit. However, there will never be both the long form and the ACS. It would be duplicative and way too expensive. Patty Becker At 10:59 AM 5/14/2012, Gyanesh Lama wrote: Could anyone please shed light on the reason for eliminating ACS? I was disappointed with the fact that Decennial Census got rid of the Long Form. ACS is good because it is annual, but it is not as precise for smaller geographies (e.g. block) as Decennial Census. If smaller geography is not the main purpose of the ACS, then there are already many population level surveys that collect data on demographics and economy. What we need is both: ACS and the Long Form on the Decennial Census, and no less. Gyanesh Lama, Ph.D. EAST-WEST GATEWAY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS One Memorial Drive, Ste. 1600 St. Louis, MO 63102-2451 Ph: 314-421-4220 Fx: 314-231-6120 I got this from long time friend Terri Ann Lowenthal who has been my expert contact to Census Legislative issues. Terri Ann is a consultant for the Census Project and below is what the latest is on the ACS and Census Bureau cuts. ----------------------------- Thursday, May 10 @ 11:30PM Census Project colleagues: A quick update now that the House has passed its version of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. First, in the chaos over the votes to make ACS response voluntary and then eliminate the survey entirely, we missed another amendment, sponsored by Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL), that shifted $20M from the Periodic Censuses account to a Justice Department local law enforcement program. That's on top of the $4 million cut through the Lynch amendment. Combined with the Appropriations Committee cut to the Periodics account, the Census Bureau says (in the new Bloomberg BusinessWeek article below) that the Economic Census is at risk again, as is planning for the 2020 Census. With regard to the vote to eliminate the ACS entirely, I know some folks think that the final C-J-S funding bill would never include such a provision. That is probably correct, but it also is possible (and, I am told, the Census Bureau fears) that the vote will be used as a bargaining chip in conference. House Republicans will agree to fund the ACS if conferees make response voluntary. And if that happens, the Census Bureau obviously won't have the additional funds ($60M???) needed to ensure reliable small area data, so stakeholders will lose census tract data and possibly more. The situation is not good, folks, despite the fact that it appears right now that members of the House (all of them!) were playing politics with the census. The Census Project is drafting a sign-on letter to all Senators, expressing strong (STRONG!) opposition both to the House funding cuts and, of course, the votes to make the ACS voluntary and then eliminate the survey. We will circulate the letter sometime on Friday. If the Senate takes up the Commerce Appropriations bill next week, we will have to put a short deadline on it again. If consideration is put off until after Memorial Day, as some are now saying, then we have extra time. Unlike past sign-on letters, we will try to get a very large number of organizational (not individual) signers from the national, state, and local level, and will list them all simply alphabetically. If you have state and local affiliates that want to get more involved (in addition to signing the letter), please refer them first to the Census Project website. They can look at past letters and fact sheets, as well as the blog, for basic information o _______________________________________________ ctpp-news mailing list ctpp-news(a)ryoko.chrispy.net http://ryoko.chrispy.net/mailman/listinfo/ctpp-news ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- Patricia C. (Patty) Becker 248/354-6520 APB Associates/SEMCC FAX 248/354-6645 28300 Franklin Road Home 248/355-2428 Southfield, MI 48034 pbecker(a)umich.edu __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 7136 (20120514) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com