[CTPP] Census News Brief 12

Subject: Census News Brief #12 From: Terriann2K(a)aol.com September 15, 2003 Senate Appropriators Mum on Reason For Cuts in Census Funding The committee report (S. Rept. 108-144) accompanying the Senate Fiscal Year 2004 funding bill for the Census Bureau reveals additional detail on how proposed budget cuts would be distributed among agency programs, but sheds no light on why appropriators failed to meet the Administration’s funding request. The report also leaves it up to the Census Bureau to decide how to apply a $45 million reduction in the request for 2010 census planning. The Senate Fiscal Year 2004 Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (S.1585) allocates $550.878 million for the Census Bureau, $111.083 million less than President Bush requested. Roughly $72 million of the funding cut would affect the Periodic Censuses and Programs account, which includes the decennial census. More than half of that amount -- $45 million – would come out of 2010 census planning. An anticipated carry-over of $12.2 million from the current fiscal year would offset part of the cut in “Periodics” funding. The Bureau’s Salaries and Expenses account, which covers ongoing statistical programs, received $181.8 million, $39.1 million below the President’s request. The appropriations panel proposed $215.5 million for 2010 census activities. The Administration requested $260.2 million for the three main components of its 2010 planning strategy. Significant activities planned for next year include launching the American Community Survey nationwide in July 2004; census field tests in portions of Queens, New York, and two rural counties in Georgia; an overseas enumeration test in Kuwait, Mexico, and France; and continued updating of the TIGER map database, with a goal of fixing misaligned features in an additional 600 counties. The committee report does not specify which 2010 activities the proposed lower funding level might affect. Most of the remaining funding cut would affect the quinquennial (that’s every five years, folks!) Economic Census, which is taken in the years ending in “2” and “7.” Activities planned for FY04 include continued tabulation and publication of data collected from businesses in early 2003. S. 1585 allocates $61.3 million for the Economic Census, compared to the full funding request of $73.8 million contained in the House bill (H.R. 2799). The full Senate must consider the bill before the measure is sent to a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences between the two versions of the funding bill. Traditionally, all members of the House and Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, State and The Judiciary Subcommittees are appointed to the conference committee. (See the April 7, 2003, Census News Brief for information on appropriations and authorizing committee members.) Speaking late last week at a meeting of the National Research Council’s Panel on Research on Future Census Methods, Census Bureau Director C. Louis Kincannon said he expects conferees to partially, but not fully, restore the money cut from the Administration’s funding request by Senate appropriators. Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent consultant in Washington, DC. 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. Thank you to the Communications Consortium Media Center for posting the News Briefs on the Census 2000 Initiative web site, at http://www.census2000.org. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals. -- Ed Christopher Planning Activities Resource Center Federal Highway Administration 19900 Governors Drive Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) 708-283-3501 (F)