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
>>> Ed Christopher <edc@berwyned.com> 05/11/2012 8:03 AM >>>
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
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