[CTPP] News Alert (long post)

From: census2000(a)ccmc.org Budget Inaction Delays American Community Survey Launch; Census Bureau Will Release Adjusted 2000 Numbers Plus: General Accounting Office Reviews ACS Methods; New ACS Data Released; A Look Ahead At Census Oversight In The 108th Congress; and more. The Census Bureau will not launch its proposed American Community Survey (ACS) nationwide as planned in 2003 after Congress failed to enact new funding levels for most federal agencies before adjourning for the year. The lack of an appropriations bill for the fiscal year that started October 1st leaves the bureau operating at fiscal year 2002 spending levels at least until January 11, when a temporary funding measure (called a “Continuing Resolution”) expires. When the 108th Congress convenes on January 7, legislators could take up unfinished fiscal year 2003 (FY03) spending measures or simply extend the Continuing Resolution, leaving most agencies with no funding increase over last year’s levels. Traditionally, the President’s federal budget request for the next fiscal year arrives on Capitol Hill in early February, raising the specter that Congress will be considering FY03 and FY04 allocations at the same time. Nationwide implementation of the ACS in FY03 would have required $124 million, more than double last year’s budget of roughly $60 million. Instead, the Census Bureau will continue collecting data in 31 test sites and from a national sample of 700,000 housing units called the Supplementary Survey. The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee did not consider a Fiscal Year 2003 Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies funding bill, which includes the Census Bureau. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the Commerce measure in July, but the full Senate did not take up the bill. S. 2778 did not include the funding increase for the ACS that the Administration had requested. Despite the bleak funding outlook for the ACS in the near term, stakeholders continued to advocate for full funding and nationwide implementation of the program. Groups recently expressing support for the ACS include the National Association of Towns and Townships, National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Congressional Black Caucus. Ninth Circuit Ruling To Stand In Case Seeking Adjusted Numbers: The Census Bureau will publicly release statistically adjusted Census 2000 population numbers after the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to appeal an October 8th court ruling in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found in Margaret Carter and Susan Castillo v. United States Department of Commerce (No. 02-35161) that the adjusted data were not “predecisional” and did not fall under the “deliberative privilege” exception to the FOIA. The three-judge appeals panel unanimously affirmed an Oregon federal judge’s ruling that the Commerce Department could not withhold the adjusted numbers by claiming that the data were protected by a FOIA exemption for information that is part of the decision-making process. State Senators Margaret Carter (D-Portland) and Susan Castillo (D-Eugene) had argued that the adjusted numbers were the “subject” of the Secretary’s March 2001 decision not to adjust the census, and therefore were a final agency product subject to release under FOIA. Their FOIA request sought block level census data, adjusted based on the 2000 Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E. survey), for the entire country. In rejecting the Commerce Department’s arguments, the Ninth Circuit said the deliberative process privilege ensures that “agencies are not forced ‘to operate in a fishbowl’ ” and that FOIA requests do not “discourage candid discussion within the agency.” The court pointed to the lower court’s finding that release of adjusted population numbers “by themselves would not reveal any protected decision-making process,” and noted that the Census Bureau “has already disclosed the method and procedures used to generate the adjusted data in 2000, as well as the factors it considered important in deciding which data to release as the official census numbers.” The court relied heavily on its ruling ten years ago in Assembly of California v. United States Department of Commerce, 968 F.2d 916 (9th Cir. 1992), in which California legislators successfully sued for release of its adjusted census numbers under the Freedom of Information Act after the Commerce Secretary decided against using the data for any official purpose. In the Census 2000 case, Circuit Court Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, who authored the opinion, said the Oregon district court’s finding that the adjusted data did not meet the standards of the FOIA’s deliberative process privilege was “supported by the record and in accordance with binding Ninth Circuit law.” After the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling, several census stakeholder organizations urged Attorney General John Ashcroft not to appeal the decision, noting the “clear and consistent judicial guidance that FOIA does not shield adjusted census numbers from public scrutiny.” “Public release of the A.C.E.-adjusted data would give local overnments, community planners, and researchers a deeper understanding of Census 2000 results, and advance debate over the most effective ways to improve accuracy and quality in the 2010 census,” the organizations wrote in an October 25th letter. (A copy of the letter is available on the Census 2000 Initiative web site at www.census2000.org.) The Ninth Circuit’s ruling and public release of the data do not compel any official use of the adjusted numbers. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Service, Census and Agency Organization, told the Associated Press that use of the adjusted numbers “would be as flawed as the data itself.” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), former ranking member on the House census oversight subcommittee, called the resolution of the case “a victory for open government.” “Now that these data will be make available, the public and scientists can finally judge for themselves which data was more accurate,” the congresswoman said in a written statement. In 2001, the Secretary of Commerce and the Census Bureau concluded that the A.C.E.-adjusted numbers were not sufficiently reliable for congressional redistricting and allocating federal program funds. Those decisions, however, do not preclude state and local governments from using adjusted census data for their own redistricting or program purposes. The Justice Department did not explain its reasons for not appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Census Bureau has not announced a schedule for release of the adjusted numbers. Other Legal News: A week before issuing its opinion in the FOIA case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld, by a 2 – 1 vote, a lower court’s dismissal of a case filed by the City of Los Angeles and other municipalities, seeking to overturn the decision not to adjust the 2000 census. Los Angeles challenged the legality of Commerce Secretary Donald Evans’ decision to release only unadjusted census data for ongressional redistricting and federal program formulas. In April 2001, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess ruled that the Secretary based his decision on sufficient evidence that the raw census numbers were the most accurate available, thereby meeting the objectives of the Census Act (title 13, United States Code). Los Angeles had asked the Ninth Circuit to review the dismissal of its claim; it will not appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. General Accounting Office Issues Report On ACS: The U.S. General Accounting Office released a report, The American Community Survey: Accuracy and Timeliness Issues (GAO-02-956R), requested last March by census panel Chairman Dave Weldon and former Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL). The legislators asked Congress’ audit and investigative arm to review a range of issues related to the ACS design, methodology, and content. The GAO concluded that while accuracy and timeliness are important measures of survey quality, it could not provide an overall comparison between the ACS and the traditional census long form because “there is no one formula to determine the relative importance of the components.” The report said that ACS data would be “significantly more timely” than long form data but that annual (single year) ACS data would be less accurate than data collected from a long form in the 2010 census because of the presumed, far larger sample size for the long form (3 million housing units annually for the ACS versus 20 million housing units for the 2010 census). The GAO looked at several measures of accuracy, including sampling error (accuracy of estimates based on sample size and design) and nonsampling error (accuracy based on operational and methodological problems, such as nonresponse, duplication, and geo-coding mistakes). The GAO also evaluated whether proposed ACS questions duplicate those asked on other federal surveys and if the reporting burden on the American public could be reduced. The auditors found substantial overlap in socio-economic questions between the ACS and several ongoing household surveys, and recommended that the Census Bureau determine whether any questions on the American Housing Survey and the Current Population Survey could be eliminated. Other issues the GAO explored were the effects of conducting the ACS as a voluntary, rather than mandatory, survey; justification for questions asked on the ACS; the usefulness of ACS data to other federal agencies; and the effectiveness of interviewer training and outreach efforts in the ACS test program. Last month, the GAO also released two new reports evaluating components of Census 2000: 2000 Census: Lessons Learned for Planning a More Cost-Effective 2010 Census (GAO-02-40) and 2000 Census: Complete Costs of Coverage Evaluation Programs Are Not Available (GAO-02-41). GAO’s reports are available on-line (www.gao.gov), by telephone (202-512-6000 or TDD/202-512-2537), and by fax (202-512-6061). ACS test site data released: Late last month, the Census Bureau released the first set of data for 2001 from its American Community Survey test sites. The data include comparisons from 2000 to 2001 (called “change profiles”) for sites with 250,000 or greater population and single year data for sites with 65,000 or greater population, as well as more than 100 core tables for sites over 65,000 population. The change and single year profiles are available on the American Community Survey web site at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/. The core tables are available on American FactFinder (part of the Census Bureau’s web site) at http://factfinder.census.gov. While data from the ACS test sites and supplementary survey have generally been available in the summer of each year, the Census Bureau delayed release of the information to avoid confusion with Census 2000 long form data, which were published on a flow basis through October of this year. Looking Ahead: Census Oversight in the 108th Congress: The top legislators on committees and subcommittees that oversee and fund the Census Bureau are likely to change in the 108th Congress as a result of the November 5th elections and congressional rules. In the Senate, Republicans will assume the chairmanships of all committees and subcommittees by virtue of their majority status. While no official decisions have been made, it is likely that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) will chair the Committee on Governmental Affairs, the Census Bureau’s authorizing committee. The panel’s former senior Republican member, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), retired. Outgoing chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), will become the committee’s ranking minority member. The committee oversees and sets policy for the Census Bureau. Although Republicans maintained their majority and control of all chairmanships in the House, anticipated changes at the helm of several committees will affect the Census Bureau. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) will step down as head of the Committee on Government Reform after serving three terms as chair, the maximum allowed in the House. Several senior Republican members of the panel, which authorizes bureau activities, are vying to succeed Rep. Burton. The chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Civil Service, Census and Agency Organization could change hands when the committee organizes in January or February, as panel Republicans seek to fill vacancies at the helm of two other subcommittees. 2010 Census Tests To Begin Next Year: The Census Bureau will conduct two significant tests in 2003 and 2004 as part of planning for the 2010 decennial census. The 2003 National Census Test, a 250,000 housing unit mail-out/mail-back only survey, will examine ways to increase self-response (such as Internet response) and to improve the collection of race and ethnic data, including the possibility of eliminating “Some Other Race” as an option on the race question. The 2004 Census Field Test will examine possible operational improvements for 2010, including hand-held computing devices for enumerators and targeted mail-out of Spanish language questionnaires. The field test will take place in part of Queens County, New York; Lake County, IL; and Colquitt, Thomas, and Tift counties in Georgia. Also in 2004, the Census Bureau will use administrative records to test the feasibility of counting private American citizens living abroad in the next census. The test will focus on several countries with significant American populations. Final News Alert: This is the final News Alert of the Census 2000 Initiative. The Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) is grateful to the many organizations and individuals that received our news updates over the past several years, for their deep interest in an accurate census that collects a range of critical demographic and socio-economic information. As development of the American Community Survey and planning for the 2010 census continue, CCMC will explore the creation of a similar outreach project in the future. In the meantime, past News Alerts, stakeholder letters, and fact sheets about the census and the ACS will continue to be available on the Census 2000 Initiative web site at www.census2000.org. Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to Terri Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at <terriann2k(a)aol.com>om>. For copies of previous News Alerts and other information, use our web site www.census2000.org. Please direct all requests to receive News Alerts, and all changes in address/phone/fax/e-mail, to the Census 2000 Initiative at <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals.