From: Census2000 &lt;Census2000(a)ccmc.org&gt; Price Tag for 2000 Census Jumps $1.7 Billion President Names New Monitoring Board Co-Chair The Census Bureau estimates that it will need an extra $1.7 billion to conduct the census next year, bringing the total fiscal year 2000 (FY00) funding request for the decennial count to $4.5 billion. The Administration submitted a revised cost estimate for the 2000 census to Congress yesterday, fulfilling a requirement of the emergency supplemental spending bill signed into law by President Clinton on May 21. The emergency measure also included an additional $45 million for census preparations in the current fiscal year ending September 30. The Census Bureau says the extra funds are needed to comply with a January Supreme Court ruling that federal law prohibits the use of sampling methods to count the population for purposes of congressional apportionment. The Bureau originally planned to make direct contact with at least 90 percent of households in each census tract and estimate the remaining ten percent of households based on the information collected during door-to-door visits to other unresponsive homes in that tract. The revised plan, developed to comply with the Supreme Court decision, includes follow-up visits to all 45 million households the Bureau estimates will not mail back a questionnaire, increasing the field workload by 50 percent. The Bureau also plans to expand its advertising campaign and outreach activities to encourage a higher mail response, according to a written statement by Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt. In a letter to House and Senate appropriators, U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew said the expanded field operations (called "non-response follow-up") will take ten weeks, four weeks more than under the original census plan. Additional costs include hiring more local office staff and enumerators, increasing office space and equipment, and expanding data processing capabilities at the four data capture centers, Mr. Lew said. The Census Bureau now expects employment to peak at 860,000 during the census. The Administration expects to provide a detailed cost breakdown for the additional $1.7 billion after identifying proposed offsets in other federal spending. The ten-year cost of the original Census 2000 plan, which assumed follow-up visits to only 30 million households, was $4 billion. The new funding request brings the total ten-year cost of the census to about $5.7 billion. Congress must now find a way to provide a sharp funding increase for the 2000 census while reducing overall spending in the broader budget account that includes the Census Bureau by several billion dollars from current year (FY99) funding levels. Last week, Senate appropriators divided up discretionary funds among the 13 budget accounts. (Discretionary funds cover all federal spending that is not mandated by law, such as social security benefits and payments on the federal debt.) The 1997 balanced budget law set the total amount of discretionary spending available for FY00. The Commerce, Justice and State, The Judiciary, and Related Agencies account received $28 billion, more than $5 billion less than this year's allocation of $33.3 billion. House appropriators divvied up their discretionary funds a week earlier, giving the Commerce account $30.5 billion for FY00. Both houses of Congress will pass their own versions of the spending bill and then meet in a conference committee to work out inevitable differences. The new fiscal year starts on October 1. Census Monitoring Board update: President Clinton has appointed Census Monitoring Board member Gilbert F. Casellas as the panel's new co-chairman. Mr. Casellas replaces Tony Coelho, who resigned earlier this month. An investment banker and attorney, Mr. Casellas also served as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and General Counsel of the United States Air Force. Members of the Monitoring Board met last week with Commerce Secretary William Daley to discuss the status of preparations for the 2000 census. The President has not yet filled the vacancy left by Mr. Coelho's departure from the eight-member panel. Also last week, the Republican co-chairman of the Board said he would continue to serve on the panel despite his appointment as National Chairman of Steve Forbes' presidential campaign. In a written statement, J. Kenneth Blackwell said: "I look forward to continuing my work to ensure the 2000 census does not repeat the mistakes made in 1990 when over four million people were undercounted or missed." Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the senior Democrat on the House census subcommittee, called for Mr. Blackwell's "immediate resignation," saying that he had used his position on the Board to help Republicans retain their majority in the House "by political manipulation of the 2000 census." Earlier this month, the subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Dan Miller (R-FL), urged Mr. Coelho to leave the Board after Mr. Coelho was named General Chairman of Vice President Albert Gore's presidential campaign. Rep. Miller, quoted in a Capitol Hill-based newspaper, accused Mr. Coelho of leading "Democratic efforts... to retake the House by political manipulation of the 2000 census." Neither Mr. Blackwell nor Mr. Coelho is receiving compensation for their campaign service. Other congressional activities: The House Subcommittee on the Census will hold a hearing on counting Americans living abroad in the census. In 2000, the Census Bureau plans to include members of the armed forces, federal civilian employees, and their dependents stationed overseas during the census in the state population totals used as the basis for apportioning seats in Congress among the 50 states. A similar effort in 1990 caused a seat in Congress to shift from Massachusetts to Washington; the Supreme Court upheld the Bureau's decision to count this population in a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts. The census subcommittee bill also examine proposals to count all Americans, not just military and federal personnel, living abroad. The panel will also review legislation (H.R. 1632) to change the way prisoners are counted. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mark Green (R-WI), would require the Census Bureau to count prisoners incarcerated in another state as residents of the state that pays more than half of the cost of incarceration. The Bureau has established a set of rules, called "residency rules," to determine where people should be counted. Prisoners are counted at their place of incarceration, following the Bureau's policy of counting people at the place they usually reside on Census Day (April 1). The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, June 9, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2247 Rayburn House Office Building. Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to TerriAnn Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at &lt;terriann2k(a)aol.com&gt;om>. For copies of previous News Alerts and other information, use our web site www.census2000.org <http://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 &lt;Census2000(a)ccmc.org&gt; or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals.