From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> Senate Appropriations Panel Considers Request For Additional Census 2000 Funds Key Chairman Skeptical of "Emergency" Designation for Census Spending The Senate Committee on Appropriations held a hearing today to consider the President's request for an additional $1.7 billion for Census 2000. Last week, the Senate passed a version of the fiscal year 2000 Commerce spending bill that only included the $2.789 billion originally requested for the census in fiscal year 2000. At today's hearing, a key subcommittee chairman asked for more detailed budget information but was skeptical about designating funds for Census 2000 as "emergency spending," a move the House spending panel is considering. The Clinton Administration asked for extra funds to conduct the decennial count after the Supreme Court ruled that sampling could not be used to calculate the population of the states for congressional apportionment. The only legislator at today's hearing in a cramped room of the U.S. Capitol was Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), chairman of the appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and The Judiciary. Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt explained the agency's need for extra funds, saying that 95 percent of the extra $1.7 billion was a "direct result" of the January 1999 Court decision. The Bureau, he said, has added new operations "to improve the accuracy and completeness of the count without sampling" and increased quality controls on existing activities, particularly in rural areas and for the hardest-to-count populations such as the homeless and non-English speakers. Dr. Prewitt emphasized the need for a timely appropriation for the fiscal year beginning October 1. "Census 2000 is well underway," he said. "The train has left the station. We cannot park this train on October 1, even for a few days, without severe consequences to the schedule and accuracy of the census." "An example," the director said, "is the need to buy air time for the media campaign in early October, to run census educational and awareness messages beginning in November." Eighty-four percent ($1.451 billion) of the extra funds will pay for field data collection efforts and support activities. Follow-up visits to all households that don't mail back a form, Dr. Prewitt said, will increase the workload 50 percent, or by 15 million homes, over the Bureau's original Census 2000 plan. Reasons for the increased costs include extending the follow-up phase by four weeks; screening one million more applicants to fill 300,000 more temporary positions; opening 44 additional local offices; keeping the four data processing centers open two months longer; expanding technical capabilities for payroll and data transmission; re-checking an estimated 7.5 million housing units initially classified as vacant or non-existent; visiting housing units built after the address list was completed; and increasing paid advertising and other promotional efforts. The Census Bureau also expects lower productivity as the number of temporary workers grows significantly, "resulting in lower overall skill level." Dr. Prewitt also noted that the revised plan saves about $209 million from reducing the size of the quality-check post census survey (called the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation, or ACE, program). The final census plan includes a 300,000 household survey to measure undercounts and overcounts, down from 750,000 households. Senator questions "emergency" designation for Census 2000: Chairman Gregg, noting that the Constitution requires a census every ten years, asked rhetorically: "Is the census in 2000 an emergency?" The senator was referring to action last week by House appropriators to designate Census 2000 funds as "emergency spending" to avoid counting the cost of next year's operations against the restrictive budget caps on government programs. Sen. Gregg asked how long the Census Bureau could operate if Congress provided only $3 billion of the full $4.512 billion at the start of the fiscal year. Dr. Prewitt said most of the money is spent from March to July, when the forms are mailed and most follow-up visits and data processing takes place. The chairman asked for more detailed information on the flow of spending each month in fiscal year 2000 and on plans to hire 300,000 more enumerators and other field staff than originally projected. In 1990, Congress passed a $100 million emergency spending bill in the spring when a lower-than-expected mail response forced the Census Bureau to raise hourly pay rates and hire more enumerators. Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to TerriAnn Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at terriann2K(a)aol.com.. 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 Census2000(a)ccmc.org or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals.