October 2, 2005 CENSUS FUNDING UPDATE and more … Congress took steps last week to keep the federal government running in the new fiscal year that began October 1, after failing to enact all but two of the twelve regular appropriations bills by the end of fiscal year 2005 (FY05) on September 30. The Continuing Resolution (House Joint Resolution 68) funds federal agencies through November 18, 2005 (or until a separate appropriations bill is enacted, if sooner), indicating that Congress intends to stay in session well past its original adjournment target of early October. The terms of the Continuing Resolution are not favorable for the Census Bureau in the short run. The measure temporarily funds agencies at the lower of three levels: the House-passed level, the Senate-passed level (if applicable), or the fiscal year 2005 level. Last month, the U.S. Senate allocated $727.4 million for the Census Bureau in fiscal year 2006 (FY06), an amount $17 million below the FY05 level and $80 million below the amount approved by the House of Representatives in June. The President requested $877.4 million for the agency in FY06. Data processing contract awarded: Implementation of a $500 million contract for the 2010 census data processing system, awarded last week to Lockheed Martin Corporation, could be delayed if Congress fails to appropriate more money for the Census Bureau than the amount approved by the Senate last month. Lockheed Martin – coordinating a team that includes IBM, Computer Sciences Corporation, Pearson Government Solutions, and several other companies – will be responsible for all systems, facilities, and staffing to process census responses reported on paper questionnaires, by telephone, and via the Internet. The six-year contract for the Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) includes developing an Internet response option for the census, which was offered but not widely used in 2000. However, the Census Bureau warned in June that the FY06 funding level adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee (and subsequently by the full Senate) could delay the award of the DRIS contract. The bureau’s “impact statement,” issued June 29, says that delaying the award would “postpone[e] critical efforts to ensure we can effectively integrate data capture of respondent data from multiple sources in the 2010 Census and increas[e] the likelihood that this will not be successful in 2010.” The decision to award the contract before negotiators have met to decide on a final funding level could indicate that the Census Bureau is confident it will receive a much higher budget than the Senate approved; alternatively, the bureau could delay implementation of the contract if appropriators fail to allocate sufficient funds. New report explains ACS: A new report from the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB) offers a useful description of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), with a focus on important differences between ACS and census long form methods and data. Authors Mark Mather, Kerri Rivers, and Linda Jacobsen compare data collection in the two surveys for several key socio-economic characteristics, including income and poverty, immigration and language, housing and commuting, and marriage and family relationships. The American Community Survey is available through the PRB’s web site at www.prb.org (see top center of home page). New Census Advisory Committee to meet: The newly-created 2010 Census Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting on October 27-28 at Census Bureau headquarters in Suitland, MD. The committee replaced the Decennial Census Advisory Committee, which was disbanded last winter. The advisory committee will meet on Thursday, October 27, from 8:30 AM – 5:15 PM, and on Friday, October 28, from 8:45 – 11:45 AM. Topics of discussion include updates from congressional staff; status of planning for the 2010 census, including communications plans; Master Address File and TIGER digital mapping system improvement; American Community Survey field work, including in Gulf Coast areas; and Census Bureau research related to questionnaire content and coverage improvement. The meeting will take place in the Francis Amasa Walker Conference Center at the Census Bureau (Building #3). It is open to the public. In the September 16th Census News Brief, I inadvertently neglected to include the National Conference of State Legislatures on the list of committee members. (My apologies to my good friend, Tim Storey, who has ably represented NCSL on the census advisory committee for many years!) Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent consultant in Washington, DC, with support from The Annie E. Casey Foundation and other organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is also a consultant to The Census Project, sponsored by the Communications Consortium Media Center. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. 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. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations. -- Ed Christopher 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA RC-TST-PLN 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461