[CTPP] Census News Brief (No. 64)

[Ed Christopher]

HOUSE APPROPRIATORS APPROVE 2010 CENSUS FUNDING;
GROVES NOMINATION ON HOLD IN SENATE

House appropriators fended off a proposal to strip $100 million from the 
Census Bureau’s 2010 budget before approving the Fiscal Year 2010 
(FY2010) Commerce, Justice, and Science and Related Agencies spending 
bill yesterday, allocating the full $7.375 billion for the agency that 
the Administration’s requested.

The proposed funding level is $4.235 billion more than this year’s 
appropriation; the Census Bureau received an additional $1 billion for 
2010 census operations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 
(the stimulus bill).  Almost all of the increase would go towards the 
decennial census under the Periodic Censuses and Programs account, which 
received $7.116 billion in the committee bill.  Roughly $6.9 billion of 
this amount is for the 2010 census, which includes the American 
Community Survey (ACS), leaving $214.6 million for other cyclical 
programs such as the Economic Census ($111.7 million) and annual 
(“intercensal”) demographic estimates ($10.4 million).

The committee bill appropriates $259 million for the bureau’s Salaries 
and Expenses account, covering ongoing economic, demographic, and social 
statistics programs such as the Survey of Income and Program 
Participation (SIPP), which would receive $4.6 million more than in 
Fiscal Year 2009 for a total of $50.3 million.

By a vote of 21 – 30, the Committee on Appropriations defeated an 
amendment offered by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) to shift $100 million from 
the Census Bureau to the Justice Department’s State Criminal Alien 
Assistance Program (SCAAP), which the President had slated for 
elimination in his own budget.  All Democratic members of the committee 
who were present voted against the amendment.  (There are 37 Democrats 
and 23 Republicans on the committee.)  California historically has 
received about 40 percent of SCAAP funds, and the Census Bureau has been 
the target of similar off-setting amendments to increase funding for law 
enforcement programs in past years, although none had proposed shifting 
such a large amount of money.  Some apportionment projections for 2010 
show that California could be at risk of losing one of its current 53 
congressional districts after the census.

In the committee report accompanying the spending bill, appropriators 
expressed particular interest in 2010 census outreach, promotion, and 
paid advertising activities.  They noted that a Census Bureau advisory 
panel had characterized much of the proposed paid advertising campaign 
as “obsolete,” and they directed the agency to ensure that all 
communications activities focus on increasing mail response rates, 
especially in historically hard-to-count communities.  The committee 
asked for more information on the language assistance program, saying 
that it was concerned that the Census Bureau “has not adequately planned 
for assistance in languages other than Spanish for the 2010 census and 
ACS.”  The report called on the Census Bureau to ensure a diverse 
temporary workforce for the decennial census, as well as to improve the 
diversity of its full time workforce, “including at the senior 
management level.”

The committee bill would provide $7.7 million less than the President 
requested for new initiatives at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 
the second Commerce Department statistical agency housed in the 
Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA).  Committee documents 
indicate that lawmakers reduced funding “to support higher priority 
activities.”  ESA would receive a total allocation of $97.2 million, an 
increase of about $6.6 million over 2009.  Appropriators agreed to fund 
two proposed new BEA initiatives, to develop new estimation models for 
financial services statistics and to enhance and accelerate county-level 
economic statistics.

The Appropriations Committee approved the $64.4 billion Commerce 
spending measure – overall, about $200 million less than the President 
requested – by voice vote.  The full House is tentatively scheduled to 
take up the funding bill on June 16-17.

“Objection” puts Groves nomination on hold in Senate:  The nomination of 
Dr. Robert Groves to be Census Bureau director remains in limbo, a 
possible victim both of specific concerns about his candidacy and of 
partisan maneuvering over unrelated issues.

Late last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called up Dr. 
Groves’ nomination under a “unanimous consent” request, a procedure 
sometimes used to uncover specific concerns any senators might harbor 
about a nominee and to move a nomination more quickly to a vote.  Senate 
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected to consideration of 
the nomination, saying he did not yet have the consent of all of his 
party’s members.  Any senator who wants to delay a vote on the 
nomination has six Senate business days (from the time of the unanimous 
consent request) to come forward.

The Majority Leader’s effort to bring the nomination up for a vote in 
the full Senate has been hampered further, however, by controversy over 
another nomination.  Republican senators reportedly have decided to 
delay consideration of all nominations (except for some key Defense 
Department posts), to protest the Democratic majority’s decision to 
start hearings on Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor in early July.

Legislative update:  Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA), joined by a bipartisan 
group of 23 lawmakers, introduced a “sense of the House” resolution (H. 
Res. 521), highlighting the importance of a “complete and accurate” 2010 
census.  The measure notes important uses of census population numbers, 
including congressional apportionment, make-up of the Electoral College, 
decision-making by businesses, and the allocation of federal funds for a 
wide range of programs.  “[A]reas are ultimately underserved by the 
Federal Government when significant portions of the population, 
especially those in low-income and minority neighborhoods, fail to 
participate in the census,” the resolution notes.  Rep. Dent’s bill 
“encourages full participation” in the census and urges State, local, 
and Tribal governments to promote awareness and cooperation with the 
count.  The resolution, which must only pass the House of 
Representatives and would not be signed into law, was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent 
legislative and policy consultant specializing in the census and federal 
statistics.  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 TerriAnn2K at aol.com.  Please feel free to 
circulate this document to other interested individuals and 
organizations.  Ms. Lowenthal is a consultant to the nonpartisan Census 
Project, organized by the Communications Consortium Media Center in 
Washington, DC.  Previous Census News Briefs are posted at 
www.thecensusproject.org.

-- 
Ed Christopher
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