[CTPP] Census News Brief

[Ed Christopher]

BREAKING NEWS: 2010 Census Funding at Risk on House Floor
2010 Census Funding at Risk on House Floor:   Funding for the Census 
Bureau next year could be slashed significantly as the U.S. House of 
Representatives begins debating the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, 
and Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) today.

Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) is expected to offer an amendment that would 
shift $566.5 million from the Census Bureau to NASA's exploration 
account, more than eight percent of the $6.671 billion the 
Appropriations Committee allocated for 2010 census operations in the 
fiscal year that begins on October 1, 2009.

Numerous additional amendments that would siphon off funds from the 
Census Bureau -- always a target for lawmakers seeking to boost funding 
for law enforcement, science, and other popular programs in the massive 
spending bill -- are expected over the next two days.

According to analyses by the Brookings Institution, almost $400 billion 
in federal program funds annually -- $4 trillion over the decade -- is 
allocated to states and localities based in whole or in part on census 
data.  The analyses, broken down by program and by state, are available 
on The Census Project web site at www.thecensusproject.org (under Fact 
Sheets).

The Census Bureau's FY2010 budget also took an unexpected hit in the 
Appropriations Committee last week, when a misunderstanding between 
panel members and the Commerce Department (the Census Bureau's parent 
department) led appropriators to reduce the agency's funding by $206 
million.  Lawmakers had thought the amount, appearing in the President's 
detailed budget request as a carry-over from 2009, represented extra 
money, when in fact the Census Bureau had committed the funds to a paid 
media buy.

The Administration told Congress yesterday that if the $206 million is 
not restored before Congress finalizes the Commerce spending measure, 
the Census Bureau would reduce a planned $573 million contingency fund 
for the 2010 census by that amount.  The contingency fund, the 
Administration said, would cover unanticipated conditions, such as a 
lower-than-projected mail response rate or more vacant units that 
increase the non-response follow-up workload, or unforeseen events, such 
as a natural disaster or health pandemic.  The emergency fund, Census 
officials told Congress, "is not a very large reserve for a 
once-a-decade program of this size and complexity, which must be 
completed by statutory deadlines."

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.

-- 
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)

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