[CTPP] Census News Brief

[Ed Christopher]

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES 2010 CENSUS FUNDING

A House appropriations subcommittee allocated $7.37 billion for the 
Census Bureau in Fiscal Year 2010 (FY2010), the amount the 
Administration requested, representing a 135 percent funding increase 
(about $4.23 billion) over Fiscal Year 2009.  Overall, the $64.4 billion 
bill represents a 12 percent increase over the 2009 spending level for 
this appropriations account.

The draft bill includes $7.116 billion for Periodic Censuses and 
Programs, one of two main Census Bureau accounts, which covers the 
decennial census, American Community Survey, Economic Census, and other 
cyclical programs.  A specific funding level for the 2010 census is not 
yet available; the President requested $6.97 billion in new budget 
authority for 2010 census activities.  The quinquennial Economic Census 
is beginning a new planning cycle for the 2012 survey and would receive 
$111.7 million.

The bill allocates $259 million for the second main account, Salaries 
and Expenses, which covers ongoing surveys and data programs such as the 
Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).  The Census Bureau 
would receive $50.3 million for the SIPP program.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, 
Justice, and Science and Related Agencies, noted at the start of the 
panel’s “mark-up” that the FY2010 Congressional Budget Resolution 
provided a lower overall limit on discretionary spending than President 
Obama’s budget request for next year, requiring appropriators to make 
“hard choices” and reduce or eliminate funding for some programs “that 
many members support.”  Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), the panel’s senior 
Republican, expressed concern about the bill’s funding level. “This 
level of spending is unsustainable in light of our growing deficits and 
debt,” Rep. Wolf said. “I believe that we could have met the most urgent 
needs by prioritizing within a lower allocation.”  Reps. Mollohan and 
Wolf both mentioned that the bill funds the Justice Department’s popular 
State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) well below the 2009 
spending level (the President’s budget proposed eliminating SCAAP), 
possibly suggesting that lawmakers might look for ways to shift money 
from other programs within the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill to 
increase SCAAP funding as the appropriations measure moves through the 
House and Senate.

The committee report accompanying the funding measure is not printed 
yet, but committee sources indicated that appropriators continue to urge 
the Census Bureau to focus sufficient 2010 census advertising, 
promotion, and outreach efforts on the hardest-to-count population 
groups, including people with limited English language proficiency, and 
to ensure more diversity in hiring.


Stakeholder organizations sent letters expressing strong support for the 
President’s Census Bureau budget request in the days leading up to the 
mark-up.  The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) urged the 
panel to allocate the full amount the President requested for the Census 
Bureau, saying “an accurate census is a vital civil rights objective.” 
The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), a member of the 
2010 Census Advisory Committee, also highlighted adequate funding for 
other important Census Bureau activities, including the American 
Community Survey (ACS), which replaced the traditional census “long 
form” and will produce census tract-level estimates of key 
socio-economic indicators for the first time in late 2010.

Hispanic clergy urge immigrants to participate in census:  The National 
Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) issued a statement 
today, urging Latinos and immigrants to participate in the 2010 census. 
  Dr. Jesse Miranda, CEO of the NHCLC, said that an accurate census is 
“critical for the continued economic and political progress of the 
Latino community.”  The NHCLC serves 16 million Hispanic born-again 
Christians in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to the statement.

The Hispanic pastors have joined with Comunidad Presbiteriana Hispana & 
El Pozo de Jacob, the Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Christian 
Leadership, the Hispanic Mega Church Association, the Hispanic 
Pentecostal Congress, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to 
implement a widespread campaign, ya es hora !HAGASE CONTAR! (It’s Time, 
Make Yourself Count!), encouraging Hispanics to participate in the 2010 
census.  The National Association for Latino Elected and Appointed 
Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund is leading the campaign in 
conjunction with Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, National Council of La 
Raza, and major Hispanic media companies such as Univision, as well as 
other national, state, and local partners.

The religious leaders also expressed opposition to a boycott of the 
census by undocumented immigrants.  “By diminishing the representation 
of newcomers in our democracy, an [census] undercount will also 
undermine efforts to achieve comprehensive immigration reform,” Dr. 
Miranda said.  “Encouraging anyone not to participate in the Census is 
simply wrong.”  The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian 
Leaders (CONLAMIC), which represents 20,000 churches in 34 states, 
according to its web site, has called for a boycott of the census among 
undocumented residents.  An April 18th statement announcing the boycott 
said the organization hoped to compel the Obama Administration and 
Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.  The Congressional 
Hispanic Caucus also has challenged the boycott campaign, saying that 
failure to achieve a complete count of the Latino population “would have 
political implications and jeopardize vital resources” that flow to 
communities based on census data (April 16 CHC press statement).

Did you know? (An occasional feature of fun census facts!) The 2010 
census is a paper-intensive, as well as labor-intensive, undertaking. 
The Census Bureau has begun assembling kits at its National Processing 
Center (NPC) in Jeffersonville, IN, for census takers and other field 
staff to use next year.  The process is automated for the first time, 
almost quadrupling the pace of the task over manual assembly.  The NPC 
will assemble 5.5 million kits -- six billion (with a “b”!) pieces of 
paper in all – over a 15 - 18 month period.  The stack of paper would be 
27 Empire State Buildings high!  Who knew?

Comic relief:  I rarely stray from my “just the facts, m’am” reporting 
of census news, but I’m sure we can all use a good laugh as we hurtle at 
lightening speed towards the 2010 census.  So I thought census 
stakeholders would enjoy a funny Saturday Night Live skit about a census 
taker (posted on You Tube), featuring Christopher Walken.  Enjoy (and 
thanks to the former Census Bureau official who brought this to my 
attention)!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XtuPvwBa2U

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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