RSS Feed MenuDespite a $1 billion injection of money from the 2009 stimulus package, the Census Bureau is still struggling to perform routine tasks like criminal background checks and accurate cost estimation for the 2010 Census.
Over the last two days, the Census Bureau has been hit with a deluge of criticism after a Senate subcommittee hearing revealed the botching of nearly 36,000 criminal background checks and $88 million in cost overruns during the initial stages of the census.
On Thursday, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the ranking member on the House subcommittee for the census, condemned the “bureaucratic incompetence that [led] to the hiring of criminals as census takers,” saying that the Census Bureau’s failures were “unacceptable.”
The hearing also disclosed a budget estimation error of nearly $4 billion, a figure that could rise as the Bureau scrambles to make more accurate cost models.
The budget estimation process has gone so poorly that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said on Wednesday that Congress might have to “salvage what we can” of the 2010 census. McCain continued by suggesting “tighter controls” on the census budgeting process.
Despite the criticism that the Bureau is receiving, Census director Robert Groves is escaping relatively unscathed. “His fingerprints are not on [these] problems he inherited,” asserted Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) at the subcommittee hearing, “As a matter of fact… because he’s there, it’s probably going to cost less than what it would have had he not been there.”
Rep. McHenry’s spokesperson, Brock McCleary echoed these sentiments, denouncing the Bureau while expressing faith in Dr. Groves’ capabilities: “Clearly somewhere at the Bureau, there’s a breakdown… [but] we haven’t lost faith in Dr. Groves. We’ve lost a lot of faith in the very large bureaucracy out at the Census Bureau.”
It remains to be seen whether the Census Bureau will improve its procedures for subsequent criminal record checks. “The real risk is [in] future field operations, especially for nonresponsive follow-up [where] around 600,000 enumerators will go door to door to collect data from households that did not mail back their census forms,” said GAO Director for Strategic Issues Robert Goldenkoff.
Regrettably, perhaps the only substantive suggestion provided thus far has involved FBI-approved hand lotion. “Some people have drier fingers than other people. If you have real dry hands, fingerprints don’t take as well. So we’re using some lotion that the FBI suggested,” said Dr. Groves during his hearing.
According to McCleary, the ball is in the Census Bureau’s court: “they need to communicate to us what it is they’re doing to correct these problems and when we can expect some results.”
However, the aide to Rep. McHenry also left the door open to hearings on both cost overruns and the poorly executed criminal record checks: “We’ll have to look at the majority and Chairman Clay to arrange a hearing [on the cost estimates], but certainly a hearing on the fingerprinting is warranted as well.”
balconesfault // Oct 12, 2009 at 10:22 am
after NewMajority revealed …
Shouldn’t that phrase be limited to times when New Majority actually does independent research? Simply reporting on congressional testimony should be referred to as “reported” … not “revealed”.
Had, say, NewMajority poured independently over budget sheets and identified the overruns before the GAO rolled out both the discrepancies and their concerns over them, “revealed” would have been the correct term.
Kudos to Mak for noting, however, that this is not a problem caused in the last few months … as the GAO also reported: Since 2005, we have reported on weaknesses in the Bureau’s management of its IT acquisitions, and issues continue concerning the Bureau’s IT management and testing of key 2010 Census systems.
Our bureaucracy was riddled with termites over the last 8 years … some problems like the Katrina response showed up quickly, others will still be being found for awhile. Here’s hoping that the Obama Administration is half as competent as they pledged to be, because we really need competence.
sinz54 // Oct 12, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I’m puzzled at the recent attacks on the Census Bureau that I see coming from the Right–even on New Majority.
Most sociologists agree that the movement of Americans out of the Rust Belt and the Northeast into the West and the South is continuing unabated. Heck, the collapse of housing prices in the West should accelerate that trend, as cheaper housing becomes available out there.
As a result, the Northeast and Rust Belt will be reapportioned to have fewer electoral votes and fewer seats in Congress.
That’s good news for the GOP. So why all the grumbling?
balconesfault // Oct 12, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Let me also add that for the business community, the census data is invaluable. Tiger data produced from the censuses is used for everything from business plans to marketing to being the standard for environmental/social impact assessment. An up to date and accurate census strongly supports commerce in America.
rbottoms // Oct 12, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Obama lost $4, billion dollars in eight months of running the Census Bureau? Or was that done while the last dumbbell president named Bush held office? I failed to read in the article where any of this was the fault of the administration that was in charge for EIGHT years.
Such an obvious move by the GOP. Render all data from the Census Bureau suspect ahead of increases in the Hispanic population?
While your at it let’s get more of the census workers killed through scare tactics about rapists coming to your door. All that matters is the political win.
agentprovocateur // Oct 12, 2009 at 3:28 pm
As a result, the Northeast and Rust Belt will be reapportioned to have fewer electoral votes and fewer seats in Congress.
That’s good news for the GOP.
That is based on the asumption that all those people leaving the Northeast and Rust Belt areas will automatically fall into the Republican fold simply by moving to other areas. Perhaps a more accurate result will be that these people will help to dilute Republican strength in red states, like what has happened in Colorado.
SFTor1 // Oct 12, 2009 at 7:57 pm
The sooner all these facts are on the table the sooner we can rebuild the Government to adequacy. Turns out that sometimes too little government IS the problem.
ottovbvs // Oct 13, 2009 at 10:31 am
agentprovocateur // Oct 12, 2009 at 3:28 pm
……Very astute……..This is indeed what will happen…….the right wing attacks on the census bureau are all part of a campaign to discredit the census process…….that’s what these folks do……trash govt particularly when the results of the next census are going to be pivotal in drawing electoral boundaries……it has nothing to do with the facts of the case……..George Bush underestimated the cost of the Iraq war by about $700 million (so far!) but that doesn’t seem to have excited Mr Mak……..they blocked the confirmation of the head of the census for months for purely political reasons……now they are complaining about management failures most of which almost certainly occurred before the start of this year……the endless diet of negativity from the right isn’t going to serve them well in the long term outside the conservative base. …….Ultimately most people say give it a rest.