RSS Feed MenuA Senate Subcommittee hearing today revealed that nearly 36,000 Census Bureau employees were hired despite the fact that the fingerprint component of their criminal record checks was botched. Despite additional name checks recommended by the FBI, the GAO said that it was possible that more than 200 employees hired by the Census Bureau had criminal records, and were in contact with the public while canvassing for the ongoing 2010 census.
Robert Goldenkoff, the Government Accountability Office’s Director for Strategic Issues, said that the criminal record checks were bungled because of poor staff training. Bureau staff with less than 2 hours of training in fingerprinting ruined about a fifth of the 162,000 necessary criminal record checks.
If the properly processed criminal record checks are any indication, the Bureau may have let a large number of violent criminals slip through the cracks. Of the prints that were properly checked, about one percent, or 1,800 workers, had criminal records that name checks failed to identify.
Of these 1,800 workers with criminal records, about 750 had their employment terminated or further reviewed due to criminal records that included crimes like rape, manslaughter and child abuse. Projecting these numbers to the employees with spoilt prints, the GAO came up with the figure of 200 census workers that may have had serious criminal records.
There are also issues of cost – each fingerprint test costs $17.25, whether or not the fingerprints were properly taken. This means that over $615,000 was wasted by the Census Bureau due to poor fingerprinting practices. Because of the confusion over fingerprinting, the agency spent $6 million more than they originally budgeted.
Further tarnishing the Census Bureau’s image is the hearing’s disclosure of address canvassing overruns of over 25%. Address canvassing is when census staff verify addresses on-site, so as to keep the Bureau’s address list accurate. While the Bureau had projected that its costs for address canvassing would be around $356 million, it spent $88 million more than it originally estimated.
Of even greater concern is the fact that the GAO still does not have an accurate estimate about how much the 2010 Census will cost. In 2004, the GAO had estimated that the cost of the 2010 census could be over $11 billion. The most recent Census Bureau estimate is now $14.7 billion, a number that the GAO has said it is unable to verify “because key details and assumptions are unavailable.” In the report submitted for today’s hearing, the GAO criticized the Census Bureau for a “long-standing weakness in [its] ability to develop credible and accurate estimates for the 2010 census.”
Indeed, the GAO points out that the Census’ previous cost estimates lacked significant amounts of documentation on data sources and assumptions, and did not include all costs.
The organization was already reported to have been behind schedule for the 2010 Census, and now faces an even bigger challenge. The exposure of these glaring problems at the Census Bureau will mar the organization’s reputation, and in particular could drive down the census participation rate. If these problems aren’t addressed, people may be wary of opening their doors to census staff who have not been properly vetted for criminal records.
These unexpected revelations may wreck steadily improving relations between the Republican Party and Dr. Robert Groves, the Democratically-appointed Census Bureau Director. In an interview with NewMajority yesterday, Brock McCleary, a spokesman for Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the ranking member on the House subcommittee for the Census said: “Groves is winning friends on the Hill, on both sides of the aisle… I can’t sit and identify anything that at this moment is a grave threat.”
Republicans will no doubt now be able to identify more than a few grave threats facing the census bureau.
balconesfault // Oct 7, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Yeah – we already have one census worker killed, hung from a tree, with FED painted on his dead body …
51-year old father, working on his teaching certification
let’s keep up the incitement. maybe we can drum up some more paranoia against census workers. the fears that they’re recording home locations for when the government finally wants to ship everyone off to internment camps in the desert may not be enough …
EscapeVelocity // Oct 7, 2009 at 11:35 pm
As if moving the Census under the political wing of the White House and having ACORN’s* and La Raza’s* dirty racist partisan fingers all over it werent enough.
*known advocates of cooking the Census numbers for political and economic gain
Really imparts a deep trust in the Census, doesnt it?
Frankly, Id rather have criminals casing my house, than what Obama and his Merry Prankster’s are up to.
sinz54 // Oct 7, 2009 at 11:35 pm
balconesfault:
In that connection, you might get a kick out of this one. It was on Newsmax, until they got embarrassed and deleted it:
By John L. Perry of Newsmax:
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic….
* Officers swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Unlike enlisted personnel, they do not swear to “obey the orders of the president of the United States.”
* Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.
* They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.
* They can see that the economy — ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation — is financially reliant on foreign lender governments.
* They can see this president waging undeclared war on the intelligence community, without whose rigorous and independent functions the armed services are rendered blind in an ever-more hostile world overseas and at home.
* They can see the dismantling of defenses against missiles targeted at this nation by avowed enemies, even as America’s troop strength is allowed to sag.
* They can see the horror of major warfare erupting simultaneously in two, and possibly three, far-flung theaters before America can react in time.
* They can see the nation’s safety and their own military establishments and honor placed in jeopardy as never before.
So, if you are one of those observant military professionals, what do you do?….
Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution [!!!] through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making….
Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don’t shrug and say, “We can always worry about that later.”
http://tinyurl.com/ybc77vb
Frankly, with stuff like this on the Internet, I would worry that our census takers aren’t sufficiently well armed.
Reason60 // Oct 8, 2009 at 1:22 am
Well come on now-
200 new hires MAY have criminal records…out of 36,000? Isn’t that about 1/2 of 1 percent?
This sounds like a whole lotta scare tactics, for what purpose I can’t imagine.
Tim Mak // Oct 8, 2009 at 1:34 am
36,000 botched background checks – that’s a problem. 200 hires are likely to have had criminal records that would have otherwise gotten them fired – that ’s an issue.
Millions of taxpayers dollars wasted on a failed fingerprinting process.
Unreliable Census budget projections – billions in overruns.
The point is that the government should not be sending people door-to-door if they haven’t been properly vetted. Doesn’t this undermine the government’s efforts to increase census participation?
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Census Bureau sending violent felons to our doors? // Oct 8, 2009 at 10:12 am
[...] does this sound so familiar? A Senate Subcommittee hearing today revealed that nearly 36,000 Census Bureau [...]
Ding-Dong! Felon Calling. Census hires violent felons to go door-to-door. | Daily Danet // Oct 8, 2009 at 10:43 am
[...] posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams Click Here for More Broken News Ding-Dong! Felon Calling. Census hires violent felons to go door-to-door. No Commander in Chief: Troop morale suffers as their would-be leader ponders his navel. [...]
Violent Felons Coming To Your Door « The Underground Conservative // Oct 8, 2009 at 11:52 am
[...] October 8, 2009 Posted by The Underground Conservative in 2010 Census, Democrats. trackback Courtesy of the U.S. Census. A Senate Subcommittee hearing today revealed that nearly 36,000 Census Bureau employees were hired [...]
Reason60 // Oct 8, 2009 at 11:52 am
“The point is that the government should not be sending people door-to-door if they haven’t been properly vetted. ”
Absolutely- although lets consider- how well are postal workers vetted?
Cable repairmen?
Plumbers?
Heck, schoolteachers and priests?
This post should have been titled:
OBAMA INSTRUCTS Violent MUSLIM SEXUAL PREDATORS to be sent TO YOUR DOOR to MOLEST YOUR CHILDREN!!!! and TAKE YOUR GUNS!!
and correctly posted on Newsmax or Townhall.
Tim Mak // Oct 8, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Well, reason60, that was the title I had originally proposed, but our managing editor was a little too down-to-earth for that…
Did the Census Bureau Hire Felons to Go Door to Door? | The Lonely Conservative // Oct 8, 2009 at 12:57 pm
[...] Hot Air, New Majority reports: A Senate Subcommittee hearing today revealed that nearly 36,000 Census Bureau employees [...]
ltoro1 // Oct 8, 2009 at 7:53 pm
reason60, generally your postal worker does not need to come to your door, they can leave the mail in your mail box. As far as cable repairmen ,plumbers, schoolteachers and priests, you choose to hire them for the most part, so it’s really not the taxpayer’s problem. However, they can be sued if they hire a convicted sex offender to rapes and kills your family members which gives them the incentive to do background checks.
Frankly, as someone who has a wife and daughter who may be at home by themselves during much of the day, I find this quite concerning.
Michelle Malkin » Crime, Census, and censorship // Oct 9, 2009 at 11:29 am
[...] census costs by up to $3 billion, officials told a House subcommittee last month. On top of that, NewMajority.com blogger Tim Mak points out, the bureau is grappling with cost overruns of nearly $90 million related to verifying [...]
Oneon1isto // Oct 9, 2009 at 3:49 pm
This is only a story if one of the violent criminals actually recommits a crime.
If they’ve served their time and done their penance, I say give em a PDA and let em come over. This is a story for fearmongers, and no one else.
Census Bureau: No Idea How Much 2010 Count Will Cost // Oct 12, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] 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 [...]
Tim Mak » U.S. Census Bureau May Have Hired Criminals To Canvass Your Home // Oct 12, 2009 at 2:52 pm
[...] Read more by clicking here. [...]
Beware of Census 2010 | The Chronicle Watch // Jan 6, 2010 at 2:07 am
[...] Now that 2010 has finally reached us, so has the time for the wonderful U.S. census data gathering ploy. Luckily for us Americans this year will not only bring more honesty, I-I mean corruption from the occupants of the White House, but also the opportunity to feel firsthand the corruption stemming from the affiliates of Obama’s unknown appointed army of Census gathering workers. [...]