By Larry Jones
May 7, 2007

Testifying at an April 24 hearing, East Orange (NJ) Mayor Robert L. Bowser told members of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives that, “It is critical that Congress provide full funding of the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure accuracy and cost effectiveness in planning and conducting the next census.” Bowser, who serves as Vice Chairman of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Urban Economic Policy Committee, told members of the panel that when it comes to the census, nothing is more important to mayors “than a fair and accurate count of all of the people residing in our cities.”

In a move to improve the accuracy and contain the overall cost of the census, the Census Bureau’s has redesigned how it will count people in the 2010 census. For the first time, demographers will use hand-held computers. Cities will be given more time to check and recheck their address list against the Census Bureau’s list, and the long-form, which provided local communities a snapshot of key social and economic characteristics of their residents every ten years, will be replaced by the American Community Survey that will provide communities this information on an annual basis. These are just a few of the changes that the Census Bureau plans to test and implement in the 2010 census. To do all of this the Census Bureau will need a significant increase in funds over the next few years.

Since the Census Bureau’s budget has been rising so quickly and significantly in preparation for the 2010 decennial census, members seeking funds for other worthwhile programs, such as law enforcement, anti-drugs and community policing, view the funds as an easy target for cuts. Bowser pointed out, for example, that last year the House passed an appropriations measure that would have cut Census Bureau funds by $58 million. This cut threatened to disrupt the implementation of the American Community Survey, which is designed to replace the traditional long-form and provide more accurate and timely data.

He also explained that the Census Bureau announced that the cut would forced it to abandon plans to use the hand-held computers, which could help save the government an estimated $1 billion by eliminating the costly reliance on paper. Bowser commended the new leadership in Congress for restoring full funding earlier this year in the 2007 spending bill to allow the Census Bureau to continue its plans to use the American Community Survey and hand held computers in 2010. He said, “The central message I want to leave you with today is it is critical that Congress provide full funding of the Census Bureau to ensure accuracy and cost- effectiveness in planning and conducting the next census.”

Commenting on the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program, Bowser said, “It is a very important step in ensuring a fair and accurate count in 2010.” The program evolved from the Census Address Improvement Act, which was adopted by Congress in 1994 to facilitate cooperation between the Census Bureau and local governments to improve the census address list. The key to ensuring the successful implementation of LUCA, he explained, is adequate funding that will allow the Census Bureau to conduct timely training, review LUCA submissions, 100 percent canvassing after LUCA submission are incorporated, and allow for timely second-chance review by local governments before the Master File is finalized.

Bowser told the panel that mayors are excited about the potential of the American Community Survey, which will provide cities up-to-date information on an annual basis instead of every ten years. He explained that cities rely heavily on data from the census to evaluate current and future need for schools and educational programs, job training, affordable housing, transit and transportation networks, law enforcement initiatives, child care and health services. He said, “Good decision-making rests on a foundation of good and timely data that needs to be kept up-to-date.”

In evaluating the 2000 census, the Census Bureau discovered a number of problems in undercounting and over-counting of people. Although plans have been developed to reduce the occurrence of undercounting and over-counting in the 2010 census, Bowser raised concerns about how the Census Bureau plans to address these issues. “What concerns us is at the national level, over-counts offset undercounts, which leads to a net national undercount of almost zero. But at the local level, over-counts and undercounts don’t always cancel out each other, because the people who tend to be missed do not live in the same neighborhoods as the people who tend to be double counted,” he said. Bowser urged the panel to find out what specific steps the Census Bureau is taking to reduce undercounting and reach population subgroups that historically have been missed disproportionately.