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(a)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 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA RC-TST-PLN 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461