Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Improve Census Bureau for 2020 Count

Census and Data Equity News 03.31,10

House and Senate lawmakers have introduced bipartisan legislation to address serious structural problems that they say have plagued the Census Bureau for four decades.

“Now is precisely the time when we need to start making sure that the 2020 census does not experience the drama that each of the last four censuses,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D. NY. “The career professionals at Census know what needs to be done, but Congress must act now so that we can save money and maintain accuracy and ensure that we have a no-drama 2020 census.”

Supporters of the Census Oversight Efficiency and Management Reform Act — introduced in the House by Maloney and Rep. Charlie Dent, R. PA, and in the Senate by Sens. Tom Coburn, R. Okla., and Tom Carper, D. Del. — say the bill would increase the independence and accountability of the Census Bureau, which has been crippled by inconsistent leadership and partisanship as administrations change. The legislation would not affect the current census.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the bill would:

  • Set five-year terms for census directors to better align the position with the 10-year census cycle, which involves a five-year planning phase followed by a five-year operational phase. Census directors currently serve open-ended terms.
  • Require the director to report directly to the Secretary of Commerce.
  • Allow the director to testify to Congress without review by other administration officials.
  • Increase efficiency by giving the director authority over all bureau personnel and activities.
  • Require the director to submit Bureau budget requests simultaneously to Congress and the Secretary of Commerce.
  • Require the director to submit a comprehensive annual report to Congress on the next census, including a performance review and risk assessment of each operation.

In a letter of support sent to Congress, seven former Census Bureau directors state:

“The Census Bureau is the nation’s largest, general-purpose statistical agency. Establishing it as a more independent agency, in the government’s highly decentralized system of statistical programs, will be broadly beneficial to other statistical agencies and programs in emphasizing that the nation’s statistical products are scientific and independent of partisan considerations. This is a valuable signal for the American public in a time of economic uncertainty and the corresponding high level of dependence on the numbers generated by the federal statistical system.”