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Absolute incompetence

fff

Well-known member
This administration reaches new heights in incompetence every day. Unbelievable. :mad:

WASHINGTON — The 2010 census is already in trouble.

The hand-held mobile computers that are supposed to replace the pens and paper long used by census takers aren't working properly, and delays could send the cost from $600 million to as much as $2 billion.

The Census Bureau has done little, if any, planning for what to do if the handheld mobile computers can't be made to work. As a result, an important census dress rehearsal this spring has been delayed by a month as the agency looks for backup plans.

"I cannot over-emphasize the seriousness of this problem," Census Bureau Director Steve Murdock told a Senate hearing this week.

That same day, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, designated the 2010 census a "high-risk area."

The GAO's designation, which provides guidance for Congress about where the next bureaucratic crisis might lie, was the equivalent of a "Beware of Landslides" sign at the entrance to a treacherous mountain road.

The new handheld devices would collect and manage data more efficiently and economically than legions of census-takers armed with pens and pads.

They were supposed to signal the Census Bureau's arrival into the digital age after more than two centuries of collecting data the old-fashioned way.

They would be used to verify addresses through global positioning software, collect data from households that did not mail back the census questionnaires, and manage a variety of information and tasks.

The government awarded a $600 million contract for the new system to the Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., in 2006. But the Census Bureau continued to tinker with the specifications, which the GAO said led to delays and cost overruns. The agency didn't finalize the specifications until January.

Now the "rough estimate" for the revised contract could be as high as $2 billion, according to what Census officials have told Congress, the GAO said.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week that the program has "serious problems." Both the Census Bureau and Harris "could have done things differently and better over the past couple of years," he said.

Harris spokesman Marc Raimondi would not comment on who was to blame. But he said it was "not unusual for programs of this size and length to encounter some customer requests for additional requirements that they feel best enables them to accomplish their mission."

"Managing those changes is challenging," Raimondi said. "However, we remain totally committed to supporting the Census Bureau's efforts."

But with time running short, Census officials are now scrambling for a back-to-the-future solution.

Pen and paper have been the tools of the census-taker ever since federal marshals first canvassed the nation on horseback in 1790. Rest assured that horses won't be necessary for the 2010 census. But Gutierrez indicated that they haven't written off pen and paper yet.

He told the hearing that the agency would "evaluate the feasibility of a paper-based backup plan."

Census officials have known about potential pitfalls in their new computerized data collection system since 2006, when the GAO first began flashing caution lights. But they failed to heed warnings, either from the GAO or another independent evaluation.

Nor did the agency develop backup plans in case trouble did arise. Officials didn't think alternatives to the handheld computers would be needed.

That was evident in this exchange at a Senate hearing two years ago about planning for the 2010 census.

"What happens if (the handhelds) do not work?" asked Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. "What is your plan B?"

"They will work," said then-Census Director Charles Louis Kincannon. "They have worked. You might as well ask me what happens if the Postal Service refuses to deliver the census forms."

A few questions later, Coburn asked, "So your testimony to me is that there is no alternative plan if that does not work?"

"We have no reason to believe there is any systematic risk in all the handhelds," Kincannon replied. "That system will work."

Technical problems developed during a field test last spring. The GAO said data transmission was "slow and inconsistent."

The worry is that the problems in the planning for the census could taint the results. That could ripple across the federal government in myriad ways.

Census data is used to apportion congressional seats, as well as to calculate how much money states receive for subsidized school lunches, highway aid and a host of other federal programs dependent on income and other demographic data.

Based on the census, state and local governments across the country received about $300 billion last year.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Governmental Affairs Committee, said at the hearing that "wishful thinking, lax management and tunnel vision" were to blame for the problems.

As a result, she said, "we face a large and alarming uncertainty about whether our nation will be able to rely on the results of the of the 2010 census."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/29771.html
 

Mike

Well-known member
Could part of this Snafu be because of congress, and not the administration?



Budget Decisions Roil Preparations for 2010 Census
It's more than three years away, but already questions are being raised about how accurate the next census will be.
By Joan Pryde, Senior Tax Editor, the Kiplinger letters

December 4, 2006RELATED FORECASTS HELPFUL LINKS Census Bureau data

Community Colleges -- The Key to U.S. Competitiveness
Planned improvements to the 2010 Census are in jeopardy, officials say, because Congress isn't likely to give the Census Bureau the funding it wants for fiscal 2007. Although the national head count is still three years away, top officials warn that shortchanging the bureau this year, a critical planning year, would make it harder to get the most accurate count possible.

A less-than-accurate census would have far-reaching implications. It would affect how seats are reapportioned in Congress and the distribution of billions of federal dollars for everything from highways to job training. What's more, businesses rely on census numbers to decide, for example, where to launch a new product, increase advertising or open a new store.

Technology upgrades will be scrapped unless Congress comes through, which isn't likely. The bureau says it will have to give up plans to use Global Positioning System technology to pinpoint addresses and to give census takers handheld electronic equipment for collecting household data. Restoring funds in 2008 or 2009 wouldn't help, officials say, because planning would be too far along.

Another issue complicating its budget fight with Congress: The bureau is about to lose its director, Charles Louis Kincannon, and its deputy director, Hermann Habermann. Both announced their resignations Nov. 14. The departures of Kincannon and Habermann, two well-known statisticians, are raising alarm bells among some Democrats in Congress about a rudderless Census Bureau. "It is fair to say that the accuracy of the 2010 Census is absolutely in jeopardy," says Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), a member of the House Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census.

The lack of full funding will also affect the American Community Survey (ACS), a monthly sampling of households that marketers rely on for detailed demographic data. The Census Bureau for several years has been beefing up the ACS so that in 2010 it could replace the bureau's long form now sent to one in six U.S. households. The last stage of the effort was supposed to be in 2007 with the addition of a monthly sample of people who live in group quarters, such as nursing homes and college dormitories. But the lower funding level will force cancellation of the group-quarters survey, so the ACS won't be replacing the long form anytime soon.

The Census Bureau had asked Congress for about $878 million for fiscal 2007. But the bureau's budget is contained in a larger appropriations bill that also covers the departments of Justice, Commerce and other agencies. House lawmakers voted to cut about $53 million from the bureau's request in order to give more money to Justice Department law enforcement programs. The Senate may be willing to restore about half of the House's proposed reductions, but that still wouldn't be enough to save the technology upgrades. Exactly how tight the 2007 Census budget will be probably won't be known until Congress wraps up appropriations work early next year.

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fff

Well-known member
I would say don't give them another dime to "upgrade" the new gadget. We've been taking a census since 1790. It happens every ten years. But these bozos have absolutely no backup plan in case their digital toy didn't work. And it didn't. Read my post above. The Census Bureau has been fiddling with the specs required on the thing until two months ago! Now it's going to cost $2 billion instead of the projected $600 million. Not another cent until someone competent is in charge of this department and has a chance to straighten things out. :mad:
 

Steve

Well-known member
Technology upgrades will be scrapped unless Congress comes through, which isn't likely. The bureau says it will have to give up plans to use Global Positioning System technology to pinpoint addresses and to give census takers handheld electronic equipment for collecting household data.

place the blame at the problem... to darn many stupid rules and to much un-needed data that amount into an intrusion into the privacy of our lives..

The Constitution includes the phrase "[An] Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." Congress first met in 1789, and the first national census was held in 1790...

Today, the controlling law for the U.S. Census is Title 13 of the U.S. Code. There is a lot of census data collected in the United States today, such as economic figures, sales and production figures, and agricultural statistics. Still, the head count is the only part of the census that is called for by the Constitution.
 
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