WASHINGTON — Big worries for the nation’s first high-tech census should have been obvious when tests showed some of the door-to-door head-counters couldn’t figure out their fancy new hand-held computers.
Now, officials say, technology problems could add as much as $2 billion to the cost of the 2010 census and jeopardize the accuracy of the nation’s most important survey.
Census officials are considering a return to using paper and pencil to count every man, woman and child in the nation.
At more than $11 billion, the initial cost of the 2010 census already made it the most expensive ever. Officials now are scrambling to hold down costs while trying to ensure the count produces reliable population numbers — figures that will be used to apportion seats in Congress and divvy up more than $300 billion a year in federal and state funding.
“What we’re facing is a statistical Katrina on the part of the administration,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.
“Will they leave this mess for the next administration?” asked Maloney, a member of the House committee that oversees the census.
This was to be the first truly high-tech count in the nation’s history, with census-takers using hand-held computers to track and tally the millions of Americans who do not return the census forms mailed out by the government. The Census Bureau plans to hire and train nearly 600,000 temporary workers to help.
But interviews, congressional testimony and government reports describe an agency that was unprepared to manage a $600 million contract for the hand-held computers that will be vital. Census officials are being blamed for a poor job spelling out technical requirements to the contractor, Florida-based Harris Corp.
The computers proved too complex for some temporary workers who tried to use them in a test last year in North Carolina. Also, the computers were not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.
“This is a management problem. It’s an organizational problem,” Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in testimony this month before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
Census director Steven Murdock acknowledged Tuesday that “communication problems” between census officials and Harris Corp. have resulted in “serious issues.” But, he added, “My pledge is that we are going to have a complete and accurate census.”
Murdock, the former state demographer of Texas, was just confirmed as census director in December. Harris Corp. was awarded a $596 million contract in March 2006 to supply the hand-held computers and the operating system that supports them. The contract has since grown to $647 million and could balloon by as much as $2 billion, according to a report this month by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
Gutierrez and Murdock are considering several plans to scale back the use of the computers. All but one option calls for door-to-door head -count ers to return to paper and pencil.
Data help plot the future
• The Constitution requires a census every 10 years to apportion seats in the House of Representatives. There are 435 members of the House, and the seats are divided among the states according to population.
• States use census data to draw the boundaries of congressional districts. The data also are used to determine whether those boundaries protect the voting rights of minorities.
• States and many cities use census data to draw boundaries for legislative districts.
• Census data directly affect how more than $300 billion a year in federal and state money is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education and transportation. Much of that money is awarded based on population, or on trends that show future needs.
• Local governments use census data for planning decisions, such as where to build schools or provide services for the elderly, where to build new roads or locate job-training centers.
• Private businesses use census data to identify consumer and labor markets. Businesses rely on the data to help decide where to locate their companies and where to target advertising.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
