President Trump’s 2018 “Skinny Budget” is No Friend to the Census
Despite language in the budget purporting an increase and proclamations of the Census Bureau being “winners” in this budget, the reality is the amount requested for the Census Bureau is woefully inadequate to allow them to conduct a fair and accurate census. If this budget request stands, the Census Bureau will be on a rocky road to 2020, with components of the census plan aimed at improving the accuracy of historically harder-to-count groups, including AAPIs, most likely to suffer from inadequate development and preparations.
In the budget released on March 16, 2017, the Administration requested $1.5 billion for the Census Bureau. While the budget summary notes the request is an “increase of $100 million,” it fails to note that this “increase” is lower than the $1.634 billion Fiscal Year 2017 budget request by the Bureau. This new FY2018 budget request, while faring better than some of the other important programs to our communities, falls far short of what the Census Bureau needs to do its job properly.
The reality is that the Census Bureau needs a significant, continued funding ramp-up in 2018, a full two years before the actual census is taken. Key activities in 2018 include the dress rehearsal (2018 End-to-End Census Test), developing a comprehensive advertising and outreach program (halted because of funding uncertainties), and opening all Regional Census Centers — these are temporary offices to help with the logistics of running the census. Three of the Regional Census Centers have been delayed this year due to funding uncertainties.
Other areas impacted by the same funding uncertainties mentioned above include finishing In-Office and In-Field Address Canvassing that help the Bureau gather addresses for a master Census list, finalizing the specific wording of the 2020 Census and American Community Survey content (submission required by Congress on April 1, 2018), and building out the full IT infrastructure and operational plans.
“This budget request for the Census Bureau is troubling, unrealistic, and irresponsible, absent any additional information to explain how the bureau can prepare for the 2020 Census thoroughly and on time without a significant and traditional ramp-up in funding,” said Terri Ann Lowenthal, former staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee (later renamed the Subcommittee on Census, Statistics, and Postal Personnel) and census consultant to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Also at risk with such a barebones budget are a comprehensive American Community Survey and 2017 Economic Census, which is the foundation for all key national economic indicators.”
FY2018 is the peak funding year in the five-year 2017 Economic Census cycle — a program that will need a reasonable increase as well. Not having the necessary funding at the appropriate time to conduct these activities in a thorough and thoughtful manner would devastate the quality of the data we currently get from the Census Bureau. Such a result would harm our ability to ensure appropriate funding reaches the communities that need it; constrict proper planning for our communities (e.g. where schools and hospitals get built or where stop signs and lights get placed); and reduce the support for services that must be provided by the local government. It will also have a devastating effect on the ability to have an accurate reapportionment and redistricting cycle following the census.
We are urging Congress to exert its leadership and increase the amount appropriated to the Census Bureau as it takes up the appropriation process. An accurate accounting of our country is at stake. Timely and adequate funding is critical.
