To: All Census Information Centers
As you know, the Census Information Centers (CIC) Program is holding a CIC Training Conference in Chicago on October 21-23, 2009 for all of the CICs in the program.
To help with the planning for this conference and the overall improvement of the CIC Program, the CIC Steering Committee has developed a CIC Member Survey to get your views on a variety of issues. We would appreciate it if you could fill out this survey no later than Monday, August 31, 2009, or even sooner if you can!
You can access this survey at the following link:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229HW8U7P8T
Thanks in advance for your cooperation. Remember, the final results of this survey are IN YOUR HANDS!
The CIC Steering Committee
Saigiridhar Mullapudi (Chair)
Rudolph Wilson (Vice Chair)
Ying Li (Secretary)
Trib Choudhary
Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca
Angelo Falcón
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Obama eyes new immigration plan
Officials: Illegal immigrants working in U.S. could face penalties but stay
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30125477
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30125477
Friday, March 20, 2009
Various sources for DATA and REPORTS
If you think some of the links are irrelevant or you know of an updated link feel free to edit them.
Fellow CIC members feel free to add if you know any source or utilities you use for reports or obtaining census or any kind of data you feel might be of use to fellow CIC organizations please post them here.
http://bao.esri.com/
( This link has census, business data based on site, geography, at usa, state, county and city level data is available and also it has projected values)
http://implan.com/
(Software for Economic impact study of an area or region at levels all the way from nation to zip code level)
http://jointcenter.org/publications_recent_publications/health/trends_in_child_health_1997_2006_assessing_black_white_disparities
(Trends in Child Health 1997-2006: Assessing Black-White Disparities )
http://www.claritas.com/default.jsp
(site location and demographic reports of target markets)
Fellow CIC members feel free to add if you know any source or utilities you use for reports or obtaining census or any kind of data you feel might be of use to fellow CIC organizations please post them here.
http://bao.esri.com/
( This link has census, business data based on site, geography, at usa, state, county and city level data is available and also it has projected values)
http://implan.com/
(Software for Economic impact study of an area or region at levels all the way from nation to zip code level)
http://jointcenter.org/publications_recent_publications/health/trends_in_child_health_1997_2006_assessing_black_white_disparities
(Trends in Child Health 1997-2006: Assessing Black-White Disparities )
http://www.claritas.com/default.jsp
(site location and demographic reports of target markets)
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
For 2010 Census, counting gets tougher
By Haya El Nasser
USA TODAY (October 7, 2008)
WILMINGTON, Del. — The pungent aroma of spices, beans and rice fills the matchbox-size Dominican Cafe on West Fourth Street. The lunch counter is packed when community activist Carlos Dipres enters and chats with diners about el censo. He's met by blank stares.
A block away at Juan's Auto Repair, owner Juan Vargas says he doesn't know much about the U.S. Census but is pretty sure he'll respond to the government survey when it's sent out in 2010. "As long as it's in Spanish," he says through a translator.
Meanwhile, a couple of African-American men hanging out in front of an old row house in this inner-city neighborhood refuse to talk about the Census. Period.
Language barriers. Cultural diversity. Suspicion about the government. They're all part of the daunting challenge the Census Bureau faces in just 18 months to accurately tally the number of Americans.
Counting each person in the USA every 10 years hasn't been easy since the first Census in 1790, when counters went door to door on horseback. But 220 years later, the hurdles could be unprecedented. The nation now has more than 300 million people. It's more diverse than ever. Natural disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Ike have displaced tens of thousands. Home foreclosures have put countless families into temporary living arrangements.
To count them, the Census Bureau first has to find them. Complicating the task is a widespread climate of suspicion about personal data landing in the wrong hands and government's increased surveillance power. Much of the unease is engendered by the growing problem of identity theft and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
New anti-terrorism measures such as the Patriot Act expanded the authority of law enforcement agencies here and abroad. The Census vows confidentiality, but new state and local laws that aim to crack down on undocumented immigrants are making even some legal immigrants nervous.
"It's the first post-9/11 Census," says Terri Ann Lowenthal, a legislative consultant for The Census Project, a coalition of groups eager for an accurate Census. "There's a double issue: concern about immigrants and concern about privacy of data."
The Census Bureau has to get past the distrust and break through a vast number of languages and cultures. At the same time, the agency is scrambling to satisfy congressional overseers upset over mounting costs of the 2010 Census — now estimated at $14 billion — and its failure to use more technology such as online filing and handheld computers to help gather data.
There also is turmoil within: Preston Jay Waite, the official in charge of the 2010 Census, retired in May, and six other longtime employees, including the director, left in the past couple of years. There could be another new director next year, after the next president is sworn in.
Waite engineered a plan to use wireless handheld computers to collect information door to door from people who don't return Census forms. The plan was scrapped because of mounting costs and other problems. Reverting to a pen-and-paper Census is one reason total costs could climb another $3 billion.
"The incompetence and lack of frugality is astounding to me," says Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, the ranking Republican member of the committee that oversees the Census.
Much riding on the Census
Why bother with a Census anyway?
The Constitution requires it, for one. It mandates a count every 10 years of every person living in the USA. The numbers are used to allocate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives — a process based on the population of every state — and to draw boundaries for congressional and state and local legislative districts. The distribution of $300 billion in federal funds to communities also is based on the numbers.
Because power is money and money is power, populations that can quantify their presence — from racial and ethnic groups to school-age kids and inner-city neighborhoods — stand to gain from the Census, so they want to be counted. The problem is persuading their constituencies to cooperate with a government they don't always trust.
Many fear the information they give to the Census Bureau will be made public and used against them, some advocates say.
"In regard to persons of Arab-American ancestry, the suspicions will go even deeper because of the climate created after 9/11," says Helen Samhan, executive director of the Arab American Institute Foundation, a group that promotes Arab-American heritage and demographic research.
"It's had a chilling effect."
The 19 terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks were Arabs.
"It's a challenge to get Americans to complete the forms … particularly for immigrants because we've had raids in work sites and people's homes," says Karen Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center.
The Census Bureau does not ask anyone's citizenship or immigration status, but immigrants here illegally fear they could be arrested and deported, advocates say. "People are afraid," says Blanca Thames, with the Coalition for the American Dream in Tulsa. Oklahoma denies public benefits and driver's licenses to those here illegally.
"The Census is so critical to the Latinos," says Angelo Falcón, president and founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy in New York. "But punitive raids that, besides deporting people go out of their way to put them in jail, are creating a tremendous amount of fear. …Within this environment, we know people in the Latino community will not participate in something like the Census. It's an atmosphere really toxic to the Census."
The obstacles are many, but the 2010 Census has one thing working in its favor: Every household will get a short form with only seven questions about each person who lives there (name, sex, age and date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship to the head of household and whether the home is owned or rented). It takes about 10 minutes to fill out, says Arnold Jackson, associate director of the decennial Census.
For the first time since 1930, there will be no "long form" that previously was sent to one of every six households. It asked about everything from property taxes and indoor plumbing to education, ancestry and commuting patterns. The lengthy and probing questionnaire raised protests in 2000 by some in Congress, including then-Senate majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., although questions had been approved by Congress.
Instead of using the long form, the Census Bureau is asking the same detailed questions through a separate survey that goes to about 3 million households a year. Other changes for 2010:
n Bilingual questionnaires. The agency for the first time will send forms in English and Spanish to about 13 million households in areas that have a high concentration of Hispanics.
n Second-chance cards. The forms will be mailed in February and March. If they're not returned, a follow-up reminder and another Census form will be sent before someone comes knocking.
Mobilization begins
The U.S. population now tops 305 million, an increase of more than 20 million since the 2000 Census. The agency has to locate where those heads are — block by block.
Hundreds of Census offices are opening nationwide, and recruitment of workers has begun. Scrapping the electronic devices the Census had planned to use means printing more paper forms and hiring more people to handle door-to-door canvassing. At its peak, the Census will need 1.3 million temporary employees. It will need to recruit 3.8 million to fill the slots. Every applicant has to be fingerprinted and pass an FBI background check.
Thomas Bush, an FBI assistant director, says law enforcement and Census officials have been preparing to deal with the deluge. Fingerprinting is expected to begin in March and will take months to complete, he says.
Organizations that represent difficult-to-count populations — immigrants and the poor — are pushing for the Census to lift the requirement that all its workers be U.S. citizens. "It works more effectively when they're able to get people from the local areas," Narasaki says.
In 2000, the government suspended immigration raids as the Census was taken to ease suspicions. It's not clear whether that will happen in 2010; the political climate has changed on immigration issues, in part because of security concerns since 9/11.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., introduced a joint resolution that would amend the Constitution to require that only citizens be counted for purposes of congressional apportionment. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., proposed excluding illegal immigrants from being counted by the Census.
Online or not?
The 2000 Census had the highest participation rate, yet only 67% of households responded, even after door-to-door canvassing. About 6.4 million people were missed and 3.1 million were counted twice, the bureau says.
"The undercount would be less problematic if it were evenly distributed among all Americans," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Census committee, at a hearing last month.
Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected: Hispanics were missed four times as often as whites; African-Americans three times as often; Asians twice as often.
Some members of Congress have been pushing the Census to allow people to fill out their forms online. "We had hoped to use the Internet," Carper says. "I want us to get as much help on the technology side as possible."
The Census Bureau says there are too many security concerns about putting Census-taking online and that the hardest-to-count populations are less likely to have Internet access.
Handheld devices were dropped for one task but will still be used to verify every residential address next year.
"Over half of the errors in 2000 were due to bad geography — put your house in my block or my house in your block," Jackson says. "This is our new weapon."
Roderick Harrison, former head of the Census' Racial Statistics Branch, hopes it works. During test runs, "field workers were having difficulty transmitting information," says Harrison, a demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Those types of problems at this point are scary."
The biggest focus should be to reach people who are traditionally missed in the head count, says A. Mark Neuman, chairman of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, a group that promotes cooperation between the Census Bureau and various stakeholders such as racial and ethnic groups.
Many advocates believe the way to do that is through people such as Carlos Dipres in Delaware. A member of the Delaware Governor's Committee on Hispanic Affairs, Dipres is an immigrant. He knows many in the community and can allay their fears about cooperating with the government. "We need this Census," he says. "We don't have the services, but if we show up in the Census, we will."
That may not be enough to convince Arismandy Crime, 58, a Dominican immigrant and single father of three who has been in this country 40 years. He says he's never gotten much help from government, so what difference would a Census make? He says he may or may not respond.
"If people don't want to answer questions, they're not going to answer questions — period," Falcón says.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson in Washington
By Haya El Nasser
USA TODAY (October 7, 2008)
WILMINGTON, Del. — The pungent aroma of spices, beans and rice fills the matchbox-size Dominican Cafe on West Fourth Street. The lunch counter is packed when community activist Carlos Dipres enters and chats with diners about el censo. He's met by blank stares.
A block away at Juan's Auto Repair, owner Juan Vargas says he doesn't know much about the U.S. Census but is pretty sure he'll respond to the government survey when it's sent out in 2010. "As long as it's in Spanish," he says through a translator.
Meanwhile, a couple of African-American men hanging out in front of an old row house in this inner-city neighborhood refuse to talk about the Census. Period.
Language barriers. Cultural diversity. Suspicion about the government. They're all part of the daunting challenge the Census Bureau faces in just 18 months to accurately tally the number of Americans.
Counting each person in the USA every 10 years hasn't been easy since the first Census in 1790, when counters went door to door on horseback. But 220 years later, the hurdles could be unprecedented. The nation now has more than 300 million people. It's more diverse than ever. Natural disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Ike have displaced tens of thousands. Home foreclosures have put countless families into temporary living arrangements.
To count them, the Census Bureau first has to find them. Complicating the task is a widespread climate of suspicion about personal data landing in the wrong hands and government's increased surveillance power. Much of the unease is engendered by the growing problem of identity theft and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
New anti-terrorism measures such as the Patriot Act expanded the authority of law enforcement agencies here and abroad. The Census vows confidentiality, but new state and local laws that aim to crack down on undocumented immigrants are making even some legal immigrants nervous.
"It's the first post-9/11 Census," says Terri Ann Lowenthal, a legislative consultant for The Census Project, a coalition of groups eager for an accurate Census. "There's a double issue: concern about immigrants and concern about privacy of data."
The Census Bureau has to get past the distrust and break through a vast number of languages and cultures. At the same time, the agency is scrambling to satisfy congressional overseers upset over mounting costs of the 2010 Census — now estimated at $14 billion — and its failure to use more technology such as online filing and handheld computers to help gather data.
There also is turmoil within: Preston Jay Waite, the official in charge of the 2010 Census, retired in May, and six other longtime employees, including the director, left in the past couple of years. There could be another new director next year, after the next president is sworn in.
Waite engineered a plan to use wireless handheld computers to collect information door to door from people who don't return Census forms. The plan was scrapped because of mounting costs and other problems. Reverting to a pen-and-paper Census is one reason total costs could climb another $3 billion.
"The incompetence and lack of frugality is astounding to me," says Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, the ranking Republican member of the committee that oversees the Census.
Much riding on the Census
Why bother with a Census anyway?
The Constitution requires it, for one. It mandates a count every 10 years of every person living in the USA. The numbers are used to allocate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives — a process based on the population of every state — and to draw boundaries for congressional and state and local legislative districts. The distribution of $300 billion in federal funds to communities also is based on the numbers.
Because power is money and money is power, populations that can quantify their presence — from racial and ethnic groups to school-age kids and inner-city neighborhoods — stand to gain from the Census, so they want to be counted. The problem is persuading their constituencies to cooperate with a government they don't always trust.
Many fear the information they give to the Census Bureau will be made public and used against them, some advocates say.
"In regard to persons of Arab-American ancestry, the suspicions will go even deeper because of the climate created after 9/11," says Helen Samhan, executive director of the Arab American Institute Foundation, a group that promotes Arab-American heritage and demographic research.
"It's had a chilling effect."
The 19 terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks were Arabs.
"It's a challenge to get Americans to complete the forms … particularly for immigrants because we've had raids in work sites and people's homes," says Karen Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center.
The Census Bureau does not ask anyone's citizenship or immigration status, but immigrants here illegally fear they could be arrested and deported, advocates say. "People are afraid," says Blanca Thames, with the Coalition for the American Dream in Tulsa. Oklahoma denies public benefits and driver's licenses to those here illegally.
"The Census is so critical to the Latinos," says Angelo Falcón, president and founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy in New York. "But punitive raids that, besides deporting people go out of their way to put them in jail, are creating a tremendous amount of fear. …Within this environment, we know people in the Latino community will not participate in something like the Census. It's an atmosphere really toxic to the Census."
The obstacles are many, but the 2010 Census has one thing working in its favor: Every household will get a short form with only seven questions about each person who lives there (name, sex, age and date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship to the head of household and whether the home is owned or rented). It takes about 10 minutes to fill out, says Arnold Jackson, associate director of the decennial Census.
For the first time since 1930, there will be no "long form" that previously was sent to one of every six households. It asked about everything from property taxes and indoor plumbing to education, ancestry and commuting patterns. The lengthy and probing questionnaire raised protests in 2000 by some in Congress, including then-Senate majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., although questions had been approved by Congress.
Instead of using the long form, the Census Bureau is asking the same detailed questions through a separate survey that goes to about 3 million households a year. Other changes for 2010:
n Bilingual questionnaires. The agency for the first time will send forms in English and Spanish to about 13 million households in areas that have a high concentration of Hispanics.
n Second-chance cards. The forms will be mailed in February and March. If they're not returned, a follow-up reminder and another Census form will be sent before someone comes knocking.
Mobilization begins
The U.S. population now tops 305 million, an increase of more than 20 million since the 2000 Census. The agency has to locate where those heads are — block by block.
Hundreds of Census offices are opening nationwide, and recruitment of workers has begun. Scrapping the electronic devices the Census had planned to use means printing more paper forms and hiring more people to handle door-to-door canvassing. At its peak, the Census will need 1.3 million temporary employees. It will need to recruit 3.8 million to fill the slots. Every applicant has to be fingerprinted and pass an FBI background check.
Thomas Bush, an FBI assistant director, says law enforcement and Census officials have been preparing to deal with the deluge. Fingerprinting is expected to begin in March and will take months to complete, he says.
Organizations that represent difficult-to-count populations — immigrants and the poor — are pushing for the Census to lift the requirement that all its workers be U.S. citizens. "It works more effectively when they're able to get people from the local areas," Narasaki says.
In 2000, the government suspended immigration raids as the Census was taken to ease suspicions. It's not clear whether that will happen in 2010; the political climate has changed on immigration issues, in part because of security concerns since 9/11.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., introduced a joint resolution that would amend the Constitution to require that only citizens be counted for purposes of congressional apportionment. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., proposed excluding illegal immigrants from being counted by the Census.
Online or not?
The 2000 Census had the highest participation rate, yet only 67% of households responded, even after door-to-door canvassing. About 6.4 million people were missed and 3.1 million were counted twice, the bureau says.
"The undercount would be less problematic if it were evenly distributed among all Americans," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Census committee, at a hearing last month.
Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected: Hispanics were missed four times as often as whites; African-Americans three times as often; Asians twice as often.
Some members of Congress have been pushing the Census to allow people to fill out their forms online. "We had hoped to use the Internet," Carper says. "I want us to get as much help on the technology side as possible."
The Census Bureau says there are too many security concerns about putting Census-taking online and that the hardest-to-count populations are less likely to have Internet access.
Handheld devices were dropped for one task but will still be used to verify every residential address next year.
"Over half of the errors in 2000 were due to bad geography — put your house in my block or my house in your block," Jackson says. "This is our new weapon."
Roderick Harrison, former head of the Census' Racial Statistics Branch, hopes it works. During test runs, "field workers were having difficulty transmitting information," says Harrison, a demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Those types of problems at this point are scary."
The biggest focus should be to reach people who are traditionally missed in the head count, says A. Mark Neuman, chairman of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, a group that promotes cooperation between the Census Bureau and various stakeholders such as racial and ethnic groups.
Many advocates believe the way to do that is through people such as Carlos Dipres in Delaware. A member of the Delaware Governor's Committee on Hispanic Affairs, Dipres is an immigrant. He knows many in the community and can allay their fears about cooperating with the government. "We need this Census," he says. "We don't have the services, but if we show up in the Census, we will."
That may not be enough to convince Arismandy Crime, 58, a Dominican immigrant and single father of three who has been in this country 40 years. He says he's never gotten much help from government, so what difference would a Census make? He says he may or may not respond.
"If people don't want to answer questions, they're not going to answer questions — period," Falcón says.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson in Washington
Monday, September 29, 2008
Bill to make Census Independent Agency
(This is from Angelo Falcons contribution to the CIC network email list.) THANKS!
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney
14th District New York Manhattan-Queens
For Immediate Release: September 29, 2008
Contact: Jon Houston, 202-225-7944
Bill to make Census Bureau
independent agency introduced
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney introduced landmark legislation to elevate the Census Bureau to the status of an Independent Agency in the federal government hierarchy, moving it outside the bowels of the massive Commerce Department. Joining Maloney as original cosponsors the “Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008”, H.R. 7069 are Charles Gonzalez (D-TX), William Clay (D-MO), Michael Honda (D-CA), and Henry Waxman (D-CA).
“After three decades of controversy surrounding the decennial census, the time has come to recognize the Census Bureau as one of our country’s premier scientific agencies and it should be accorded the status of peers such as NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation,” Maloney said. “This action will be a clear signal to Americans that the agency they depend upon for unbiased monthly economic data as well as the important decennial portrait of our nation is independent, fair, and protected from interference,” the Congresswoman added.
Maloney’s bill was endorsed in a letter signed by every living former Director of the Census who collectively served seven Presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush.
“Although appointed by different Presidents we are of one mind in our strong endorsement of the proposed legislation known as ‘Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008’ that will establish the Census Bureau as an Independent Agency. We believe that this is an Act whose time has come, and that its enactment will ensure that the Census Bureau can discharge its constitutional obligation to conduct the Decennial Census and carry out other statistical operations – such as the Economic Census and the Census of Governments – that the Congress requires,” wrote the seven former Directors.
“Nearly every economic statistic reported in the news and relied upon by Americans is derived from data collected day in and day out by career professionals at the Census Bureau. Yet, the average American would be hard pressed to find this vital agency even on the Commerce Department’s own organizational chart on the government’s website where it is buried in the basement of 32 boxes on the chart!” Maloney said.
The bill would take effect in January 2012 after completion of the 2010 Decennial Census so as not to interfere with preparations for that important event. It also calls for a five-year term for the new Director by nomination of the President and confirmation by the Senate. A new independent Census Inspector General would be created by the legislation as well.
“Our goal with this bill is to begin a serious national discussion in advance of hearings next year in the new Congress. Census stakeholders, the Congress, and America’s businesses and universities that are the biggest consumers of Census Bureau data are encouraged to offer their views on what I believe is a long overdue step to ensure the professional independence of this agency,” Rep. Maloney said.
“At the dawn of the American republic, both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison felt the Census was so vital to our democracy that they each took responsibility for our earliest censuses. It is indispensable to the basic principles of democratic representation that the decennial census itself is seen by the American public to be completely independent and nonpartisan,” she concluded.
Below: Letter from former Census Directors
Link: Commerce Dept. Organizational Chart
H.R. 7069 pdf here.
For more information on census issues, visit Rep. Maloney’s census webpage here.
September 23, 2008
To: Carolyn Maloney, Member of the House of Representatives
From:
Vincent P. Barabba (1973-76 and 1979-81)*
Bruce Chapman (1981-1983)
John G. Keane (1984 – 1987)
Barbara Everitt Bryant (1989 -1993)
Martha Farnsworth Riche (1994-1998)
Kenneth Prewitt (1998-2001)
Charles Louis Kincannon (2002 - 2008)
*Years of service as Director of the U. S. Census Bureau
The signatures to this Letter served as Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, appointed by Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, G. H. Bush, Bill Clinton, and G. W. Bush. Although appointed by different Presidents we are of one mind in our strong endorsement of the proposed legislation known as “Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008” that will establish the Census Bureau as an Independent Agency. We believe that this is an Act whose time has come, and that its enactment will ensure that the Census Bureau can discharge its constitutional obligation to conduct the Decennial Census and carry out other statistical operations – such as the Economic Census and the Census of Governments – that the Congress requires and the nation needs.
We offer three reasons for our endorsement. First, following three decades during which the press and the Congress frequently discussed the Decennial Census in explicitly partisan terms it is vitally important that the American public have confidence that the census results have been produced by an independent, non-partisan, apolitical, and scientific Census Bureau.”
Second, the Commerce Department is responsible for many activities and several very large agencies. For the Commerce Department, the importance of the Census Bureau waxes and wanes, peaking as the Decennial approaches but then drifting down the Department’s priority list. The Census Bureau, however, conducts extensive preparatory activities for the Decennial Census during the entire decade preceding it. It also has other major statistical responsibilities in the years that intervene between Decennial Censuses – including producing the nation’s ongoing economic monitoring measures. As an Independent Agency it will more efficiently focus on these continuous responsibilities.
Third, as Directors each of us experienced times when we could have made much more timely and thorough responses to Congressional requests and oversight if we had dealt directly with the Congress.
The Census Bureau is the nation’s largest, general-purpose statistical agency. Establishing it as an 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.
We congratulate you and your colleagues for initiating the Bill, and offer our services in any way that you might find useful.
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney
14th District New York Manhattan-Queens
For Immediate Release: September 29, 2008
Contact: Jon Houston, 202-225-7944
Bill to make Census Bureau
independent agency introduced
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney introduced landmark legislation to elevate the Census Bureau to the status of an Independent Agency in the federal government hierarchy, moving it outside the bowels of the massive Commerce Department. Joining Maloney as original cosponsors the “Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008”, H.R. 7069 are Charles Gonzalez (D-TX), William Clay (D-MO), Michael Honda (D-CA), and Henry Waxman (D-CA).
“After three decades of controversy surrounding the decennial census, the time has come to recognize the Census Bureau as one of our country’s premier scientific agencies and it should be accorded the status of peers such as NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation,” Maloney said. “This action will be a clear signal to Americans that the agency they depend upon for unbiased monthly economic data as well as the important decennial portrait of our nation is independent, fair, and protected from interference,” the Congresswoman added.
Maloney’s bill was endorsed in a letter signed by every living former Director of the Census who collectively served seven Presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush.
“Although appointed by different Presidents we are of one mind in our strong endorsement of the proposed legislation known as ‘Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008’ that will establish the Census Bureau as an Independent Agency. We believe that this is an Act whose time has come, and that its enactment will ensure that the Census Bureau can discharge its constitutional obligation to conduct the Decennial Census and carry out other statistical operations – such as the Economic Census and the Census of Governments – that the Congress requires,” wrote the seven former Directors.
“Nearly every economic statistic reported in the news and relied upon by Americans is derived from data collected day in and day out by career professionals at the Census Bureau. Yet, the average American would be hard pressed to find this vital agency even on the Commerce Department’s own organizational chart on the government’s website where it is buried in the basement of 32 boxes on the chart!” Maloney said.
The bill would take effect in January 2012 after completion of the 2010 Decennial Census so as not to interfere with preparations for that important event. It also calls for a five-year term for the new Director by nomination of the President and confirmation by the Senate. A new independent Census Inspector General would be created by the legislation as well.
“Our goal with this bill is to begin a serious national discussion in advance of hearings next year in the new Congress. Census stakeholders, the Congress, and America’s businesses and universities that are the biggest consumers of Census Bureau data are encouraged to offer their views on what I believe is a long overdue step to ensure the professional independence of this agency,” Rep. Maloney said.
“At the dawn of the American republic, both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison felt the Census was so vital to our democracy that they each took responsibility for our earliest censuses. It is indispensable to the basic principles of democratic representation that the decennial census itself is seen by the American public to be completely independent and nonpartisan,” she concluded.
Below: Letter from former Census Directors
Link: Commerce Dept. Organizational Chart
H.R. 7069 pdf here.
For more information on census issues, visit Rep. Maloney’s census webpage here.
September 23, 2008
To: Carolyn Maloney, Member of the House of Representatives
From:
Vincent P. Barabba (1973-76 and 1979-81)*
Bruce Chapman (1981-1983)
John G. Keane (1984 – 1987)
Barbara Everitt Bryant (1989 -1993)
Martha Farnsworth Riche (1994-1998)
Kenneth Prewitt (1998-2001)
Charles Louis Kincannon (2002 - 2008)
*Years of service as Director of the U. S. Census Bureau
The signatures to this Letter served as Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, appointed by Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, G. H. Bush, Bill Clinton, and G. W. Bush. Although appointed by different Presidents we are of one mind in our strong endorsement of the proposed legislation known as “Restoring the Integrity of American Statistics Act of 2008” that will establish the Census Bureau as an Independent Agency. We believe that this is an Act whose time has come, and that its enactment will ensure that the Census Bureau can discharge its constitutional obligation to conduct the Decennial Census and carry out other statistical operations – such as the Economic Census and the Census of Governments – that the Congress requires and the nation needs.
We offer three reasons for our endorsement. First, following three decades during which the press and the Congress frequently discussed the Decennial Census in explicitly partisan terms it is vitally important that the American public have confidence that the census results have been produced by an independent, non-partisan, apolitical, and scientific Census Bureau.”
Second, the Commerce Department is responsible for many activities and several very large agencies. For the Commerce Department, the importance of the Census Bureau waxes and wanes, peaking as the Decennial approaches but then drifting down the Department’s priority list. The Census Bureau, however, conducts extensive preparatory activities for the Decennial Census during the entire decade preceding it. It also has other major statistical responsibilities in the years that intervene between Decennial Censuses – including producing the nation’s ongoing economic monitoring measures. As an Independent Agency it will more efficiently focus on these continuous responsibilities.
Third, as Directors each of us experienced times when we could have made much more timely and thorough responses to Congressional requests and oversight if we had dealt directly with the Congress.
The Census Bureau is the nation’s largest, general-purpose statistical agency. Establishing it as an 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.
We congratulate you and your colleagues for initiating the Bill, and offer our services in any way that you might find useful.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Data on Hispanic Immigrants Presents Puzzle on Aging
heres the link to the artilce which was published in The Newyork Times last year. Its really to be noted and how the life expectancy increases they being content of what they have even though they dont have health insurance.
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