Uh oh. The Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) PDAs that are supposed to replace the traditional pen and paper method used by census-takers are not working properly. Thus, the census "dress rehearsal" this spring has been delayed by a month as the agency scurries to come up with backup plans. The FDCA program that was meant to save taxpayers $1 billion now has these delays sending the cost $600 million to as much as $2 billion.

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, testified at the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on the status of the 2010 Census.

Gutierrez stated: "We have discovered serious problems with the FDCA program and I am personally involved in bringing key issues to the surface and developing a way forward. In short, the current situation is unacceptable."

The GAO published a report on these Census problems and made an announcement designating the 2010 Census Project as "High Risk". The GAO warned the Census bureau last year about slow and inconsistent data transmission from last year's field testing. Guess they should have heeded that warning, right?

The IEEE blog made a good point on this whole mess: "Fed Ex can use handhelds to track packages, why can't we do the same for collecting Census data - should be dead easy, right? The idea in itself wasn't not outrageous, as long as the risks involved were clearly understood and managed" and obviously they were not!

From the news release:

The Census Bureau today reported that a file containing limited respondent information on 302 households, commingled with fictitious test records, was improperly posted on one of the agency’s externally accessible servers in violation of strict agency policies regarding the protection of respondent information. The file was immediately removed. No Social Security numbers were contained in the files and the Census Bureau has no evidence that any respondent data were misused.

“As soon as we learned of the improper posting, we moved quickly to fix the problem. We immediately shut down the site and began an investigation,” said Census Director Charles Louis Kincannon.

Great news! According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the nation’s only large-scale, longitudinal source of data on poverty, unemployment, and disability, has been funded for FY07!! Read the press release.

FGI has been tracking this for a while. You can see our past stories here.

While this won't be news to those who follow Census developments closely, it is a nice summary of some of the important deficiencies in the American Community Survey:

• 2005 American Community Survey by Roger Owen Green, NYS SBDC Research Network (November 21, 2006)

Writing for the New York State Small Business Development Center (NYS SBDC) Green notes that:

...because of previous cuts in the Congressional funding, the 2005 ACS does not capture data from group quarters, which include prisons, college dormitories, and nursing homes.

One thing this means is that in geographic areas where there is a large group quarters population, comparisons of figures from ACS to Census 2000 may be inaccurate or misleading. As Green says, "...politicians and the media have glommed onto these new statistics, making assertions about populations that the methodology does not support."