Census releases "recovery plan"

Census Bureau Submits to Congress Proposed Recovery Plan to Help Create Jobs and Conduct a Successful 2010 Census


The U.S. Census Bureau today submitted to Congress its proposed recovery
plan to create jobs, strengthen the economy and conduct a successful 2010
Census. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Census Bureau
was provided $1 billion.

“The Census Bureau’s proposed investments will improve our ability to
conduct an accurate census and will create thousands of good-paying jobs,”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “A successful census is critical
for ensuring that communities have proper representation and the resources
needed for health care, law enforcement and education.”

Under the proposal, the Census Bureau will invest $250 million in
partnership and outreach efforts to minority communities and hard-to-reach
populations. This effort is intended to promote participation in the
census, which will improve accuracy and facilitate enumeration operations
in 2010.

The remaining $750 million will be committed to support early 2010
Census operations that will reduce operational and programmatic risks at a
critical stage of the census process.

More than $300 billion in federal funds are distributed every year based
on census results. This funding supports vital local services like health
care, schools, law enforcement, transportation and social services.

Some Census Recovery Plan highlights:

-- Coverage Follow-Up Enhancement ($30 million):

The Coverage Follow-Up program provides telephone interviewers to
contact households that may have erred on the census form by indicating the
wrong number of people living in their household. The recovery act
investment will allow for the hiring of additional temporary telephone
interviewers who will work from commercial call centers. The Recovery Act
funding will complement Coverage Follow-Up funding that will be included in
the President’s
2010 Budget.

-- Partnership Program Enhancement ($120 million):

Enhancing the 2010 partnership program will increase partnerships in
hard-to-count communities and expand efforts to reduce historical
undercounts of communities least likely to be counted. The partnership
program relies on trusted local voices to raise awareness of and trust in
the census process. These funds will finance the hiring of additional
partnership staff. The regional staff will be hired by July 2009 and
conclude their work during the summer of 2010.

-- Public Outreach ($100 million):

Public outreach will help to raise awareness of and educate residents
about the 2010 Census and the importance of their response. A major focus
of the increased outreach will be in areas that have historically lower
than average initial response rates. This funding will support local and
national outreach initiatives and also will support various partnerships
and the Census in Schools program.

-- Group Quarters Operations ($138 million):

The Group Quarters (GQ) operation supports efforts to access and count
residents in dormitories, prisons, nursing homes and other group living
situations. These operations include an early validation of the bureau’s
list of group quarters, an advance visit to prepare GQ facilities for
census day and finally enumeration of all group quarters.

-- Update Leave ($116 million):

The Update Leave (U/L) operation delivers census questionnaires to
addresses where the location of the housing unit or the delivery point for
receiving mail does not ensure that the mail gets to the correct unit
(e.g., mailbox banks are broken or mail is left at a central location).

During the operation, enumerators canvass the blocks in their assignment
areas, update the address list and Census maps, determine if the housing
unit is a duplicate or does not exist and needs to be deleted, and delivers
addressed census questionnaires to each unit. All housing units in U/L
areas for which census does not receive a completed questionnaire by mail
must be visited during Non-Response Follow-Up (NRFU).

-- Update/Enumerate ($108 million):

The Update/Enumerate (U/E) operation is a method of data collection
conducted in communities where many housing units may not have house number
and street name mailing addresses. This method will be used on American
Indian reservations, colonias (usually rural Spanish-speaking communities)
and resort areas with high concentrations of seasonally vacant living
quarters. The U/E enumerators canvass assignment areas to update
residential addresses, including adding living quarters that were not
included on the address listing pages, update Census Bureau maps and
complete a questionnaire for each housing unit during the same visit.

-- Local Census Office Staffing Operation ($388 million):

The Local Census Office (LCO) Staffing Operation supports the major 2010
Census field operations. The LCO Staffing Operation recruits, hires and
releases office and field staff; performs supervisory and non-supervisory
functions for office activities and field operations; distributes training
and procedural manuals for office staff; and trains employees and office
staff for the field operations performed at the LCO. The LCO also manages
and troubleshoots field and office automation systems and problems and
incorporates Quality Assurance into all its activities.

For more information about the Census Bureau ARRA Proposed Recovery
Plan, visit: .