The 2020 Census is expected to cost $15.6 billion, more than three times the 2000 survey and about $107 per household, according to the Senate committee overseeing the effort.
“Although the Census is constitutionally mandated, the cost to count our population is increasing faster than the population itself,” according to Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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In the opening statement he plans to give at Tuesday’s hearing on the Census, Johnson added, “The 1970 Census cost $17 per household in inflation adjusted dollars. The Department of Commerce estimates that the 2020 Census will cost $107 per household. At the direction of Congress, the Bureau created a plan to modernize the Census to avoid the costly mistakes of 2010. However, the ambitious plans – which include multiple self-response methods and new systems to store census data – bring additional risks that upgrades will not be delivered on time, or systems that are not fully secure could be manipulated or hacked.”
Johnson has raised concerns about the Census, especially its plans to used flawed data like a much criticized Social Security list that has counted the living as dead and dead as living.
The hearing is titled “2020 Census: Examining Cost Overruns, Information Security, and Accuracy.” It is to hear from the comptroller of the Treasury, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and the acting Census director.
Johnson revealed in his opening statement that costs are soaring and are $3 billion over past estimates.
The hearing, he said, “will examine the serious challenges facing the 2020 Decennial Census. We will examine increasing costs, information technology (IT) security, and high-risk operations that could lead to an inaccurate Census count. In particular, I will be asking how and why did the Census morph into such a massive and seemingly out of control undertaking.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
