It is not even close to conducting its multi-billion-dollar, every-10-years, constitutionally mandated survey of all Americans, but the Census Bureau is already having money troubles.
The bureau’s Philadelphia regional office recently told its workers that it was cutting short its monthly American Community Survey (ACS) to save money.
And while I’m all in favor of pinching pennies, the Philadelphia folks are known for cutting corners when it comes to producing reliable data. I investigated this particular region — the worst Census Bureau office in the country — a few years ago, and it led to the uncovering of abuses there and elsewhere in the agency.
“The ACS-Housing Unit currently has a financial deficit,” Fernando Armstrong, the head of the Philadelphia region, wrote to his workers in an internal email. “In an attempt to save funds, we will be changing the final ACS-HU data collection dates for the remainder of FY 18.”
Each of the surveys for the months up to September will now end several days earlier than normal. “At the end of the last data collection day, the entire field staff should send in all of their cases and no additional expenditures should be charged to the survey,” Armstrong wrote.
The ACS is used to determine how much federal money is doled out to each region for public services, schools and the like. In addition, this survey — the largest that Census conducts on a regular basis — is used to track shifting demographics.
That means Philadelphia will have to rely on a lot of guesswork when it comes to these things.
It also means that the Census Bureau may be unprepared for its really big decennial survey, which politicians like to fight over. That 2020 survey is already running into controversy as the Trump administration wants to include questions concerning whether or not respondents are citizens.
The decennial census is also used to determine representation in the House of Representatives.
A Census Bureau spokesman didn’t respond to my inquiry about whether the other six regional offices are having similar funding problems and how Philadelphia was going to solve its dilemma.
Considering the fact that I think the bureau is the worst-run part of the US government and the people there probably think I’m a pain, I don’t expect a call back.
