Congress Checks in on Census Bureau Readiness

In a Feb. 12 Capitol Hill hearing that stretched more than three hours, Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham updated the 2020 effort and fielded questions from the House of Representatives’ Oversight and Reform Committee. His long-scheduled appearance coincided with the nonpartisan Government Accounting Office releasing its latest report on census preparations and what needed action according to its recommendations previously agreed upon by the Census Bureau. Overall, it said, deemed Census Bureau readiness for 2020 operations is “mixed.” Since 2017, the GAO has deemed the census a “high-risk” operation. Although the Census Bureau decided on Feb. 7 to change the computer system it will use for online responses, Dillingham said it’s being set up to accommodate up to 600,000 users at once. But realistically, said his deputy, Al Fontenot, traffic at any one time is likely to be perhaps only a third of that. Many committee members worried that their constituents lack adequate access to computers to ensure they’ll be counted. Dillingham and Fontenot described various plans, such as working with community libraries, but Michigan Rep. Brenda Lawrence pointed out that some libraries in her district have limited hours.