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Census Stumbles Over High-Tech Counters



 
 
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Old April 4th 08, 01:03 PM posted to rec.bicycles.soc,alt.planning.urban,misc.transport.urban-transit
Eric Vey
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Default Census Stumbles Over High-Tech Counters

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...q36GAD8VQP84G1

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stumbling over its multibillion-dollar plans for a
high-tech census, the government says it will go back to counting the
nation's 300 million people the old-fashioned way — with paper and
pencil. Help wanted: 600,000 temporary workers to do the job.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told Congress Thursday his
department will scrap plans to use handheld computers to collect
information from the millions of Americans who don't return the census
forms that come in the mail.

That's one of a number of changes that will add as much as $3 billion to
the constitutionally mandated 2010 count, pushing the overall cost to
more than $14 billion.

This was to be the first truly high-tech count in the nation's history.
The Census Bureau had awarded a contract to purchase 500,000 of the
computers, plus the computer operating system, at a cost of more than
$600 million. The contract is now projected to balloon to $1.3 billion,
even though the bureau will scale back its purchase to only 151,000
computers. The higher expenditure is because of cost overruns and new
features ordered by the Census Bureau on the computers and the operating
system.

The devices, which look like fancy cell phones, will still be used to
verify every residential street address in the country, using global
positioning system software.

But workers going door-to-door will not be able to use them to collect
information from the residents who didn't return their census forms.
About a third of U.S. residents are expected not to return the forms.
The Census Bureau plans to hire and train nearly 600,000 temporary
workers to do the canvassing.

Gutierrez blamed many of the problems on "a lack of effective
communication with one of our key contractors."

"As I have said before, the situation today is unacceptable, and we have
been taking steps to address the issues," Gutierrez, who oversees the
Census Bureau, told a House Appropriations subcommittee.

In fact, interviews, congressional testimony and government reports
describe an agency that was unprepared to manage the contract for the
handheld computers. Census officials are being blamed for doing a poor
job of spelling out technical requirements to the contractor,
Florida-based Harris Corp.

At one point, the Census Bureau identified more than 400 new or
clarified technical requirements for the computer system, Gutierrez said.

The computers proved too complex for some temporary workers who tried to
use them in a test last year in North Carolina. Also, the computers were
not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.

Gutierrez said the Census Bureau was unaccustomed to working with an
outside vendor on such a large contract. For example, he said, the
original contract called for paying Harris $36 million to include in the
computer operating system a help desk to assist census-takers who have
computer problems. That figure has since jumped to $217 million.

"It was a bad estimate. I can't think of a better way to say it,"
Gutierrez said. "Harris gave us the number. We accepted it. It was
totally underestimated."

The Harris Corp. issued a statement saying it still looks forward to
playing a large role in the 2010 count.

"The wireless handheld devices are part of a larger, multifaceted
process to move from a 'paper culture' to a more 'automated' culture
appropriate for the 21st century," the company said. Despite the
problems, company officials said they were "encouraged that automation
and the adoption of new technology is moving forward, even if in a more
narrowly focused fashion."

Harris spokesman Marc Raimondi said the cost of the contract increased
as the requirements increased.

"The increased funding is required to cover additional sites, equipment,
software and functions added by the bureau to the program in January of
this year," Raimondi said in an e-mail. "The handheld devices make up
only a portion of the overall automation program."

Rep. Alan Mollohan, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee, said
both the Census Bureau and Harris Corp. "contributed to today's crisis."
However, the Census Bureau's failure to address problems with the
computers early on has "turned the crisis into the emergency that we now
face," the West Virginia Democrat said.

Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, the ranking Republican on the
subcommittee, noted that Census Director Steven Murdock was just
confirmed by the Senate in December.

"You've inherited one hell of a mess," Frelinghuysen said to Murdock as
Thursday's hearing began. "Good luck to you."

The 2010 census was already on pace to be the most expensive ever.
Officials now are scrambling add money while trying to ensure the count
produces reliable population numbers — figures that will be used to
apportion seats in Congress and divvy up more than $300 billion a year
in federal and state funding.

The success or failure of the census could have widespread
repercussions. The Constitution has required a census every 10 years
since the first one in 1790. It is used to apportion the 435 seats in
the House of Representatives among the states. And states and many
cities use census data to draw legislative districts.

Population numbers are used to calculate billions in state and federal
grants for transportation, education and other programs. Private
businesses use census data to identify labor and consumer markets.
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