ICMA, along with the other national organizations representing state and local officials, has written to House and Senate Appropriation members to urge them to support robust budgets for the FY 2017 and FY 2018 planning process for the 2020 Census. So far, Congress has indicated that the cost of the 2020 census count may not exceed what was spent in 2010. Funding for the comprehensive American Community Survey (ACS) is also at risk. 

The funding issue is complicated by an effort at the Census Bureau to test a new electronic data collection system and the resignation of U.S. Census Director John H. Thompson on June 30. Ron Jarmin has been named Acting Census Director.

ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott and his colleagues wrote in their letter of support for the Census that: “State and local policymakers rely on both the Constitutionally-required decennial census and the annual ACS to provide detailed, high-quality data. Insufficient funding would degrade this irreplaceable statistical information that state and local leaders need to make informed decisions for their citizens and communities.”

Federal grants use formulas that are based on U.S. Census data to determine how grant monies are distributed to local and state governments. A new report just released in August by Andrew Reamer, professor, George Washington University, examined exactly how the allocation of money among states is linked to the Census. He looked at 16 federal programs that rely on Census data to allocate funds, including Medicaid, Food Stamps, Section 8 housing vouchers, and the national school lunch program.