With Congressional attention squarely focused on the Wall Street financial crisis, it would be easy for Congress to overlook the funding needs of the 2010 Census, but that would be a serious oversight.  Unless Congress acts promptly to provide the necessary funding, the 2010 Census could be in jeopardy.

In less than a week, the current fiscal year will end. Rather than risk an election-year battle with the Administration over FY2009 appropriation bills, Congress is expected to pass a single Continuing Resolution (CR) that would continue funding federal agencies at FY2008 levels until early next year.

While a CR may not pose a significant threat to most federal agencies, it could be a major setback for efforts to gear up for the 2010 Census.  The Administration earlier this year submitted a revised budget request of $3.2 Billion for the Census Bureau to enable it to ramp up preparations for the decennial census. 

Right now, the Census Bureau is in the process of printing and addressing 130 million census forms, and opening hundreds of Local Census Offices across the country.  By next spring, it needs to canvas every block and road in the country.  If the Census Bureau is forced to operate at FY2008 levels ($1.3 billion) for several months, it won’t be able to keep the constitutionally-mandated census on track. 

In writing the upcoming CR, Congressional appropriators could insert a provision (a budget “anomaly”)that would make an exception for the Census Bureau, allowing it to operate at the proposed FY2009 level until such time as Congress approves a permanent Commerce Department appropriations bill.  But with Congress and the country gripped by a major financial crisis, it might not happen.

That would be an enormous mistake.  Researchers, corporations and governments at all levels rely heavily upon census data.  Earlier this month, a large group of stakeholders, including the National Association of Counties and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, signed a letter to Congressional appropriators to approve a funding anamoly for the 2010 Census.

Earlier this week, I picked up a wire story about a government official vowing that the government would work for the “smooth implementation” of the 2010 Census.  The official said that while a decennial census is expensive, reliable census data was essential for “informed decision-making” and “policy formulation.”

The government official was Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the Finance Minister for the government of Ghana. If a poor West African country can dedicate the resources needed to conduct a full and accurate decennial census, so can the world’s wealthiest nation.  Congress should act swiftly to provide the necessary funding.