United States Government Accountability Office

GAO Testimony 

Before the Subcommittee on Information 

Policy, Census, and National Archives, 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

2010 CENSUS

Design Shows Progress, but 

Managing Technology 

Acquisitions, Temporary 

Field Staff, and Gulf Region 

Enumeration Require 

Attention 

Statement of Mathew J. Scirè 

Director, Strategic Issues 

For Release on Delivery

Expected at 2:00 p.m. EDT

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

 

GAO-07-779T 
What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

Highlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

April 24, 2007

2010 CENSUS

Design Shows Progress, but Managing 

Technology Acquisitions, Temporary 

Field Staff, and Gulf Region Enumeration 

Require Attention 

Highlights of GAO-07-779T, testimony 

before the Subcommittee on Information 

Policy, Census, and National Archives, 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives 

The decennial census is a 

Constitutionally-mandated activity

that produces data used to

apportion congressional seats,

redraw congressional districts, and

allocate billions of dollars in

federal assistance. The Census 

Bureau (Bureau) estimates the 

2010 Census will cost $11.3 billion, 

making it the most expensive in the 

nation’s history. This testimony 

discusses the Bureau's progress in 

preparing for the 2010 Census to 

(1) implement operations to

increase the response rate and

control costs; (2) use technology to 

increase productivity; (3) hire and 

train temporary staff; and (4) plan

an accurate census in areas 

affected by hurricanes Katrina and 

Rita. 

The testimony is based on

previously issued GAO reports and 

work nearing completion in which

GAO observed recruiting, hiring, 

and training practices in the 2006

test, and visited localities that 

participated in the Local Update of 

Addresses Dress Rehearsal as well

in the Gulf Coast region. 

What GAO Recommends

At this time, GAO is not making

new recommendations, but past 

reports recommended steps for the 

Bureau to enhance the mobile 

computing devices and promote an 

accurate census in areas impacted

by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 

The Bureau generally agreed with 

these recommendations and has 

acted to implement some of them. 

The Bureau has made progress towards implementing a re-engineered 

census design that holds promise for increasing the response rate, thereby 

controlling the cost of the census while promoting accurate results. The reengineered design includes a short form only census designed to increase

the response rate by about 1 percent and a targeted second mailing, which is 

expected to increase response by between 7 to 10 percent. Both of these 

initiatives are new, have been tested, and will be a part of the 2010 Census 

design. According to Bureau officials, a 1 percent increase in the response 

rate can save $75 million, making these initiatives critical to the new design. 

Uncertainty surrounds a keystone to the reengineered census, the mobile 

computing device (MCD). The MCD allows the Bureau to automate 

operations and eliminate the need to print millions of paper questionnaires 

and maps used by census workers to conduct census operations and to 

assist in managing payroll. The MCD, tested in the 2004 and 2006 census 

tests, was found to be unreliable. While a contractor has developed a new 

version of the MCD, the device will not be field tested until next month, 

leaving little time to correct problems that might emerge during the 2008

Dress Rehearsal. 

Timeline of Selected Key Decennial Events 

Dates Decennial activity

Jan. 2007–Jan. 2010 Local Update of Census Addresses (localities assist in updating 

address lists and maps) 

Feb. 2006–Jan. 2009 2008 Dress Rehearsal (Bureau's rehearsal of all planned decennial 

operations) 

Jan. 2008 Opening of 12 Regional Census Centers 

Oct. 2008 Opening of about 455 Local Census Offices 

Apr.–Sept. 2009 Address Listing Activities (staff validate address lists and maps) 

Apr. 1, 2010 Census Day 

Apr.–July 2010 Nonresponse Follow-up (field staff follow-up in person at housing 

units of nonresponding persons) 

Dec. 31, 2010 Delivery of apportionment counts to the President 

Mar. 31, 2011 Complete delivery of redistricting data to the states

Source: GAO summary of Census Bureau data. 

The Bureau faces challenges in recruiting, hiring, and training an estimated 

600,000 temporary employees. For example, opportunities exist for the 

Bureau to hone its recruiting efforts to identify individuals who would be 

more likely to be effective at census work and willing to work throughout an 

operation. Also, census workers indicated a need for additional training on 

reluctant respondents as well as location-specific challenges they encounter. 

The Bureau must also be prepared to accurately count the population 

affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Bureau has contacted local 

officials in the Gulf Area and is developing a plan that includes workshops 

and special staffing considerations. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-779T.

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Mathew J. 

Scire at (202) 512-6806 or sciremj@gao.gov. 
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Turner, Members of the Subcommittee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss the status of the 

Census Bureau’s (Bureau) progress in preparing for the 2010 Census. 

Based on issued and ongoing work, my testimony today addresses the 

Bureau’s efforts to prepare for the next decennial by (1) implementing 

operations designed to improve the completeness and accuracy of the 

census as well as to increase response rate and hence control costs, 

(2) using automation and technology to increase productivity, 

(3) recruiting, hiring, and training peak temporary staff of about 600,000 in

2010 in a challenging environment, and (4) planning how to ensure an 

accurate population count in areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and 

Rita. 

As you know, Mr. Chairman, the census is a critical national effort 

mandated by the Constitution. Census data are used to apportion seats in 

the Congress, redraw congressional districts, allocate billions of dollars in 

federal assistance to state and local governments, and for numerous other 

public and private sector purposes. In addition, the census is a 

complicated undertaking and substantial investment, requiring careful 

planning, risk management, and oversight to ensure its ultimate success. 

The Bureau estimates the 2010 Census will cost $11.3 billion over its lifecycle, making it the most expensive census in our country’s history, even 

after adjusting for inflation. Since the 2000 Census, we have been 

examining how the Bureau is preparing for the 2010 Census, including 

incorporating lessons learned from the 2000 Census into its planning for 

the 2010 decennial. Given the importance of a successful enumeration, for 

the last 3 decennials, we have supported an approach to oversight that is 

timely, rigorous, constructive, and holds the Bureau accountable for 

results. 

Today’s hearing is particularly timely. The Bureau is now conducting the 

2008 Dress Rehearsal’s Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) 

program, where local, state, and tribal governments are given the 

opportunity to review and suggest changes to Census Bureau address lists 

and maps. Beginning in early May 2007, the Bureau will deploy the handheld mobile computing devices (MCDs)—a keystone to the reengineered 

Census—to verify address data as part of the address canvassing portion 

of the Dress Rehearsal. We plan to be on-hand to observe the functionality 

and usability of the MCDs at the dress rehearsal sites in North Carolina 

and California where the Bureau will conduct a dry run of the full 

enumeration planned for 2010. “Census Day” for this exercise is April 1, 

2008. 

Page 1 GAO-07-779T 
As we have testified in the past, the Bureau’s ongoing reengineering of the

decennial census—including changes in the survey design and greater use 

of technology—could have important benefits in improved efficiencies and 

cost-containment as well as the accuracy, quality, and consistency of data 

collected. But these changes, as well as intervening events, raise new risks 

that bear watching. Also, given the sheer size of census operations, 

refinements to recruiting, hiring, and training can have substantial results. 

In summary, our recent work on the reengineering of and preparations for 

the 2010 decennial have yielded a number of observations about actions 

the Bureau has taken to promote an accurate and cost-effective census. 

• The Bureau has taken steps to increase response rates through such 

measures as moving to a short form, and utilizing a second mailing. 

• The MCD version being deployed during the upcoming dress rehearsal will 

be used for the first time in the field—this is the prototype under contract 

for the 2010 Census—and if it does not function as expected or needed, 

little time will be left for the Bureau to take corrective action. Overall, the 

Bureau’s greater reliance on contractor-developed automation and 

technology for the 2010 Census call for greater focus on sound acquisition 

and management of these key investments. 

• The Bureau’s efforts to recruit, hire, and train a sufficient workforce to 

enumerate an increasingly hard-to-find and reluctant population in a more 

technology-dependent census presents a unique challenge for the Bureau

to refine its recruiting practices and enhance its training. 

• The intervention of hurricanes Katrina and Rita have placed additional 

demands on the Bureau to prepare for enumerating a large population 

displaced by these devastating storms, in an environment in which local 

governments’ capacities are constrained and physical infrastructure and 

services have not yet returned to normal. 

Given these complexities, our message remains that the risks associated 

with the decennial must be closely monitored, evaluated, and managed, 

with mitigation plans in place where appropriate, to help ensure that 

accurate results are delivered on time and within projected costs. 

My remarks today are based primarily on reports that we have issued from 

2002 through July 2006 on the planning and development of the 2010 

Census, as well as the results of work nearing completion. (Please see app. 

I for a list of relevant reports.) For the 2004 field test, we visited Queens, 

New York, and several counties in rural south-central Georgia. We visited

the Texas and South Dakota test sites during the 2006 field test. During 

these visits we observed such operations as the address canvassing 

Page 2 GAO-07-779T 
operation—where workers go door to door verifying addresses and 

updating maps as part of the Bureau’s effort to build a complete and 

accurate address list, and we observed the non-response follow-up 

operation (NRFU)—where enumerators collect information from those 

households that do not return their initial questionnaire. We also observed 

key recruiting, hiring, and training activities during the 2006 test 

completed last summer. During the autumn of 2006, we observed 

preparations for and the conduct of the Local Update of Census Addresses 

(LUCA) phase of the 2008 Dress Rehearsal in sites located in North 

Carolina and California, and in January 2007 we visited areas in Louisiana, 

Mississippi, and Texas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We 

conducted our work in accordance with generally accepted government 

auditing standards. 

The decennial census is the nation’s largest, most complex survey. In April 

2009, address canvassing—a field operation for verifying and correcting 

addresses for all households and street features contained on decennial 

maps—will begin. One year later, the Bureau will mail census 

questionnaires to the majority of the population in anticipation of Census 

Day, April 1, 2010. Those households who do not respond will be 

contacted by field staff through the NRFU operation to determine the 

number of people living in the house on Census Day, among other 

information. In addition to address canvassing and NRFU, the Bureau 

conducts other operations, for example, to gather data from residents 

from group quarters, such as prisons or college dormitories. The Bureau

also employs different enumeration methods in certain settings, such as 

remote Alaska enumeration, in which people living in inaccessible 

communities must be contacted in January 2010 in anticipation of the 

spring thaw which makes travel difficult, or update/enumerate, a data 

collection method involving personal interviews, used in communities 

where many housing units may not have typical house number-street name 

mailing addresses. Further, the efforts of state and local government are 

enlisted to obtain a more complete address file through the LUCA 

program. 

The census is also conducted against a backdrop of immutable deadlines, 

and the census’s elaborate chain of interrelated pre- and post-Census Day 

activities is predicated upon those dates. The Secretary of Commerce is 

legally required to (1) conduct the census on April 1 of the decennial year,

(2) report the state population counts to the President for purposes of 

congressional apportionment by December 31 of the decennial year, and 

(3) send population tabulations to the states for purposes of redistricting 

Background 

Page 3 GAO-07-779T 
no later than 1 year after the April 1 census date. To meet these mandated

reporting requirements, census activities must occur at specific times and 

in the proper sequence. The table below shows some dates for selected, 

key decennial activities.

Table 1: Timeline of Selected Key Decennial Events 

Beginning and End

Dates Decennial activity 

Jan. 2007–Jan. 2010 Local Update of Census Addresses (localities assist in updating 

address lists and maps) 

Feb. 2006–June 2009 2008 Dress Rehearsal (Bureau’s rehearsal of all planned 

decennial operations) 

Jan. 2008 Opening of 12 Regional Census Centers 

Oct. 2008 Opening of 455 Local Census Offices 

Apr.–Sept. 2009 Address Listing Activities (Bureau field staff validate address 

lists and maps)

Apr. 1, 2010 Census Day 

Apr.–July 2010 Nonresponse Follow-up (Field staff follow-up in person at 

housing units of nonresponding persons) 

Dec. 31, 2010 Delivery of apportionment counts to the President 

Mar. 31, 2011 Complete delivery of redistricting data to states 

Source: GAO summary of Census Bureau data. 

The Bureau estimates that the 2010 Census will cost $11.3 billion over its

life-cycle, making it the most expensive in the nation’s history. While some 

cost growth is expected, partly because the number of housing units has 

increased, the estimated cost escalation has far exceeded the housing unit

increase. The Bureau estimates that the number of housing units for the 

2010 Census will increase by 10 percent over 2000 Census levels, but the 

average 2010 cost to enumerate a housing unit is expected to increase by

about 29 percent from 2000 levels (from $56 to $72) (see fig. 1). As the 

Bureau plans for 2010, maintaining cost effectiveness will be one of the 

single greatest challenges confronting the agency.

Page 4 GAO-07-779T 
Figure 1: Decennial Census Average Cost per Housing Unit (in Constant Fiscal Year 

2000 Dollars) 

According to the Bureau, the increasing cost of the census is caused by

various societal trends—such as increasing privacy concerns, more nonEnglish speakers, and people residing in makeshift and other 

nontraditional living arrangements—making it harder to find people and 

get them to participate in the census. 

The Bureau has reengineered the decennial census, including 

implementing new initiatives aimed at increasing the response rate. 

Furthermore, the Bureau also plans to begin to implement its outreach and 

communications campaign, an effort used in the 2000 Census that was 

designed to increase awareness and encourage individuals to respond to 

the census questionnaire. Increasing the decennial’s response rate can 

result in significant savings because the Bureau can reduce the staffing 

and costs related to NRFU, as well as yield more complete and accurate

data. According to the Bureau, for every one-percentage point increase in 

the response rate, the Bureau will be able to save $75 million. 

The Bureau plans to increase response rate by several means, including 

conducting a short-form-only census. The Bureau is able to do this 

The Bureau Has 

Taken Steps to 

Increase Response 

Rates 

Page 5 GAO-07-779T 
because in 1996 the Bureau began efforts to replace the decennial long 

form with the American Community Survey. Since 1970, the overall mail 

response rate to the decennial census has been declining steadily, in part, 

because of the burden of responding to the long form, which was sent to a 

sample of respondents. In the 1980 Census, the overall mail response rate 

was 75 percent, 3 percentage points lower than it was in the 1970 Census. 

In the 1990 census, the mail response rate dropped to 65 percent but in 

2000 appeared to be leveling off at about 64 percent. In the 2000 Census 

when comparing the short form to the long form the Bureau found the 

short form response rate of 66.4 percent was 12.5 percentage points higher 

that the long form response rate of 53.9 percent. While the difference 

between the long and short form response rates are significant, the Bureau 

in its initial assumption for the 2010 Census predicted that conducting a 

short-form-only census will yield only a 1-percent increase in the overall 

mail response rate. 

A targeted second mailing to households that fail to respond to the initial

census questionnaire can increase the ultimate response rate. According to

Bureau studies, sending a second questionnaire could yield a gain in 

overall response of 7 to 10 percentage points from non-responding 

households, thus potentially saving the Bureau between $525 million to 

$700 million dollars (given that every 1 percentage point increase in 

response may save $75 million). In reports, we have highlighted that a 

targeted second mailing could boost the mail response rate, which in turn 

would result in considerable savings by reducing the number of costly 

personal visits enumerators would need to make to nonresponding 

households.1

 The Bureau has never before included this operation as part 

of a decennial census and over the decade has been testing its feasibility. A 

targeted second mailing was a part of 2006 test and boosted the response 

rate by 8.8 percent at the Austin, Texas test site. According to Bureau 

officials targeted second mailing will be a part of the 2010 Census design. 

For the 2010 Census the Bureau also intends to increase response rates by 

undertaking a public awareness campaign as it did in the previous census. 

In the 2000 Census that effort was comprised of two major activities: 

 1

GAO, 2010 Census: Basic Design Has Potential, but Remaining Challenges Need Prompt

Resolution, GAO-05-9 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 12, 2005) and GAO, 2000 Census:

Contingency Planning Needed to Address Risk That Pose a Threat to a Successful

Census, GAO/GGD-00-6 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 14, 1999). 

Page 6 GAO-07-779T 
• conducting the first-ever paid advertising campaign aimed at increasing 

the mail response rate, including the historically undercounted 

populations, and 

• leveraging the value of local knowledge by building 140,000 partnerships at 

every level including state, local , and tribal governments; communitybased organizations; and the media and private-sector organizations to 

elicit public participation in the census. 

In 2001 we reported that for the 2000 Census, it appeared that encouraging

people to respond to the census questionnaire was successful, in part due 

to the Bureau’s partnership efforts.2

 For example, according to the Bureau, 

it achieved an initial mail response rate of about 64 percent, 3 percentage 

points higher that it had anticipated when planning for NRFU. This was a 

noteworthy accomplishment and, as a result, the Bureau had over 3 

million fewer housing units to follow-up with than it had initially planned. 

The Bureau will soon begin its outreach and communication effort for 

2010. The Bureau plans to award the communications contract in August 

2007 and will begin hiring partnership specialists at headquarters starting 

in fiscal year 2008. 

The MCD is a keystone to the reengineered census. It allows the Bureau to

automate operations and eliminate the need to print millions of paper 

questionnaires and maps used by census workers to conduct address 

canvassing and NRFU, as well as assisting to manage field staff’s payroll. 

The benefits of using the MCD were tested in the 2004 and 2006 tests. 

According to the Bureau, during the 2004 Census Test, the MCD allowed 

the Bureau to successfully remove over 7,000 late mail returns from 

enumerators’ assignments, reducing the total NRFU workload by nearly 6 

percent. The ability to remove late mail returns from the Bureau’s NRFU 

workload reduces costs, because census field workers no longer need to 

make expensive follow-up visits to households that return their 

questionnaire after the mail-back deadline. If the Bureau had possessed 

this capability during the 2000 Census, it could have eliminated the need to

visit nearly 773,000 late-responding households and saved an estimated 

$22 million (based on our estimate that a 1-percentage-point increase in 

The Bureau’s Plans 

for Greater Use of 

Automation and 

Technology Demand 

Greater Risk 

Management 

 2

GAO, 2000 Census: Review of Partnership Program Highlights Best Practices for Future 

Operations, GAO-01-579 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 20, 2001). 

Page 7 GAO-07-779T 
workload could add at least $34 million in direct salary, benefits, and 

travel costs to the price tag of NRFU3

). 

However, the Bureau’s ability to collect and transmit data using the MCD 

is not fully tested and, at this point, constitutes a risk to the cost-effective 

implementation of the 2010 Census. During the 2004 test of NRFU and the

2006 test of address canvassing, the MCDs experienced significant 

reliability problems. For example, during the 2004 Census Test, the MCDs 

experienced transmission problems, memory overloads, and difficulties 

with a mapping feature—all of which added inefficiencies to the NRFU 

operation.4

 Moreover, during the 2006 test, the MCD’s global positioning 

system (GPS) receiver, a satellite-based navigational system to help 

workers locate street addresses and collect coordinates for each structure 

in their assignment area, was also unreliable. 

Bureau officials believe the MCD’s performance problems will be 

addressed through a contract awarded on March 30, 2006, to develop a 

new MCD. A prototype of the MCD has been developed and delivered by

the contractor for use in the 2008 Dress Rehearsal. However, operational 

testing of the MCD will not occur until May 2007, when address canvassing 

for the 2008 Dress Rehearsal occurs, and if problems do emerge, little time 

will be left to develop, test, and incorporate refinements. In our May 2006 

report, we highlighted the tight time frames to develop the MCD and 

recommended that systems being developed or provided by contractors 

for the 2010 Census—including the MCD—be fully functional and ready to

be assessed as part of the 2008 Dress Rehearsal. We are currently 

reviewing the cost, schedule and performance status of the contract for 

the MCDs. 

We plan to visit the dress rehearsal sites to determine the functionality of

the devices to collect and transmit data. If after the 2008 Dress Rehearsal 

the MCD is found not to be reliable, the Bureau could be faced with the 

daunting possibility of having to revert to the costly, paper-based census 

used in 2000. 

Although the greater use of automation offers the prospect of greater 

efficiency and effectiveness, these actions also introduce new risks. The 

automation of key census processes involves an extensive reliance on

 3

GAO/GGD-00-06. 

4

GAO-05-9. 

Page 8 GAO-07-779T 
contractors. Consequently, contract oversight and management becomes a 

key challenge to a successful census. As part of the Bureau’s plans to 

increase the use of automation and technology for the 2010 Census, the 

Bureau estimates that it will spend about $ 3 billion on information 

technology (IT) investments. The Bureau will be undertaking several 

major acquisitions, including the Decennial Response Integration System 

(DRIS)—a system for integrating paper and telephone responses; the Field 

Data Collection Automation (FDCA) program—the systems and support 

equipment for field office data collection activities including the MCDs to 

be used by enumerators; the Data Access and Dissemination System 

(DADS II)—a system for tabulating and disseminating data from the 

decennial census and other Bureau surveys to the public; and the 

modernization of the Master Address File/Topologically Integrated 

Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) system, which 

provides the address list, maps, and other geographic support services for 

the decennial and other Bureau surveys, known as the MAF/TIGER 

Accuracy Improvement Project (MTAIP). Together these and other 

systems are to support collection, processing, and dissemination of census 

data. 

In March 2006, we testified on the Bureau’s acquisition and management of 

two key information technology system acquisitions for the 2010 Census—

FDCA and the DRIS.5

 We reported on the Bureau’s progress in

implementing acquisitions and management capabilities for these 

initiatives. To effectively manage major IT programs, organizations should 

use sound acquisition and management processes to minimize risk and 

thereby maximize chances for success. Such processes include project and 

acquisition planning, solicitation, requirement development and 

management, and risk management. We reported that while the project 

offices responsible for these two contracts have carried out initial 

acquisition management activities, neither office had the full set of 

capabilities they needed to effectively manage the acquisitions, including 

implementing a full risk management process. We also made 

recommendations for the Bureau to implement key activities needed to

effectively manage acquisitions. For example, we recommended that the 

Bureau’s project office for DRIS complete a project plan and obtain 

stakeholder concurrence before initiating additional development work 

 5

GAO, Census Bureau: Important Activities for Improving Management of Key 2010 

Decennial Acquisitions Remain to be Done, GAO-06-444T (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 1,

2006). 

Page 9 GAO-07-779T 
and obtain validation, management, and customer approval of DRIS 

requirements. In response to our recommendation, the Bureau has 

finalized the project plan for DRIS and has obtained stakeholders’ 

commitment. As a result, the DRIS project office will have the direction 

that it needs to successfully avoid unanticipated changes. 

We are reviewing the cost, schedule, and performance status for DRIS, 

FDCA, MTAIP, and DADS II to determine whether the Bureau is 

adequately managing risks associated with these key systems. Effective 

risk management includes identifying and analyzing risks, assigning 

resources, developing risk mitigation plans and milestones for key 

mitigation deliverables, briefing senior-level managers on high-priority 

risks, and tracking risks to closure and is an important project 

management discipline to ensure that key technologies are delivered on 

time, within budget, and with the promised functionality. This discipline is

essentially important given the immovable decennial census deadline. We

are scheduled to complete our work on that engagement by September 

2007 

Prior to Census Day, Bureau field staff perform the address canvassing 

operation, during which they verify the addresses of all housing units. The 

Bureau estimates spending $350 million to hire about 74,000 field workers 

for the address canvassing operation. About 1 year later, the Bureau mails 

out questionnaires to about 130 million households nationwide. However, 

the Bureau expects that about 40 million households will not return the 

questionnaire. To collect information from those households, the Bureau 

hires temporary field staff—based out of local census offices—to visit 

each nonresponding household in its NRFU operation. The Bureau 

expects to spend over $2 billion to employ about 525,000 temporary field 

staff for that activity. As shown in fig. 2, in total the Bureau will recruit and 

test 3.8 million applicants for addressing canvassing and NRFU, hiring 

some 600,000 people for the 2010 Census. 

The Bureau Can 

Improve Its 

Recruiting, Hiring, 

and Training Efforts 

Page 10 GAO-07-779T 
Figure 2: The Bureau’s Recruiting and Hiring Timeline for Temporary Field Staff During the 2010 Census

Oct.

2010

July

2010

April

2010

Jan.

2010

Oct.

2009

July

2009

April

2009

Jan.

2009

Oct.

2008

July

2008

April

2008

Jan.

2008

Source: GAO and U.S. Census Bureau.

1.3 million

applicants

74,344 workers

for address

canvassing

Crew leaders

and assistants:

8,276

Field staff:

66,068

 524,989 workers

for nonresponse

follow-up

Crew leaders

and assistants:

58,342

Field staff:

466,647

Regional census centers open

Local census offices open

2.5 million

applicants

Recruit Hire Recruit Hire

The Bureau Can Refine Its 

Approach to Recruiting 

and Hiring Temporary 

Field Staff 

For the 2010 Census, the Bureau plans to use a similar approach to recruit 

and hire workers as it used during Census 2000. These strategies made the 

Bureau a more attractive employer to prospective candidates and helped 

provide a steady stream of applicants during Census 2000. Despite a tight 

labor market, the Bureau attracted about 3.7 million qualified applicants 

and hired about half a million enumerators at peak. Some of the broad 

approaches from 2000 that the Bureau plans on implementing for the 2010

census include 

• recruiting five times more applicants than the needed number of field 

workers to ensure a considerable depth in the applicant pool from which 

to hire; 

• “frontloading” or hiring twice the number of people needed to do the work 

in anticipation of high levels of turnover; 

• exercising the flexibility to raise pay rates for local census offices that 

were encountering recruiting difficulties; and 

• launching a recruitment advertising campaign, which totaled over $2.3 

million for Census 2000.

Page 11 GAO-07-779T 
As in 2000, the Bureau faces the daunting tasks of meeting its recruiting 

and hiring goals. However, it also faces additional challenges, such as 

demographic shifts whereby the population is increasingly diverse and 

difficult to locate, and newer challenges, like the Bureau’s use of handheld 

computers for data collection in the field. It does plan some improvements 

to how it recruits and hires its temporary workforce to carry out the 2010

Census. For example, the Bureau has conducted and incorporated 

information collected from employee debriefings that could improve its 

recruiting and hiring processes. Bureau officials believe this feedback

would be helpful in evaluating and refining its hiring and recruiting 

processes and intend to incorporate some of that information for the 2008

Dress Rehearsal. However, it can do more to target its recruitment of field 

staff. 

The Bureau casts a wide net to recruit its temporary workforce to ensure 

it has a large enough applicant pool from which to hire. In commenting on 

a draft of this work, Commerce noted that the Bureau’s priority is to reach 

out as broadly a possible to the diverse communities in the county to 

attract several million applicants. We recognize that when recruiting and 

hiring for hundreds of thousands of positions, the Bureau faces a 

challenge in assessing applicants’ potential success or willingness to work. 

However, opportunities exist for the Bureau to hone its recruiting efforts 

to identify individuals who would be more likely to be effective at census 

work and willing to continue working throughout an operation. Along 

those same lines, the Bureau could also evaluate the factors associated 

with an applicant’s success, willingness to work in an operation, and 

likelihood of attrition to refine its hiring. Despite Commerce’s reservations

about refining its current recruiting and hiring strategies, we believe that 

the Bureau could do more to understand what makes for a successful 

recruit and, by hiring such applicants, reduce operating costs.

Another recruiting and hiring issue we identified in our completed work is 

related to how the crew leaders are selected. We found that the Bureau’s 

tools for hiring crew leaders could better distinguish the skills needed for 

those positions. Crew leaders fill an important role in the Bureau’s field 

activities because they supervise the work of crews of field workers; train 

field workers; and will be counted on to troubleshoot the MCDs. We found 

that despite the different skill requirements of crew leaders and other field 

staff—for example, while it was important for field staff working in the 

NRFU operation to have arithmetic and visual identification skills, crew 

leaders need those skills as well as additional skills, such as management, 

leadership, and creative thinking—the Bureau used the same set of hiring 

tools to hire individuals for crew leaders and other field positions during 

Page 12 GAO-07-779T 
the 2006 Census Test. In its review of the 2004 Census Test, the 

Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General OIG also reported 

that Bureau officials said that the applicants’ the multiple-choice test does

not capture the technical or supervisory skills needed by crew leaders.6

The Bureau hired a contractor to assess whether the tools used during the 

2006 Census Test selected individuals with the skills necessary to conduct

field work using MCDs;7

 however, the Bureau has no current plans to 

make changes to its hiring process that would include differentiated hiring

tools for crew leaders and other positions. Without hiring tools that 

distinguish between skills needed for the crew leader and other positions, 

the Bureau does not have assurances that it is selecting crew leaders that 

can best perform important duties like providing training, managing other 

field staff, and troubleshooting handheld computers. In commenting on 

our draft, Commerce indicated that the Bureau needs to evaluate its hiring 

tools. It is also working to identify and test what the appropriate skills are 

for the crew leader position. 

Finally, we found that the Bureau does not collect performance data

needed to rehire former workers from prior or ongoing operations to 

whom it may give hiring priority. Officials say they try to exclude those 

terminated for cause (such terminations can result when workers have 

performance or conduct problems such as selling drugs or striking another 

worker). Bureau officials point to its internal systems, which, they say 

preclude the rehiring of employees who were terminated for cause. 

However, the OIG and field officials told us that poor performers may not 

always be terminated. Without better information on employee 

performance, the Bureau cannot ensure that the weakest performers are 

not rehired. Over the course of the 2006 Census Test, almost 15 percent of

all field staff were rehired. If this percentage were to be rehired during the 

2010 Census, the Bureau would not have performance data to

meaningfully evaluate whether to rehire approximately 90,000 individuals. 

The Bureau believes that the pace of the decennial, particularly NRFU, is 

such that local census officials would not have enough time to consider 

past performance when making hiring decisions. However, we believe that 

the Bureau has enough time. For example, performance data could be 

 6

Department of Commerce, Office of Inspector General, Improving Our Measure of

America: What the 2004 Census Test Can Teach Us in Planning for the 2010 Decennial 

Census, OIG-16949 (Washington, D.C.: September 2004). 

7

Bureau officials told us that final results of this study are not yet available. 

Page 13 GAO-07-779T 
collected during address canvassing to be used to assess workers for 

NRFU, nearly one-year later. 

The Bureau has employed essentially the same approach to training since

the 1970 Census. To conduct training, the Bureau solicits free or low-cost 

training spaces from local organizations, such as churches or libraries. 

Training classes typically include 15 to 20 students. Crew leaders usually 

train their crews, with the assistance of at least one crew leader assistant, 

using a verbatim training approach, whereby crew leaders read training 

scripts word-for-word over the course of several days. Similarly, the crew

leaders were themselves trained by their supervisors in a “train-thetrainers” approach. The length of training varies by operation; for NRFU, 

training took almost 42 hours over the course of 6 days during the 2006 

test. 

The Bureau and others, including us, have reported that the Bureau should 

consider alternate approaches to training delivery. Our review of the 2004 

Census Test found that, as a result of the demographic and technological

changes that have taken place since 1970, the Bureau might want to 

explore alternatives to its verbatim approach to training.8

 Moreover, in 

2004, the OIG suggested the Bureau explore the use of interactive training

methods, as the Bureau does for other non-decennial surveys.9

 For 

example, while many field staff we contacted during the 2006 test said 

their overall impression of training was generally positive, many added

that videos or visuals would or might improve training. In addition, while 

the Bureau is providing some computer-based training on using the 

handheld computers in key operations, overall the Bureau has made 

limited changes to the approach it uses to deliver training and has not 

evaluated alternative approaches to providing training. It is notable that

observations during the 2004 and 2006 tests showed that field staff may 

have missed important parts of training. Contractor employees saw 

students playing games on their MCDs during training for the 2006 test,10

and in 2004 the OIG saw students not paying attention and falling asleep in

Opportunities Exist for the 

Bureau to Improve 

Training for Field Staff 

 8

GAO-05-9.

9

Department of Commerce OIG, OIG-16949. 

10The MCDs developed by Harris will not include software that will allow field staff to play 

games during training. 

Page 14 GAO-07-779T 
class, concluding that some may not have learned how to conduct census 

operations.11

The content of the Bureau’s training for field staff also has not changed 

substantially since Census 2000, despite the fact that, according to the 

Bureau itself, collecting data from the nation’s population has become 

increasingly difficult. Field workers we spoke to during the 2006 test noted 

two related issues on which they had not received sufficient training—

dealing with reluctant respondents and handling location-specific 

challenges. 

According to the Department of Commerce OIG, in 2004 field staff 

complained that they felt unprepared to deal with reluctant respondents; 

the OIG report recommended the Bureau consider adding content to 

enhance training on this topic.12 Moreover, our review of the Bureau’s 

summaries of debriefings it conducted after the 2006 test indicated that 

field staff found respondent reluctance to be a challenge.13 Crew leaders 

noted that this was the most difficult task enumerators faced. In our field 

visits, we observed that without adequate preparation in dealing with 

reluctant responders, field staff developed their own strategies when 

confronted with these situations, resulting in inconsistent and sometimes 

inappropriate data collection methods. For example, when unable to 

contact respondents, one Texas enumerator looked up respondent 

information online, tried to find a phone number for another respondent 

from a neighborhood cat’s collar, and illegally went through residents’ 

mail. 

Field staff may also need more training in overcoming location-specific 

challenges, such as rural conditions on the Cheyenne River Indian 

Reservation in South Dakota; and counting the transient student 

population in Austin, Texas. For example, in Austin, one crew leader 

explained that training spent a lot of time on mobile homes—which did 

not exist in his area—but very little time on apartment buildings, which 

are common there. Based on our observations of the 2004 test, we 

suggested that the Bureau supplement the existing training with modules

 11Department of Commerce OIG, OIG-16949. 

12Department of Commerce OIG, OIG-16949. 

13As previously discussed, these sessions aimed to obtain information that will improve 

Bureau procedures, including training. We reviewed summaries of debriefings conducted

for three operations—NRFU, update/enumerate, and address canvassing. 

Page 15 GAO-07-779T 
geared toward addressing the particular enumeration challenges that field 

staff are likely to encounter in specific locales.14 During this review, the 

Bureau told us that it works with regional offices to develop 10-minute 

training modules for specific locations. For example, in 2000, Bureau 

officials said enumerators in Los Angeles were trained to look for small, 

hidden housing units, such as apartments in converted garages. Bureau 

officials said they provide guidance on the length of the modules and when

they should be presented. However, they said they were not sure how 

often this kind of specialized training took place, nor had they allocated 

time during training to present specialized information. 

We believe the Bureau could do more to assist local offices provide 

training that recognizes local conditions. Specifically, based on work we 

will be reporting shortly, we will recommend that the Bureau centrally 

develop training modules covering enumeration strategies in a variety of 

situations, such as mobile homes, large apartment buildings, and migrant 

worker dwellings, which local officials can selectively insert into their 

training if there is a need to train their field staff on that topic. Such 

modules would enhance the effectiveness of training by giving greater 

attention to the challenges field staff are likely to face. In commenting on 

this recommendation, Commerce noted that the Bureau works with 

managers in each regional census center to customize a location-specific 

training module for local census offices. Nonetheless, developing modules 

for different types of locations centrally would allow the Bureau to control 

the consistency and quality of training throughout the nation.

As part of our evaluation of the Bureau’s LUCA dress rehearsal, we visited 

the localities along the Gulf Coast to assess the effect the devastation 

caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita might have on LUCA and possibly 

other operations. The effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are still 

visible throughout the Gulf Coast region. Hurricane Katrina alone 

destroyed or made uninhabitable an estimated 300,000 homes; in New 

Orleans, local officials reported that Hurricane Katrina damaged an 

estimated 123,000 housing units. Such changes in housing unit stock 

continue to present challenges to the implementation of the 2010 LUCA 

Program in the Gulf Coast region and possibly other operations. Many 

officials of local governments we visited in hurricane-affected areas said

they have identified numerous housing units that have been or will be 

Bureau Is Designing 

Decennial Activities 

in the Geographic 

Area Affected by 

Hurricanes Katrina 

and Rita 

 14GAO-05-9. 

Page 16 GAO-07-779T 
demolished as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent 

deterioration. Conversely, many local governments estimate that there is 

new development of housing units in their respective jurisdictions. The 

localities we interviewed in the Gulf Coast region indicated that such 

changes in the housing stock of their jurisdictions are unlikely to subside 

before local governments begin reviewing and updating materials for the 

Bureau’s 2010 LUCA Program—in August 2007.15 Local government 

officials told us that changes in housing unit stock are often caused by 

difficulties families have in deciding whether to return to hurricaneaffected areas. Local officials informed us that a family’s decision to return 

is affected by various factors, such as the availability of insurance; timing 

of funding from Louisiana’s “Road Home” program;16 lack of availability of

contractors; school systems that are closed; and lack of amenities such as 

grocery stores. As a result of the still changing housing unit stock, local 

governments in hurricane-affected areas may be unable to fully capture

reliable information about their address lists before the beginning of LUCA 

this year or address canvassing in April 2009. Furthermore, operation of 

local governments themselves has been affected by the hurricanes (see fig. 

3). These local governments are focused on reconstruction and at least 

two localities we spoke to questioned their ability to participate in LUCA. 

 15The period for local review and update of addresses and maps for the 2010 LUCA 

Program is August 2007-March 2008. 

16The “Road Home” Program was implemented by the State of Louisiana to provide 

compensation of up to $150,000 for eligible homeowners affected by hurricanes Katrina 

and Rita. 

Page 17 GAO-07-779T 
Figure 3: City Halls in Mississippi and Louisiana Have Been Destroyed and City Officials Now Operate Out of Trailers 

Source: GAO (January 2007).

Note: Pictures are from January 2007. 

The mixed condition of the housing stock in the Gulf Coast will increase 

the Bureau’s address canvassing workload. During our field work, we 

found that hurricane-affected areas have many neighborhoods with 

abandoned and vacant properties mixed in with occupied housing units. 

Bureau staff conducting address canvassing in these areas may have an 

increased workload due to the additional time necessary to distinguish 

between abandoned, vacant and occupied housing units. Another potential 

issue is that due to continuing changes in the condition in the housing 

stock, housing units that are deemed vacant or abandoned during address 

canvassing may be occupied on Census Day (Apr. 1, 2010). Bureau 

officials said that they recognize there are issues with uninhabitable 

structures in hurricane-affected zones. They noted that addresses marked 

as vacant or uninhabitable during address canvassing in the Gulf Coast 

region will not be deleted from the MAF, and said that they may adjust 

training for Bureau staff in hurricane-affected areas. 

Workforce shortages may also pose significant problems for the Bureau’s 

hiring efforts for address canvassing. The effects of hurricanes Katrina and 

Rita caused a major shift in population away from the hurricane-affected 

areas, especially in Louisiana. This migration displaced many low-wage 

workers. Should this continue, it could affect the availability of such 

workers for address canvassing and other decennial census operations. 

Bureau officials recognize the potential difficulty of attracting these 

Page 18 GAO-07-779T 
workers, and have recommended that the Bureau be prepared to meet 

hourly wage rates for future decennial staff that are considerably higher 

than usual. It has noted that its Dallas regional office, which has 

jurisdiction over hurricane-affected areas in Texas, Louisiana, and 

Mississippi, will examine local unemployment rates to adjust pay rates in 

the region, and use “every single entity” available to advertise for workers 

in the New Orleans area. 

Early in 2006, we recommended that the Bureau develop plans (prior to 

the start of the 2010 LUCA Program in August 2007) to assess whether new 

procedures, additional resources, or local partnerships, may be required to

update the MAF/TIGER database along the Gulf Coast—in the areas 

affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.17 The Bureau responded to our 

recommendations by chartering a team to assess the effect of the storm 

damage on the Bureau’s address list and maps for areas along the Gulf 

Coast and develop strategies with the potential to mitigate these effects. 

The chartered team recommended that the Bureau consult with state and

regional officials (from the Gulf Coast) on how to make LUCA as 

successful as possible, and hold special LUCA workshops for geographic 

areas identified by the Bureau as needing additional assistance. While the 

Bureau (through its chartered team, headquarters staff and Dallas regional 

office) has proposed several changes to the 2010 LUCA Program for the 

Gulf Coast region, there are no specific plans for implementing the 

proposed changes. 

In summary, Mr. Chairman, we recognize the Bureau faces formidable 

challenges in successfully implementing a redesigned decennial census. It

must also overcome significant challenges of a demographic and 

socioeconomic nature due to the nation’s increasing diversity in language,

ethnicity, households, and housing type, as well as an increase in the 

reluctance of the population to participate in the census. The need to 

enumerate in the areas devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita is one 

more significant difficulty the Bureau faces. We applaud the moves the 

Bureau has undertaken to redesign the census; we have stated in the past, 

and believe still, that the reengineering, if successful, can help control 

costs and improve cost effectiveness and efficiency. Yet, there is more that 

 17GAO, 2010 Census: Census Bureau Needs to Take Prompt Actions to Resolve Longstanding and Emerging Address and Mapping Challenges, GAO-06-272 (Wash. D.C.: June 

15, 2006), and GAO, 2010 Census: Costs and Risks Must be Closely Monitored and

Evaluated with Mitigation Plans in Place, GAO-06-822T (Wash. D.C.: June 6, 2006). 

Page 19 GAO-07-779T 
the Bureau can do in examining and refining its recruiting, hiring, and 

training practices and in preparing to enumerate in the hurricane-affected

areas. Also, the functionality and usability of the MCD—a key piece of 

hardware in the reengineered census—-bears watching as does the 

oversight and management of information technology investments. All 

told, these areas continue to call for risk mitigation plans by the Bureau 

and careful monitoring and oversight by the Commerce Department, the 

Office of Management and Budget, the Congress, GAO, and other key 

stakeholders. As in the past, we look forward to supporting this 

subcommittee’s oversight efforts to promote a timely, complete, accurate, 

and cost-effective census. 

For further information regarding this testimony, please contact 

Mathew J. Scire on (202) 512-6806, or by email at sciremj@gao.gov. 

Individuals making contributions to this testimony included Betty Clark, 

Carlos Hazera, Shirley Hwang, Andrea Levine, Lisa Pearson, Mark Ryan, 

Niti Tandon, and Timothy Wexler. 

Contact and 

Acknowledgments 

Page 20 GAO-07-779T 
Appendix I: Related GAO Products 

Page 21 GAO-07-779T 

Appendix I: Related GAO Products 

2010 Census: Redesigned Approach Holds Promise, but Census Bureau 

Needs to Annually Develop and Provide a Comprehensive Project Plan to 

Monitor Costs. GAO-06-1009T. Washington, D.C.: July 27, 2006. 

2010 Census: Census Bureau Needs to Take Prompt Actions to Resolve 

Long-standing and Emerging Address and Mapping Challenges. GAO-06-

272. Washington, D.C.: June 15, 2006. 

2010 Census: Costs and Risks Must be Closely Monitored and Evaluated 

with Mitigation Plans in Place. GAO-06-822T. Washington, D.C.: June 6, 

2006. 

2010 Census: Census Bureau Generally Follows Selected Leading 

Acquisition Planning Practices, but Continued Management Attention 

Is Needed to Help Ensure Success. GAO-06-277. Washington, D.C.: May 18, 

2006. 

Census Bureau: Important Activities for Improving Management of Key 

2010 Decennial Acquisitions Remain to be Done. GAO-06-444T. 

Washington, D.C.: March 1, 2006. 

2010 Census: Planning and Testing Activities Are Making Progress.

GAO-06-465T. Washington D.C.: March 1, 2006. 

Information Technology Management: Census Bureau Has Implemented

Many Key Practices, but Additional Actions Are Needed. GAO-05-661. 

Washington, D.C.: June 16, 2005. 

2010 Census: Basic Design Has Potential, but Remaining Challenges 

Need Prompt Resolution. GAO-05-09. Washington, D.C.: January 12, 2005. 

Data Quality: Census Bureau Needs to Accelerate Efforts to Develop and 

Implement Data Quality Review Standards. GAO-05-86. Washington, 

D.C.: November 17, 2004.

Census 2000: Design Choices Contributed to Inaccuracies in Coverage 

Evaluation Estimates. GAO-05-71. Washington, D.C.: November 12, 2004. 

American Community Survey: Key Unresolved Issues. GAO-05-82. 

Washington, D.C.: October 8, 2004. 
Appendix I: Related GAO Products 

2010 Census: Counting Americans Overseas as Part of the Decennial 

Census Would Not Be Cost-Effective. GAO-04-898. Washington, D.C.: 

August 19, 2004. 

2010 Census: Overseas Enumeration Test Raises Need for Clear Policy 

Direction. GAO-04-470. Washington, D.C.: May 21, 2004. 

2010 Census: Cost and Design Issues Need to Be Addressed Soon. GAO04-37. Washington, D.C.: January 15, 2004. 

Decennial Census: Lessons Learned for Locating and Counting Migrant 

and Seasonal Farm Workers. GAO-03-605. Washington, D.C.: July 3, 2003. 

Decennial Census: Methods for Collecting and Reporting Hispanic 

Subgroup Data Need Refinement. GAO-03-228. Washington, D.C.: January 

17, 2003. 

Decennial Census: Methods for Collecting and Reporting Data on the 

Homeless and Others Without Conventional Housing Need Refinement.

GAO-03-227. Washington, D.C.: January 17, 2003. 

2000 Census: Lessons Learned for Planning a More Cost-Effective 2010 

Census. GAO-03-40. Washington, D.C.: October 31, 2002. 

The American Community Survey: Accuracy and Timeliness Issues. 

GAO-02-956R. Washington, D.C.: September 30, 2002. 

Page 22 GAO-07-779T (450589) 
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