Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States clearly says, “Representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers … . The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”
The Bureau of Census was created to undertake this effort, so every ten years every citizen is counted. Sounds simple, yet time consuming. So, in order to surf the technological wave that the private sector is riding, the Census Bureau is trying to integrate the latest technology to get a more complete picture of the population. Unfortunately, anytime the government tries to marry the concepts of cutting edge technology to the monolithic bureaucracy, there are bound to be problems. And there are.
According to a Nextgov.com article, things haven’t gone so smoothly to conduct the next census. A contract given to the Harris Corp. to “provide handheld computers to enumerators, who go to door to door counting households that do not return census forms,” reminds taxpayers and technophiles of the government’s ineptitude.
A final estimate delivered by Harris last week indicated that the cost of the contract to automate data collection for the 2010 census may be significantly greater than the $681 million estimated by nonprofit government contractor MITRE Corp….Harris’ final estimate put the total cost of providing the agency with handheld computers and technology to collect information in the field at almost $988 million.
Members of Congress are not happy, and according to the same article:
The latest change of course appears to have made some lawmakers uneasy. On Thursday, more than 60 members of Congress, including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to Gutierrez, saying they remain “gravely concerned” about preparations for the 2010 count.
In his e-mail, Davis added, “This looks a lot like they’re starting from scratch, and it’s just too late for that. Years of planning and preparation shouldn’t be wasted out of pique over a contract the bureau failed to manage properly.
It boggles the mind to think that while 10 year olds sit in their basement and make spohisticated YouTube videos, a multi billion dollar government agency acts like the keystone cops in trying to perform a basic function of government, counting people.
Filed under: Technology
