Perhaps hoping to woo a few Tea Party voters, many households in Ohio's 1st Congressional District received a letter from U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill) this week, providing an update on the U.S. Census.
The letter, on Driehaus' official Congressional stationery, notes that the 2010 Census effort was completed under budget and had a 72 percent national participation rate, the same as the 2000 Decennial Census.—-
Driehaus is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives. (Try saying that three times quickly.) The subcommittee oversaw preparations for the Census.
The letter begins, “Knowing your interest in federal government's fiscal responsibility, I wanted to update you on the status of funds that the United States Census Bureau will return to the federal treasury as a result of good leadership and the implementation of sound business practices.”
The U.S. Census Bureau is returning $1.6 billion in unused operational funds, or 22 percent of the bureau's fiscal year 2010 funding.
Of that amount, $800 million is from an account that was reserved for operational emergencies such as natural disasters, $650 million is from a door-to-door non-response follow-up account and $120 million is from miscellaneous accounts.
Information compiled during the Census is used to divvy up more than $400 billion in federal assistance to cities, states and individuals across the nation.
