Why are House Republicans Going After Census Information?

Originally published in The Boston Globe

June 28, 2012

Edward Glaeser (Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University)

The US Census Bureau has a 220-year record of not abusing the public trust. So why go after the agency now, as the recent House appropriations bill does?

The bill, which passed the Republican-controlled House in May, strikes the Census Bureau in two ways. It provides only $625 million for "periodic censuses and programs," such as the 2012 Economic Census. That’s $86 million less than the White House requested and $64 million less than the Census Bureau had available for such programs last year. More problematically, the bill prohibits the use of any of the money to conduct the American Community Survey, or ACS. More > (Need Boston Globe subscription)

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