The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies will convene a hearing to discuss the Commerce Department’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget request on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, featuring testimony and Q&A with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
The Senate CJS Subcommittee held a similar hearing on March 5.
Members of Congress might find this a good chance to have Secretary Ross flesh out details of current 2020 Census spending and update House members on current program and budget estimates as the full headcount is getting underway. The Census Project highlighted a “lack of transparency and specificity in the White House’s budget request in how Census Bureau funds are being spent to complete the 2020 Census” in our Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations request. This would also provide an opportunity to explore the reasons why the Commerce Department proposed to cut funding for the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), even though the budget request emphasized how important the Department believes the survey to be, and to uncover more details on the Census Bureau’s planned transition of data systems and what it may mean for data quality down the road.