In April, Commerce Department Carlos Gutierrez told a House appropriations committee that the Census Bureau planned to not use handheld computers to record answers from households who did not send in their census forms -- called the follow up count. Development of the devices was running behind schedule, coming in over budget and there were concerns the computers wouldn't work as well as the bureau had hoped. The decision was made to revert to the old way of conducting the census: paper forms. But the change would increase the cost of the census by up to $3 billion, with at least $230 million needed for fiscal 2008. But Commerce Department Carlos Gutierrez told a House appropriations committee that the bureau would not need any extra money because it planned to move money form other programs to pay for the shortfall.
Somewhere along the way, Congress didn't get the message. Included in the supplemental war spending bill President Bush signed on Monday was $210 million in emergency spending for the bureau -- to cover the extra costs for the 2010 census.
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