(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today expressed outrage on behalf of taxpayers that the 2010 Census cost taxpayers a whopping $14.7 billion.  According to news reports, the cost of the 2010 Census is $8.2 billion more than the Census cost taxpayers in 2000. 

According to a January 13, 2011 article in The Fiscal Times, “The cost of acquiring this [census] data is skyrocketing with each passing decade--$14.7 billion for the 2010 Census, more than double the bureau’s $6.5 billion budget in 2000. . . .  In fact, the Census’s budget has ballooned every decade since 1950, and by the bureau’s own admission could reach as high as $22 billion for the 2020 Census.  The bureau did save $1.87 billion of its FY2010 budget, but roughly half came from the contingency fund, set aside for last minute infrastructure meltdowns and severe weather, neither of which occurred.” 

In February 2010, CAGW named Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Census Director Robert Groves its Porkers of the Month for significant cost overruns, mismanagement, and wasteful spending associated with the Census.  CAGW was particularly critical of a $595 million program to develop a handheld device to be used by Census workers as they went door-to-door to cull data from households, an experiment that failed spectacularly and ultimately resulted in $3 billion wasted as the government scrambled to implement a paper counting system. 

On March 5, 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) designated the 2010 Census as a high-risk program, citing likelihood of significant waste, fraud, and abuse.  Unfortunately for taxpayers, the GAO has been proven correct.

“Federal bureaucrats at the Commerce Department seem to be oblivious to the dire fiscal reality facing the country,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “With a $14 trillion national debt, and trillion dollar budget deficits for the foreseeable future, taxpayers do not deserve, nor can they afford, this kind of financial mismanagement.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.