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H.R. 1, the budget bill for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 (FY11) that the House passed February 19, contained cuts for the Census Bureau and the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Census Bureau cut is $153 below the President's FY11 request for the Census Bureau. The EIA cut is $15 million below the FY10 level. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was also impacted with the cut of $129 million from the budget of the Institute of Education Sciences budget, of which NCES is part. $58 million of this cut was the zeroing out of the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), which is administered by NCES but not technically part of its budget.

Other cuts in H.R. 1, if enacted, could also affect the statistical agencies.  For example, H.R. 1 cuts the budget Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by $1.4 billion (from the FY10 level, $6.467 billion), which in turn could impact the National Center for Health Statistics since it is part of the CDC budget. H.R. 1 also cuts the $13 million budget for the Department of Labor's Workforce Data Quality Initiative, a companion to the NCES SLDS.

The table below summarizes the H.R. 1 cuts - with a blank cell signifying to cut from FY10 - and the FY12 President's Budget Request (PBR).

Agency	FY10	FY11 PBR	FY11 H.R. 1	FY12 PBR
BEA	97.3	113		113
BJS	69	70		66
BLS	611	645		647
BTS	27	30		35
Census	7225	1267	1114	1025
ERS	82	87		86
EIA	111	129	95.6	124
NASS	162	165		165
NCES	264	279		279
NCHS	139	162		162
ORES (SSA)	28	32		35
SOI (IRS)	43	44		44

The Senate and President are unlikely to agree to H.R. 1 and not likely to reach a compromise on a CR for the rest of FY11 by Friday, March 4. Realizing this, the House has proposed a two-week CR - through March 18 - that is more modest in its cost-cutting and doesn't seem to include cut for the statistical agencies.

Whatever the resolution of the FY11 budget, its imperative for the statistical community to make sure the cuts in H.R. 1 are not enacted. Three major impacts are predicted for the Census Bureau: 1) American Community Survey (ACS) data would be less reliable, especially for smaller communities; (See the ACS one-pager) for more on the importance of the American Community Survey.) 2) The Census Bureau would likely have to terminate its updating of the address file for the decennial census, resulting in a more costly 2020 Census; 3) The Census Bureau would likely have to eliminate or cut back its evaluations of the 2010 census, which are designed to find ways to save money on the next census. See the Census Project's impact statement for further information.

The impacts of the cut to EIA - reversing its funding to the FY08 level - are less clear but no less significant. All initiatives would halted and data from surveys such as Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) would likely be impacted.

Of the $153 million cut from the FY11 request for the Census Bureau budget, $80 million came from an amendment offered by Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME) shifting those funds to the Economic Development Administration. There were at least six other amendments proposed that would have impacted the Census Bureau budget but were withdrawn or defeated. Congressman Steve Pearce's (R-NM) amendment would have eliminated funding forPeriodic Censuses and Programs ($914 million). Congressman James Lankford (R-OK) and Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL) each proposed a zeroing out of the American Community Survey budget. Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA) proposed transferring $150 million from the Census Bureau to the Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services hiring program and had a second amendment cutting the Census budget by $298 million. Congressman Steve Cohen's (D-TN) amendment would have transferred $2.5 million of Census funds to the Minority Business Development Agency.

For a bigger picture of the ongoing FY11 and FY12 budget deliberations, see "Congress and Administration Considering Budgets for Two Fiscal Years."

See also:

• "House of Representatives Goes on Budget Cutting Spree ," COSSA Washington Update, February 21, 2011, Volume 30, Issue 4. 
• The following excerpt by Frank Newport, President of American Association for Public Opinion Research,  from the 2/27 Washington Post piece, "What's lost in the House budget cuts," expands on the impacts to the Census Bureau:
  

  "The House-passed budget proposal includes $150 million in cuts for U.S. Census Bureau operations. These are penny-wise and pound-foolish. The investment the nation makes in gathering and publishing information about its citizens pays for itself many times over.
  
  The Census Bureau provides a fundamental service by continually measuring trends and changes in population and businesses - such data are vital to the nation's industries and to our collective ability to be economically competitive. Accurate census information is useful to entrepreneurs considering investments, businesses' decisions on locations or labor force, community planning, and more.
  
  More than $400 billion in federal program funding is based on information the Census Bureau has gathered in the years between the decennial censuses. Congressional decisions on policy and legislation often depend directly on information provided by the bureau.
  
  Our association represents more than 2,000 of the nation's leading marketing and survey researchers from business, industry, government agencies and the educational system. We understand that the census is the backbone and underlying structure of much of our profession's work.
  
  The key to economic and business success today is knowledge. Information provided by the Census Bureau is among the nation's most critical data. The Senate should restore these funds." 

• The NCHS Policy Watch (Issue XII for March 2011) described the H.R. 1/FY11 situation this way:

  "The House last month passed spending legislation that would cut $60 billion from the current fiscal 2010 spending levels for the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is cut by more than $1 billion under the House’s legislation; funding for the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is held flat at current levels of $138 million. While the president, House, and Senate had all provided a $23 million increase to NCHS in previous fiscal 2011 spending proposals, the best case for NCHS is maintaining its current funding. NCHS and other non-defense domestic programs will not receive funding increases this year.

  "The president issued a Statement of Administration Policy that he would veto a spending bill that cut as deeply as the House’s proposal, and Congress seems to be at an impasse with no clear path to a long-term solution. House Republicans insist on deep cuts, and Senate Democrats insist the House cuts go too far. Many experts suggest that a government shutdown is imminent. The last government shutdown occurred in 1995, a time similar to this year when Republicans had just retaken the House of Representatives. Federal agencies like NCHS would have to designate “critical” personnel to keep working during a shutdown, but routine work would likely be affected, further complicating agencies’ administrative work approach under the current continuing resolution."