Pursuit's Take
The Census Bureau recognizes that it must fundamentally change its decennial design to improve the enumeration quality of the 2020 Census and contain life cycle costs within its preliminary estimates of $12.8–18 billion.
Our review of select early 2020 Census planning efforts found that the assessments and other studies from the previous census cycle lagged behind schedule. By February 2012, the Bureau had released 14 reports—however, according to its revised schedule, 38 reports should have been released by December 31, 2011. Delays in completing the 109 studies from the 2010 CPEX create a risk that results may not be available as inputs for the thirty-five 2020 Census research projects slated to begin during FY 2012.