Life After the American Community Survey?

I am very concerned how federal funding for socioeconomic programs is going to be distributed equitably without relevant, current,  and reliables statistical information….

From the 22 May 2012 article at Stateline Daily

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote next month on an appropriations bill that could end the U.S. Census Bureau’s survey of state and local population, income, health and other data. Known as the American Community Survey, the federally funded program continuously samples about 3.5 million households each year to produce crucial data used to divvy some $400 billion in government money to states and localities, according to the Census Bureau.

…

Medicaid is the biggest federal program that relies on American Community Survey data to shift funding when states’ average incomes rise or fall. At about $270 billion in federal funding and nearly a quarter of state budgets, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people uses the survey’s income data to determine federal allocations that can have huge impacts on state budgets.

Allocation of education grants, highway money and other social services funding also rely on the data.  States also use the information to allocate state money to county and local governments. So far, it is unclear what data the federal government would use to allocate billions in grant money, if the survey is discontinued…

Related articles

• What Killing the American Community Survey Would Actually Mean (theatlanticcities.com)
• Killing the American Community Survey Blinds Business (businessweek.com)
• The idiotic war on the American Community Survey (modeledbehavior.com)
• The GOP’s anti-research agenda (maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com)
• What Happens When Congressmen Don’t Understand Statistics (alan.com)
• Why the American Community Survey is worth keeping (flowingdata.com)
• A Future Without Key Social and Economic Statistics for the Country (flowingdata.com)

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