Now wilbur ross talking about efforts to modernize operations at the u. S. Census euro ahead of the next count schedule or 2020. This portion is two hours. The census ensures every vote, every person should be counted. Four reapportionment is important for constituting our government, also worked the resources and services of our government. The census is vitally important for a number of visas are you it is eminently predictable. There are a few things quite like the census. It happens every 10 years whether you are ready or not you it is incredibly important beginning with the fundamental truth of counting every one of our fellow citizens. We know well in advance when it is coming so we cannot complain when we are caught off guard and that we did not see it. Have a couple years before we count everyone but now is the time to make sure we are ready to count everyone with accuracy, security, and professionalism. We are concerned with cost, citizens are hearing about cuts, and there are concerns about the deficit and debt which is also important. It is also important we get this done accurately in a fashion worthy of the worlds great democracy. What would be even worse than unexpectedly high cost is a next giggly high cost coupled with less than full success. We want to make sure the census is a consent a success. Would you help make sure the right questions are asked in a timely fashion. Ross, i appreciate his time and the time he has given our committee before today as well as his appearance today. We live in a country that is increasingly skeptical of whether or not we can get things done right in a timely fashion and in a responsible way. Our country as a whole, irrespective of the region you may live or political ideation, would appreciate a good story of how a Government Entity was prepared to come up efficient, and exceeded expectations. 2020 may seem like a long ways off. It is coming. When it comes we are going to have counted 300 million plus people accurately. Essencetime is of the of the essence even today. With that i would welcome witnesses especially secretary ross ag yield the remainder of my time to my friend mr. Meadows. Think you. Thank you for your leadership on this particular issue. As we go into this hearing today it is critically important that we all realize that while 2020 is a good ways off, we have already missed critical testing and critical implementation that should have already been done according to our own schedule that we have had in previous hearings. The i. T. Systems that are out there, there are some 43 i. D. Systems that need to be implimented. Yet today only for have actually been fully implemented via another 31 are only partially 18 have not been delivered in any way form or fashion. Continue to have hearings over and over and over again about the critical nature of making sure that we not only get systems implemented, but tested, and that we do testing on a basis to make sure that cybersecurity, other fumbles do not happen. Yet here we are today on another concerned thatm the focus will be on the 3 billion in terms of a budget shortfall and not on the other Critical Mission steps that have to be addressed. Lets today focused not on the 3 billion but on the Management Issues that must be done. In doing so we are talking a whole lot about Disaster Relief in every other area. Today is a day we need to Start Talking about the vast relief for what will be a disaster if we dont get on this today. Mr. Secretary thank you for coming. I have been informed by some of your staff that you are on this and that you plan to make sure this is not just a budgetary component, it is a component that actually looks at the management procurement. I was pleasantly assured of that this morning. We look forward to hearing from you. I thank you for your leadership and as we get this right i look forward for this to be a good story in the years to come. The gel and from no one does recognized. Thank you. If there is one point we can get across to those watching todays hearing, i believe it is simply this. The Census Bureau is dangerously underfunded and has been for years. Unless we do something about it right now, not yesterday, not today, but right this moment, this massive deficiency could unfurl the fairness and accuracy of the census of self. Ablecans expect us to be to do things right. I think the chairman would agree with me. Inwant to be effective efficient in whatever we do. Mr. Meadows is right. Money,ot just a thing of it is a thing of operation and making sure things are done aoperly area this is not partisan observation. Both progressive and secure conservatives agree current projections are way way way way way way way way way way way too low. The census is understaffed and underfunded. America is in serious danger of the census going wrong. Gentlemen, we cannot. Fford to allow that to happen this is the United States of america. The exceptional nation. If we cannot count the 300 plus Million People who are in our country, i dont know how exceptional well be determined to be. Last month the conservative American Enterprise institute joined with a senator on budget and policy priorities in Warning Congress that current level of flat or near flat funding, quote, is unprecedented and would significantly undercut efforts to conduct an accurate survey, end of quote. They warned that, quote, shortchanging the census is pennywise and pound foolish. That it, quote, jeopardizes the bureaus ability to implement costeffective new technologies end of quote, and it, quote, could backfire, costing taxpayers more in the long run. End of quote. I say that we are better than that. Id like to show a few charts that illustrate this urgent problem. It wont show up on the screen, but members it will show up on your screens at your desks. First, as we all know, funding for Census Bureau is strictly increases dramatically in years eight through ten of each decade to accommodate the rampup in activities for the census in year ten. The first chart shows funding for the last four decades in inflation adjusted dollars. For the 1990 census, the bureau increased from 596 million to 3 billion over the last four years. For the 2000 census, it increased from 535 million to 6. 9 billion over this period. For the 2010 census it increased from 1. 1 billion to 8. 4 billion over this period. But what are we doing now . We are basically flatlining. The Trump Administration did not request a significant increase for 2018. You can see the same trends when you look at the budget from a percentage basis, which is what this next chart shows. The 1990 census had a massive increase in the last four years of the cycle. As did the 2000 census and the 2010 census. But here is where we are now. The administration is not on track to match past increases for 2020. If we use these historical trends to project forward total Census Bureau funding would be increasing over the next several years. But that is not what is happening. As this last chart shows, there is a shortfall of about 760 million when you compare what the administration is requesting to past trends. I say that we are better than that. Now Congress Shares part of the blame, no doubt about it. In 2012, congress insisted that the Census Bureau spend less on the 2020 census than it spent on the 2010 census. Congress refused to acknowledge or budget for two of the most significant and predictable drivers of Cost Increases that occur between each census inflation and population growth. Aggravating this problem even more, congress appropriated even less than the Census Bureau requested in every single year since 2012. Now some people will argue that the Census Bureau was supposed to save billions of dollars this time around by using new i. T. Innovations to reduce the number of workers it needs to hire and increase the number of people who submit their forms online. The problem is that when you starve the Census Bureau year after year after year, it cannot make the investments needed to implement these innovations. And this is exactly what happened. And im sure secretary ross will talk about that. As a former director of the Census Bureau, john thompson, who left his position this summer, explained to the Washington Post just this week, and i quote, had we been funded to do everything we asked for then, wed be much farther ahead, end of quote. He continued, quote, at this point, theyre going to have to go back and do some of it your way, with paper and pencil. End of quote. With paper and pencil. This is the exceptional nation. The one that has done the census over and over and over and over again. Secretary ross, i want to thank you for being here today and for Briefing Members of the Committee Last week. I understand you have limitations on your time, but mr. Secretary, we beg you to we have members im sure the chairman will emphasize this. We have members that are very interested in this subject. And i hope unless youre meeting with the president , i hope that you can spare us a few extra moments because we do want to get to members. As i close, i know you will get into this during your testimony, but i appreciate that as a result of your own teams review, youve also recommended that the administration increase its requests for 2018 by 187 million. And thank you for doing that, because so often we have secretaries come in and they dont say exactly what they need because they dont want to get people upset. But this is just too important. I commend you for taking this step, and i know you understand the importance of this issue as a former eenumerator yourself. However, i believe that even this request is far too low, too low. Did you hear me, secretary . Too low. Especially given the number of tests that have been canceled and extremely low number of hires at the moment. And so i know you are constrained in your current position. I was amazed to hear that the office of management and budget rejected your request for an additional 50 million for contingencies that are virtually certain to occur. Nevertheless, we have a responsibility under the constitution of the United States to ensure that the census is fund ed aed a kwatly, and that the census has the resources it needs to conduct a fair and accurate census. This should matter to each and every one of us because while we historically discuss minority and immigrant populations being undercounted, low income and Rural Communities are also at risk of being missed, particularly in a digital census. For this reason, yesterday i joined my colleague representative Carolyn Maloney who also chairs the congressional census caucus in introducing legislation to fund the bureau at 1. 935 billion this year. An amount that reflects budget projections from the bureaus fiscal year 2017 budget, and an extra 135 million for increases in the necessary funds for the ccap program. As i close, we must recognize the gravity of the situation we are facing. And mr. Chairman, i think. You have taken on this matter very, very seriously. As you said earlier, we had very informative meeting with the secretary. I think that helped to lay a foundation for this meeting. And i look forward to the testimony. And thank you very much for your indulgence. The gentleman from maryland yields back, we want to welcome you, mr. Secretary. Pursuant to committee rules, im going ask you to please stand and well administer the oath. If you raise your right hand, you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony youre to be give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so, help you god . Let the record reflect that the witness answered in the affirmative. You may take your seat, mr. Secretary. Your entire Opening Statement will be made part of the record. Youll have five minutes to summarize that. I want to say as mr. Cummings did, we appreciate the fact that there are other demands on your time, and we want to be good stewards on your time. The census is one of the unusual entities that is squarely within the jurisdiction of this committee. And there are lots of members that have questions. So what im going to ask of my colleagues on both sides is to exercise the selfrestraint of getting your questions done within five minutes. Im notoriously slow on the gavel because its hard to unlock the mist travel office world in five minutes. But im going to ask my colleagues to selfdiscipline to get it done within five minutes so everyone can have a chance to interact with you, and we can also be a good stewart of your time. With that, i would invite you to turn on the microphone and you are recognized for your Opening Statement. Thank you very much. Chairman gowdy, Ranking Member cummings, and members of the committee, thank you for your continuing support and your discerning oversight. Thank you also for allowing the Opening Statements to be read while i was reviewing some of the newly developed materials so i could comment on it myself. An efficient 2020 census that provides a full, fair and accurate count has been one of my highest priorities since being confirmed in february. I myself was an enumerator as i work midway through business school. And so i have a strong appreciation for the responsibilities and the unique challenges of counting everyone in the United States once every ten years. Any operation that must hire and manage half a million temporary employees with complex and new technological systems and with rigid completion dates is bound to be a difficult undertaking for even the most experienced managers. And its been clear to me from the beginning of my tenure that census would be one of the most challenging aspects of the entire commerce portfolio. I agree with the members of this committee. The census is the bedrock upon which we construct our system of democratic representation. It provides for apportionment, redistricting, and the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funding. Accordingly, some of my first meetings as the newly confirmed secretary of commerce were with the commerce staff. In those meetings i sought to identify and then address the key issues faced by the dicennial census. My early concerns were heightened when only two months into my tenure, the Census Bureau suddenly announced a 40 cost overrun in one component, namely, the census Enterprise Data collection and process inging cedcap program. A critical part of the infrastructure for the 2020 census. In terms of the broader dicennial census, the Prior Administrations last life cycle cost estimate in the october 2015 was 12. 5 billion. When testifying before congress in june, i did not accept that figure. Instead, i vowed to return to congress after a thorough review with a vetted 2020 census life cycle cost that i could support. The product of that review is what brings me here today. As promised, we assembled a team of experts to conduct an independent review of the estimate. And they have come back with numbers i now stand behind as we continue our preparation for 2020. The team is comprised of Financial Management experts from the department of commerce, from the office of management and budget, former census employees, two former Technology Executives with the experience in rolling out complex systems, as well as other experts with extensive private sector experience. In conducting our review, we looked at the many concerns raised by the gao and members of congress, including those on this committee about the Census Bureaus cost estimates. Im aware of the funding statistics presented by Ranking Member cummings and can assure you that the 760 billion budget shortfall and its impact is encompassed within our new life cycle projections. You will hear testimony from both the gao and the commerce ig discussing their concerns with the prior 2015 life cycle cost estimate. For example, the gao estimated that the i. T. Budget would be at least 4. 8 billion. Our estimate is 4. 96 billion. So 160 million over the floor that the gao estimated would be the correct number rather than the previously used one. I share their concerns, and their testimony will underline the need and justification for this new life cycle cost estimate. Gao also points out that there are 43 Technology Systems involved in the 2018 end to end test. Only four of those systems had completed development and integration tests as of august 2017. And of the 39, a function of the has been deployed in the 2018 end to end test. But that is not yet true for the remaining 18. With so much still under development, the need for a contingency to address possible overruns seems selfevident. These are just a few examples. The ig provided another example regarding address canvassing. Where they found that it would cost at least three times the amount the Census Bureau estimated in 2015. We agree with that, and we have incorporated that into our numbers. On the whole, we found that the Prior Administration provided congress and the public with overly optimistic assessments of both the ease of implementing new technologies and the cost save, they would provide. These issues were undoubtedly compounded by initial appropriation constraints. Also, procurement decisions created a series of silos, most of which had a small firm as the general contractor and a number of major firms as subcontractors. A very complex structure. Worse yet, many segments were on a time and materials basis. And in my view, thats the most dangerous form of a contract. The Prior