Commerce Chief Isn't Fretting Over Watchdog’s Criticism of Census Cost Estimate

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is sticking with a disputed year-old estimate that put the likely cost of the coming 2020 census at $15.5 billion, or a $3 billion increase over an estimate prepared in 2015. Ross responded to a Government Accountability Office report dated for August but released on Monday stating that the latest estimate “does not fully reflect characteristics of a high-quality estimate as described in our Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide and cannot be considered reliable.” Planning for the decennial census has been plagued by a stretched budget, turnover in bureau leadership and lawsuits over the plan to add a new question on citizenship.