Census Bureau Comes Under Fire
LEMON: All right. Make sure you check your mail. An official U.S. census form should show up in your mailbox in the coming days -- in the coming days. The Constitution mandates every 10 years, the federal government count each man, woman and child living right here in the good, old USA. So, what it does not mandate, however, is how much the census should cost. It turns out it's a whole lot. Here's CNN's Kate Bolduan.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Accounting for the nation's 300 million-plus residents is no doubt a big job. But it's also an expensive one. Total projected cost for the 2010 census: $14.7 billion. But it's the millions of dollars some argue the Census Bureau has already wasted that is coming under fire.</s>REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: You hear these horror stories of people being paid to do nothing. And that -- that's just infuriating when we're $12 trillion in debt.</s>BOLDUAN: According to a Commerce Department inspector general report, more than 15,000 employees were paid for attending census training but worked less than a single day or not at all. The cost, more than $5.5 million. Census Bureau Spokesman Stephen Buckner says those issues have been addressed.</s>STEPHEN BUCKNER, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU SPOKESMAN: We didn't do a good job at the beginning estimating the number of people that would stay on the job. However, since that operation and every operation since then, we've been on time and also on budget. It's a myth that the census is over budget.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Snapshot of America.</s>BOLDUAN: And then there's the Super Bowl ad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Isn't that kind of what the census is doing?</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Uh-huh.</s>BOLDUAN: Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a leading critic of the census, calls that an expensive embarrassment.</s>CHAFFETZ: I just think we need to go back and look at this and say, was this well executed? Was this well planned? Right now, I see, by the tens of millions of dollars going out the door, that's not really going to count that person that was hard to find in some part of whatever state.</s>BOLDUAN: Overall, the Census Bureau defends its outreach efforts, which include $85 million in mailers to encourage people to return their census form.</s>BUCKNER: It's very important we get an accurate count. As such it's costly. But we could actually save about $1.5 billion in taking of the census if every single person mailed back their form. Because it's a lot less expensive to mail back your form than for us to send a census taker to your door.</s>BOLDUAN (on camera): Census data helps determine everything, from congressional representation to where more than $400 billion in federal funding is directed each year. The lingering question is just how much does that need to cost taxpayers? Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.</s>DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: We still have many questions about why the census costs so much, and we know many of you do now. So we invited Stephen Buckner, who is a spokesman for the U.S. Census Bureau, to help explain some of these expenses. Thanks for joining us. This letter, I got one. A lot of people got one. It went out last week saying the census form was coming. A lot of people think it was a waste of money just to say it is coming, $85 million. What do you say to that?</s>BUCKNER: That's correct, Don. There's a lot of scientific research, and doing survey work that shows that if you send an advance letter or a trigger to someone saying that you're going to send them something in a week, that they'll actually have a higher response. Our own research here at the Census Bureau, we estimate between 6 percent to 12 percent bump in the response rate. So by spending $85 million to print and send postcards out to 120 million mailboxes that we did last week, we're actually going to hopefully, probably save about over $500 million, that's on the low side, by increasing response rates. It's less expensive to get the form back to us by mail than having the Census send a census taker out to your door.</s>LEMON: That's according to your own research, it will save you how much?</s>BUCKNER: We estimating between 6 percent to 12 percent increase in the response rate, over $500 million. It's both public and private research that says this is effective.</s>LEMON: Before I get to that, we have viewer questions, and a lot of people have been sending questions. Before we get to that, I want to ask you this. You have taken some heat for the Super Bowl ad. Why do you feel that it was necessary? Was it money well spent, do you think?</s>BUCKNER: The Super Bowl is certainly the best opportunity to put a message out there to the entire population, which is what the census has to do. It has to count every person living in the United States. The Super Bowl was the most watched Super Bowl to date. We're still talking about the Super Bowl ad over a month after the game. The ad did its job. It helped increase awareness. We've moved to a new set of ads that really gets at why you should complete your census form and how important it is for you and your community. So we think it was very effective. And here we are on the eve of the census. People are going to start getting their forms tomorrow, so we're excited at the Census Bureau.</s>LEMON: Let me get some of the questions here. I'm just going to be honest. Some people said, "The letter was a total waste of money. Don't send me a letter to tell me you're going to mail me another one." Another viewer says, "I was asking myself, how much did this cost, when the first letter came. TV, internet and social media reach more for less." Many people say, "Why not do it online"?</s>BUCKNER: We have an aggressive 2010census.gov Internet page and we're on the social media, trying to increase awareness about the census. But we took a look at the Internet response option earlier this decade. There were a couple conclusions that came out of that research. One, it didn't increase the response rate. Therefore, there was an additional cost to do that. We were really worried about the security of the Internet at that time. We take privacy and confidentiality of data very seriously at the Census Bureau. We couldn't ensure that that data could be -- remain confidential. So at that point, we decided not to do that for the 2010 census. But we are looking at it for the 2020 census, as we are do planning currently.</s>LEMON: You don't do it online, again, because you're concerned about security and sensitive information getting out, correct?</s>BUCKNER: Correct. That is correct.</s>LEMON: Great. Stephen Buckner, thank you. We appreciate it.</s>BUCKNER: Thank you very much, Don. Fill out your form.</s>LEMON: I definitely will. Thank you.</s>BUCKNER: Thank you.</s>LEMON: He claims his gas pedal was stuck in his Toyota Prius and it sped out of control. The problem is, tests aren't backing up his story. Plus, days after word of a huge settlement for Ground Zero workers, a new study looks at whether their health claims are for real.