I've been telling you about widespread problems with the Census Bureau's Labor Department surveys — problems that have skewed the nation's unemployment rate.
Now Congress is set to weigh in on the issue.
There are "a number of flaws in the current quality assurance process for the Census Bureau's data collection efforts nationwide," Congress reveals in a report to be released Thursday.
"It is imperative," the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, reads, that "the Census Bureau take swift corrective action to ensure data integrity."
Todd Zinser, the Inspector General of the Commerce Department, which oversees Census, will be on the hot seat in his expected testimony at Thursday's hearing.
Census conducts surveys for many different public and private organizations, which includes gathering crime statistics for the Justice Department and medical information for the Department of Health and Human Services.
But its best-known and most closely scrutinized survey is the one that produces the monthly unemployment rate for Labor.
The report on the Census Bureau, which is a direct result of a New York Post investigation, is being made public on the same day that the House Committee on Oversight And Government Reform is holding a hearing on the quality of US government statistics. The report, "US Census Bureau: Addressing Data Collection Vulnerabilities," was written by the Oversight Committee along with the Congress Joint Economic Committee.
One of the report's most stunning accusations is that the Commerce Department, which oversees Census, obstructed Congress's probe.
"The foremost challenge," the report reveals, "was lack of cooperation from Department of Commerce officials."
"The Department's obstruction made it difficult for the Committee to prove — or disprove — the allegation of widespread falsification and had significant impact on the length of the investigation," according to the report.
Commerce was slow in producing documents, according to the report. And, as I've already reported, Commerce prepared Census workers before they were interviewed by Congress, the report confirms.
As I've written in past columns, workers in at least three of the six regions of the Census Bureau have told me that data were being falsified. All said it was to meet quotas — but one source told me early in my investigation that the Philadelphia region seemed keen to political concerns right before the last Presidential election.
The report did not find evidence of political pressure in regard to the surveys. Investigators did not, however, address the fact that 120 Census laptop computers on which data is gathered were unaccounted for in the Philadelphia region just weeks before the 2012 election.
There is also empirical evidence that data falsification — whatever the motive — was widespread. Labor requires that Census succeed in interviewing 90 percent of the households it approaches. That quota was easily reached before I started writing about this issue.
Now most of the regions are falling well below that goal. If they can't cheat, they can't seem to complete the survey. The report does not mention the sudden shortfall in completed interviews.
Commerce IG Zinser, I recently reported, has come under intense pressure from a committee in the House that seems to be acting as a proxy for Oversight. Four committee members blasted Zinser for his mistreatment of whistleblowers like the ones who provided info in the Census case.
Let's hope Zinser will feel the appropriate amount of heat at Thursday's hearing as Congress attempts to get to the bottom of the Census data manipulation controversy.
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