Bush Budget ends important Census data-collection effort

The SIPP is a longitudinal survey designed to provide detailedinformation on the economic situation of households and persons in theUnited States. These data examine the distribution of income, wealth,and poverty in American society and gauge the effects of federal andstate programs on the well-being of families and individuals.   Thesurvey also collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, andparticipation in government transfer programs. SIPP data allow thegovernment to evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, and localprograms.
The SIPP collects data from households on sources and amountsof income, labor force information, program participation andeligibility, and general demographic characteristics to measure theeffectiveness of existing federal, state, and local programs; toestimate future costs and coverage for government programs, such asfood stamps; and to provide improved statistics on the distribution ofincome in the country.
http://www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/overview.html
 
Dueto federal funding constraints, the FY2007 President’s budget for theCensus Bureau removes the continued full funding of the Survey ofIncome and Program Participation (SIPP) program in order to fund higherpriority programs – most notably the 2010 Decennial Census. . .  the budget does include fundsto close out the current SIPP Panel and to begin planning a new datacollection system on income, wealth, and program dynamics that meetsthe policy needs of the country. Full funding for the SIPP in FY2007would have provided for the preparation, collection, and processing ofdata for waves 10 and 11 (Annual Income, Taxes, and RetirementAccounts; Child Support Agreements; Adult and Child Disability; AdultWell-Being; Work Schedules; and Child Care) of the 2004 Panel, as wellas the continuation of instrument and system modernization for the next panel of SIPP, which was planned to begin in February 2009.

Thedecreased FY2007 budget includes a total of $9.2M, of which $3.6M willcover a portion of the costs of collecting data through Wave 9 (January2007) of the 2004 SIPP Panel. Our intention is to enlist the support of SIPPpartner agencies to provide the remaining funding (approximately $6.4M) for collecting and processing the 2004 Panel through Wave 9. Without this additional support, data collection for the SIPP 2004Panel will end in September 2006.

The remaining$5.6M in the FY2007 budget will be used to begin planning anddevelopment for a new approach to providing wealth, income, healthinsurance, and program participation data for the general population ofthe United States.  This “reengineering” of the program will takeadvantage of the advances that the Census Bureau has made in acquiringand integrating administrative records with survey data in recentyears, and in modeling
for local area estimates.

Themeasurement program will be a collaborative effort between thetraditional SIPP stakeholders, such as the Office of Management andBudget, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Healthand Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department ofLabor, the Small Business Administration, and the Congressional BudgetOffice.  The focus will be on meeting the information needs of theseagencies as well as other researchers and policy makers.  The CensusBureau will soon begin a series of consultations to develop thisprogram.