Summary: Over the last year, GAO has chronicled the fundamental changes that the Census Bureau has been making in its census methodology to contain costs and improve accuracy. GAO remains concerned about the long-term prospects for reform, given the Bureau's slow progress to date and the significant challenges that still confront the agency. Although GAO is encouraged by the recent testing of proposals to modify the census methodology, it believes that the Bureau must aggressively plan for and carefully implement its research, testing, and evaluation programs. Results of these efforts must be made available to ensure fully informed and timely decisions and to build needed consensus among key stakeholders and customers for changes in the 2000 census. Continuing top-level leadership at the Census Bureau, the Commerce Department, and the Office of Management and Budget is critical to generating consensus on the direction of change and the implications of census reform for federal and other data needs. As long as the position of Bureau Director remains vacant, however, the Census Bureau will lack a fully vested and authoritative voice.
