Census Bureau Receives Additional $1bn for 2020 Launch

Congress has sent President Trump legislation which includes $3.82bn for all Census Bureau operations - a $1bn increase in funding for Fiscal Year 2019 - following lobbying by the Census Project coalition.

The FY19 funding is on top of about a billion dollars in forward funding providing in the final FY18 'appropriations law', that allowed 2020 Census preparations to continue during the last few months, despite the lengthy government shutdown. According to the Census Bureau, at least $8bn will be needed for the roll out in 2020.

Howard Fienberg, co-director of the Census Project coalition and VP Advocacy for the Insights Association, stated: 'Congress has stepped in with necessary funding at this crucial last year of preparation before the 2020 headcount. While the marketing research and data analytics industry is grateful for this bipartisan agreement to ensure the 2020 Census's proper funding, we can't rest on our laurels. Anything less than a full, fair, and accurate decennial headcount would jeopardize the accuracy of every statistically-representative survey in the US for the next decade,'

Due to take place in April 2020, the next United States Census will be the 24th since its launch in 1790. Last month, US District Judge Jesse Furman blocked the introduction of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, over concerns that it could deter responses from immigrants, both legal and illegal. However, on Friday, the Supreme Court said that it would take up the case this term to decide whether the Trump administration can add the citizenship question to the 2020 census. The justices will hear the case in April.

Web sites: www.census.gov and www.thecensusproject.org .ing TPG, Apax, Bain Capital and Cinven - are considering making a bid to buy marcoms giant WPP's market research division Kantar, according to an article in yesterday's Sunday Times.

Last October, WPP began a formal process to review the future ownership of Kantar, after reporting that revenue for its DIM division had fallen 4.9% during the second quarter to £640m. The division (previously known as Consumer Insights) houses Kantar companies including Kantar TNS, Kantar Millward Brown and Lightspeed, along with many specialist firms.

Then in November, WPP's CFO Paul Richardson confirmed the group's plan to sell up to 80% of Kantar, in a bid to address recent weak company performance. According to yesterday's article, 'private equity titans are circling' Kantar as WPP prepares to sell a majority stake in the £3.5bn business. WPP says that its adviser, Goldman Sachs, will send details to prospective bidders soon.

The move is part of a strategy drawn up by CEO Mark Read (pictured), that will result in the loss of around 3,500 jobs, but will also add 1,000 new ones, while delivering estimated annual savings of £275m by the end of 2021.

Web sites: www.wpp.com and www.kantar.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.