NOV. 25, 2019 — The U.S. Census Bureau appreciates the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Inspector General’s commitment to a complete and accurate 2020 Census. However, the management alert entitled “Critical 2020 Census Systems Failed to Meet Peak Recruiting Demands During Testing” appears to rely upon an outdated draft testing document and is no longer current. 

We understand the critical nature of our hiring and payroll systems and are extremely confident that both systems will function as intended during peak 2020 Census operations.

Our current hiring and payroll systems have been in use since the 2010 Census and successfully:

• Supported our past 12 regions, over 500 local census offices, and 700,000 employees in comparison to our current six regions, 248 offices, and approximately 300,000-500,000 employees planned for 2020.
• Completed hiring and payroll for the first major 2020 Census operation in Oct. 2019 —  Address Canvassing — supporting over 750,000 applicants and 34,000 employees.
• Reached load testing targets for 2020 Census peak operations and will exceed those with even higher-level contingency load levels in the coming weeks.

###