For good policy, we need good data
After a year of calls and letters, in January, Congress secured funding for the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) for 2007. Unfortunately, the President's budget for 2008 eliminates funding for the SIPP yet again, and allocates a meager $15.9 million to further develop the Dynamics of Economic Well Being (DEWS), a new survey the Bureau is developing to replace the SIPP. While we applaud the Bureau's effort to develop a more accurate and accessible survey, we believe it would be a great mistake to eliminate the SIPP, our government's only reliable source of longitudinal data on household well-being, before the DEWS has been tested and proven its superiority.
446 researchers from around the country agree! Click here to read our letter to House and Senate appropriators urging them to fully fund the SIPP in 2008.