The U.S. Census Bureau has accomplished the rare task of uniting both houses and both parties of Congress in frustration over the Bush administration’s preparation for the 2010 census.

The cause of much of the exasperation is a $595 million technology contract for hand-held devices used by census-takers to verify addresses and manage information.

The contract is now at $624 million and badly behind schedule, and the prospect is looming of Census Bureau employees actually using pen and paper to conduct the 2010 census.

Both Democrats and Republicans said they believe the problems will be solved by January 2010, but said poor leadership by controversial former Census chief Charles Louis Kincannon had exacerbated the situation. Current director Steven Murdock has replaced Kincannon, a Bush appointee. Murdock was confirmed by the Senate last year and took office in January.

Gutierrez, whose department oversees the Census Bureau, told senators Wednesday of persistent problems with the Field Data Collection Automation Program, a three-part system that collects, verifies and stores address information from the populace.

The government contracted with the Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris Corporation in April 2006 for the devices, and first tested them last spring. But concerns over the devices have grown steadily, with Commerce officials expressing particular worry that the problems may not be fixable before the Census process starts. Many of the problems concerned “significant miscommunication” with Harris over technical glitches with the devices’ speed and storage capabilities, Gutierrez said.

The Census Bureau launched an internal “SWAT” team to tackle the troubles in November, but when the problems were relayed to Harris Corp. officials, the company signaled “substantial increases” in the contract cost and “raised new questions about staying on schedule,” Gutierrez said.

“There is no question that both the Census Bureau and Harris could have done things differently and better over the past couple of years,” Gutierrez told the committee. “I should add at this point that in late 2006 leadership changes took place.”

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) chaired Wednesday’s committee hearing and was among many who blamed Kincannon’s leadership but praised Murdock’s grasp of the situation.

“The situation has been very poorly managed, as Secretary Gutierrez himself said,” Carper said.

“We’re going to move heaven and earth to make sure we get a good census, and we have a new census director who is fully engaged. It’s just too bad he wasn’t on board a year ago.”

The frustration is bipartisan. The committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, called the contract’s problems “enormous” and also said past Census officials were largely to blame.

“I’m concerned that the census might have to revert to a pen-and-paper census,” Collins said.

“There’s been a great deal of money spent on the contract with little to show for it. The Census Bureau now has a new director, but it does not appear that previous directors were straightforward with the committee about the problems.”

The frustration is also bicameral. In the House, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the chamber’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he also plans to use his panel to scrutinize the situation.

“It is clear that there are major problems with the hand-held devices the Census Bureau plans to use to conduct major parts of the decennial census,” Waxman said in a statement. “We continue to monitor cost and scheduling issues and will likely schedule hearings in the near future to assess the bureau’s plans to address this issue.”

Gutierrez said an internal panel that includes former Census Bureau directors Ken Prewitt and Vince Barabba and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is considering how to proceed. Cost overrun projections were not yet available, he said, although the census’s original cost is at almost $12 billion.

Harris spokesman Marc Raimondi said that “additional requirements” from customers are not unusual for programs of such massive size and scope, and that the company is responding as best it can.

“Managing those changes is a challenging process; however, we remain 100 percent committed to supporting the Census Bureau’s efforts to have a successful, automated, and secure 2010 decennial census,” he said.

Carper said he plans another hearing in April to assess the bureau’s progress.

Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) delegated Wednesday’s hearing to Carper’s leadership because Carper’s subcommittee has previous conducted oversight of census functions.

Lieberman issued a statement Wednesday that noted the census has been criticized in a recent Government Accountability Office report and that a census advisory group has suggested the bureau develop a contingency plan to use pen-and-paper methods for the 2010 census.

“Ten years into the 21st century, it is inexcusable that the Census Bureau must still rely on paper and pencils to perform its most important function,” Lieberman said.