We report this week on continuing IT problems at the U.S. Census Bureau. Normally, we'd take it in stride since every agency has its IT issues, slipping back on critical projects and stalling on others. But the Census Bureau has no wiggle room.

At the beginning of March, census forms will be mailed to every U.S. household, asking people to answer 10 questions and return the forms beginning April 1. This sounds simple, but the bureau has hired half a million temporary workers to make sure it happens. They are paid $15 to $20 an hour for their work.

They'll be going door-to-door asking people who haven't returned their forms to please do so, a reminder that may help the census drive up its returns.

But there is one problem: The Commerce Department inspector general has concluded that the bureau's software to schedule, deploy and pay these census takers has defects and is at risk. We find that to be an incredibly bad situation, one that is completely unacceptable.

The Census Bureau has known for a very long time that it has many problems that have to be fixed by the time the count gets underway. In November, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves testified before Congress that the agency planned to test technology after Thanksgiving to make sure the census is free of problems when it begins counting the population in April.

But reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and inspector general already have pointed out the lack of testing in various subsystems, an issue being evaluated by outside experts.

Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic issues at GAO, told the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives in October that the Census Bureau was having problems building an accurate database because the economy has caused so many foreclosures, and it might be hard to find people.

It's almost too late to correct the problems before counting more than 300 million people in the United States begins. The census should have completed testing all the systems and correcting every glitch by now. We can only hold our breath and cross our fingers that everything will run smoothly in the decennial count. It's time for the Census Bureau to throw caution to the wind, investigate every problem and work 24/7 to fix them. - Judi