No fewer than four government contractors have written me regarding the Census debacle described in the Wall Street Journal today, complaining that the government is one of the worst customers in terms of laying down specifications.

One, who is familiar with the Census contract, blames Congress for the debacle and offers this explanation:

Census information is protected under the Title 13 statute which requires a very high level of protection over the personal information of US citizens. The protocols and encryption standards that the census handheld must utilize are non trivial, and are not met by current cellular technologies. The irony is that [Blackberries or iPhones] could actually be used by Census, if Congress were to change the Title 13 requirements. I’m eagerly awaiting Tom Coburn’s sponsorship of appropriate legislation.
In addition, there is a complete set of Information Security Certification and Accreditation regulations that the handheld must pass that are also mandated by Congress. Note that Fedex and UPS are free to design and implement devices to meet their business needs and are free to accept the risks of information compromise as a business risk. Government systems have a much higher regulatory standard that they must meet.
…Finally, the biggest problem with the program has turned out to be cultural resistance on the backend operations. The handhelds aren’t the problem, it is getting the Census systems to accept electronic inputs instead of manual entry from paper forms…