Preparations for the 2010 census are a shambles.

Committees in the House have been holding hearings to vet the problems and monitor progress. But with each hearing, it becomes more obvious that prospects for a robust census are unlikely to improve considerably unless and until the next president brings in new leaders. They are needed at the Commerce Department, which includes the Census Bureau, and at the bureau itself, which  like so many federal agencies  has been mismanaged and demoralized during the Bush years.

Congress, in the meantime, has damage control to do. For starters, lawmakers should pass a census funding bill for 2009, pending now in the House, that includes a ban on the use of the bureau’s budget to offer prizes to people for sending in their census forms. It’s morally dubious  and bad public policy  to bribe people to do their civic duty.

Also, research has shown that people who do not fill out their census forms would be unlikely to fill out prize forms, too. Including a sweepstakes with the census would invite errors, such as multiple submissions. But all those well-documented negatives have not stopped the Commerce Department from supporting the idea.

Lawmakers must also ensure that the final census funding bill includes a provision from the House version that would require the bureau to spend $8 million to $10 million of its budget on the Census in Schools program. The program, which provides take-home materials to educate families about the census, proved effective in reaching hard-to-count populations during the 2000 census. But the House committee that oversees the bureau learned last spring that the Commerce Department planned to shrink the program.