Congressman William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) is calling for a backup plan for the Census Bureau if they can’t fix problems with their new handheld electronic devices meant to assist in data collection

Clay, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Information and Technology, including the Census and National Archives, said he was angry at the agency’s failure to disclose the problems with the new technology.

“Whether the Census fixes the handheld computers or goes back to pen and paper, I want to assure the American people that we will get this right in 2010,” Clay said in a written release Wednesday.

The program has been hampered by a series of technical glitches.