President Obama's pick to lead the 2010 census has pledged to lawmakers that he will maintain his independence at the helm of the decennial count.
Robert Groves, who this week submitted written answers to a questionnaire prepared by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote that he would "actively resist any attempt at interference" by outsiders. Groves said he would resign if he encounters overwhelming political pressure that would compromise the process.
Republicans are wary (subscription) that census officials might attempt to use statistical sampling to correct for an undercount of minorities, an adjustment that would result in a boost in funding and congressional representation for Democratic areas.
Groves, whose confirmation hearing is set for Tuesday, reiterated the statement of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke that there are "no plans" to use sampling to adjust census data. "On matters of the scientific bases and statistical properties of the census ... the White House can have no role," Groves added.
The 2010 census has been a source of controversy throughout the transition period, beginning in early February with President Obama's selection of Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., to run the Commerce Department. The pick created a firestorm of protest (subscription) from minority groups who believed Gregg was unsupportive of efforts to adequately count their constituencies in the census -- leading the administration to announce it would wrest control of the Census Bureau from Commerce. This move created another angry backlash (subscription), this time from Republicans complaining that the White House was politicizing the census and making an unprecedented power play. When Gregg resigned on Feb. 12, he cited the census as one of the main reasons.
The storm seemed to die down when Gregg's replacement, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, insisted to Congress that Commerce would retain control of the Census Bureau after all. But a new controversy has emerged over Obama's pick to head the bureau, Robert Groves, a statistics expert from the University of Michigan. This time, Republicans are concerned that Groves will introduce statistical sampling to the 2010 count -- a practice that he unsuccessfully advocated as a bureau official in the early 1990s.
Eliza Krigman has more on the Groves controversy, and the difficulties facing the bureau less than a year out from the census, in this week's National Journal (subscription).
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
President Obama is tapping Robert Groves, a University of Michigan professor who has pushed the use of statistical sampling, to be the next Census Bureau director, the Associated Press reported. A Commerce Department official said the White House will make the announcement today.
Groves is an expert in survey methodology and statistics who served as an associate director of the Census Bureau from 1990-92. He and others recommended that the 1990 census be statistically adjusted to make up for an undercount, only to be overruled by then-Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher, a Republican.
Commerce Secretary-designate Gary Locke today affirmed that the yet-unnamed Census Bureau director will report directly to him, answering after being pressed by Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
House Republicans have been vociferous opponents of an initial Obama administration announcement, made when Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., was its choice to head the Commerce Department, that the Census Bureau director would report to the White House. Gregg eventually withdrew his nomination amid the census controversy.
Addressing GOP fears that the apportionment of federal resources and congressional redistricting -- determined by the decennial census -- would be influenced by a politicized inflation of minority and hard-to-reach populations, Locke vowed that the bureau will use an actual head count for apportionment and has "no plans to use any kind of statistical sampling with respect to population count."
For more on the hearing, read CongressDailyPM (subscription).
by JEANNETTE LEE, CongressDaily
Sens. Thomas Carper, D-Del. and John McCain, R-Ariz., and others on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Subcommittee are urging the president to nominate a Census Bureau director, pronto.
With just a year until the decennial count, the bureau has yet to thoroughly test new technologies, is thin on staff and is far from solving the long-standing problem of undercounting ethnic minorities, a GAO official told the panel at a hearing Thursday.
Given the tight deadlines, the leadership vacuum at the Census Bureau badly needs filling, said Carper, the subcommittee chairman.
"Uncertainties surround the bureau's readiness for 2010," testified Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic issues at GAO. "They are under the gun."
Goldenkoff and five other witnesses said a good troubleshooter at the helm would be key to pulling off what is slated to be the country's most expensive national headcount to date. Former Census Bureau Director Barbara Bryant urged the subcommittee to "do everything in your power and use your influence on the administration" to get a new director.
Carper asked each witness to recommend two prospects by the close of business today "who you think are well-equipped to do this job." Carper said he would forward the names to Commerce Secretary-designate Gary Locke, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and "probably" to Vice President Joe Biden, Carper's former fellow senator from Delaware.
"Maybe the administration has its own candidates," Carper said, but "we'll submit a talent pool in case they need help in that regard." Carper told CongressDaily he didn't have any nominees in mind, but "we know there are good people out there."
NextGov has more on the challenges facing the bureau as 2010 approaches.
