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).
