Census Bureau to stay with Commerce Secretary
According to The Hill.com the Obama administration has scrapped plans to have the Census Bureau
director report directly to the White House instead of the Secretary of Commerce.
Commerce Secretary nominee Gary Locke provided two key assurances, according to aides: that the census would
stay out of the White House’s hands, and that so-called sampling will
be used minimally, as an accuracy check. This was after Locke had met with key Senators; Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) on the 4th of March.
At issue was the question of "sampling", a statistical method by which a population has been estimated based on a smaller section. The Constitution however calls for “an actual enumeration,”. Sampling makes
results less accurate and more susceptible to political bias.
This appeared to be a major hurdle for the Obama administration when the Secretary of Commerce was to be a Republican, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). After the Congressional Black Caucus members raised the roof over worries concerning a Republican controlled census, President Obama subsequently announced that the Census director, who has not yet been appointed, would report to him, not the Secretary of Commerce.
This move of course was in direct conflict with the constitution.
However, now that it appears a Democrat will lead the Commerce Department, concern over the census has dissipated. The White House will still have a firm handle on the conduct of the 2010 census. “The census is an entity of the Department of Commerce. The Commerce
secretary will oversee that, obviously in consultation with Congress
and the White House,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
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