CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In the first monthly briefing in the run-up to the start of the 2010 Census, the director of the Census Bureau was frank Wednesday about the constant political pressures his agency is under but the Census Director Robert Groves insisted that the upcoming national count will be conducted in a nonpartisan way.

"There are tugs on us daily to get into the political fray," Groves said in a press conference at the National Press Club Wednesday. "It's my firm belief that the basis of credibility of the Census rests on the belief of the American public that we are nonpartisan and we're apolitical and we're a professional statistical bureau. And I need to fight that battle daily."

Groves called use of census data in reapportionment, the process of determining how many seats there will be in the House of Representatives, an "inherently, explicitly political" use of his agency's information that "is proper, that's constitutional, the founders thought about it. It's a great idea."

"What we have to do," Groves added, "is to acknowledge that the product of what we do has political uses but the process can never be politicized."

Concerns voiced mostly by conservatives and congressional Republicans about the Census Bureau's relationship with embattled community organizing group ACORN recently led the agency to put an end to the group's involvement in outreach for the upcoming national count.
Read the rest of this entry »

Rep. Michele Bachmann has said she will not provide much of the more detailed information called for in the 2010 Census form.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A trio of Republican congressmen are calling on a GOP colleague to completely fill out her 2010 Census form, following her vow to provide only basic information about her family.

In a statement released Wednesday, Republican Reps. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, and John Mica of Florida said that "boycotting the constitutionally-mandated census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country."

Bachmann expressed concerns last week about the level of detail demanded in the census form and questioned the federal government's ability to protect her family's personal data.
Read the rest of this entry »

The RNC sent out a fundraising e-mail Thursday that focuses on the 2010 census and the community organizing group ACORN.

(CNN) – New Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is ripping a page from the GOP's 2008 playbook.

In a fundraising e-mail sent to supporters Thursday, Steele looks to link community organizing group ACORN with the 2010 census which the new administration will conduct.

"It seems the Obama Administration has plans to rig the Census results," Steele says in the message.

"President Obama's old friends from ACORN . . . has [sic] been chosen by the Administration as a 'partner' with the Census Bureau to determine population counts in cities around the country."

"ACORN's community organizers are eager to once again take action to aid their old friend in the White House," says Steele. "You can be sure they'll be manipulating population numbers."

In a statement to CNN, Bertha Lewis, ACORN's chief organizer, denies Steele's assertions.

"I am disappointed in Mr. Steele's repetition of lies and distortions about our work for crass fundraising purposes," Lewis says. "ACORN is not getting billions from the federal government. We are not in charge of the Census. Just like the accusations of 'voter fraud,' – charges that were debunked repeatedly – these are imaginary and false. The truth is that ACORN is deeply engaged in ending the foreclosure crisis."

During the 2008 White House race, the GOP repeatedly suggested that ACORN and its employees were involved in voter registration fraud that might benefit Barack Obama, then the Democrat nominee for president. The accusation was subsequently leveled at ACORN by the McCain-Palin campaign, which also suggested ties between Obama, his campaign, and the community organizing group.

Both ACORN and the Obama campaign denied engaging in voter registration fraud.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg withdrew from consideration for Commerce Secretary in part because of policy differences with the White House over the 2010 census.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A report that the Obama administration will name an advocate of statistical sampling as the next census director has set off a fusillade of Republican criticism even though that choice has not been formally announced.

The Associated Press reported Thursday afternoon that the White House intends to nominate University of Michigan Prof. Robert M. Groves as the census director. Groves worked for the Census Bureau during the last census in 1990, and recommended at that time that the national head count be statistically adjusted to compensate for a possible undercount of millions of Americans.

"If true, this is an incredibly troubling selection that contradicts the Administration's assurances that the census process would not be used to advance an ulterior political agenda," California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said in a statement. "We have a constitutional obligation to count every American – not use the end result of a statistical formula. . . . Mr. Groves will have every opportunity to address these concerns during the confirmation process."

The reaction from North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry was even more forceful. "The fight to protect the accuracy and independence of the 2010 Census has just begun," McHenry, ranking member on a House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the census, said Thursday.

President Obama's decision to nominate Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican from New Hampshire, as Commerce Secretary sparked partisan concern on both sides of the aisle over the 2010 census. Gregg subsequently withdrew his name from consideration for the Cabinet post in part over policy differences with the new administration over the 2010 census.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - What do you call a federal program that's pumping billions into the economy and creating more than a million jobs?

Census 2010.

Though its not technically a stimulus operation, the upcoming decennial population count is helping boost the economy by putting 1.4 million people to work. The Census Bureau is also funneling money into local communities by renting office space and furniture and by buying equipment and supplies. And it is spending $212 million in advertising - mainly in 2010 - to urge people to return their forms.

Projected to cost $14 billion, Census 2010 is the most expensive ever in the nearly 220-year history of the population count. The bureau is also getting $1 billion from the federal stimulus package to augment operations, including increasing outreach efforts to minority communities and hard-to-reach groups.

The effort comes at an opportune time. With millions of Americans out of work and countless others suffering from reduced overtime and commissions, people are eager to land a government job, even if it's only for a few weeks.

Full story

President Obama's decision to nominate Sen. Judgg Gregg as Commerce Secretary has sparked concerns about who will control the 2010 census.

WASHINGTON (CNN)– President Barack Obama’s decision to cross party lines and nominate New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to run the Commerce Department has set off a partisan battle over the 2010 census.

African-American and Latino leaders are concerned that the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department, might lack sufficient resources under Gregg’s leadership to accurately count ethnic minorities.

And in response to statements from the White House that it will work closely with the bureau’s next director, some House Republicans are suggesting that the Obama administration could manipulate the 2010 tally to achieve a longer-term political advantage for Democrats because congressional redistricting depends on census results.

The Census has been the topic of political debate in the past. Many experts believed that the door-to-door approach used in the 1990 Census count missed 1 to 2 percent of the total U.S. population, with many of those uncounted Americans thought to be minorities who lived in urban areas. To address that concern, Census officials proposed using some basic statistical techniques to fill in the gaps. Democrats tended to favor this approach, which were expected to increase the population count in areas of Democratic strength; Republicans tended to oppose the new techniques for similar reasons. The controversy even reached the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1990s.

Gregg, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and of the subcommittee that oversees the Commerce Department, cast a vote in 1995 to abolish the entire department, and in 1999 opposed emergency funding for the 2000 census.

Read the rest of this entry »