Census plan gets scrapped

By GottaLaff

Stuff and non-cens(us):

The Obama administration has scrapped plans to have the Census Bureau director report directly to the White House, assuaging the concerns of lawmakers.

Commerce Secretary nominee Gary Locke met with key senators Wednesday to reassure them that the 2010 census would be managed by the Commerce Department, and not the White House.

Locke met with Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) to defuse concerns that had arisen over stewardship of the census.

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. [...]

Debate has been rife over whether Census officials should use sampling, a statistical method by which a population has been estimated based on a smaller section. Republicans say the Constitution calls for “an actual enumeration,” and that sampling makes results less accurate and more susceptible to political bias. [...]

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called for a House investigation. Many in the GOP feared White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2006 cycle — would be heavily involved in managing the census. [...]

Hutchison emphasized that by law, Congress has oversight over the census even though the executive branch conducts it.

It appears that now that a Democrat will lead the Commerce Department, concern over the census has dissipated.