Posted on Dec 22, 2022
A divided Congress may sideline protecting the census after Trump's interference
494
15
3
7
7
0
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/16/ [login to see] /census-political-interference-congress-senate-bill
On the list of unfinished business of the departing Democratic-controlled Congress is reforming an often-overlooked keystone of U.S. democracy — the census.
Democratic lawmakers were among the most prominent critics of the years of census interference by former President Donald Trump's administration. The meddling laid bare many of the vulnerabilities facing the national tally.
Those numbers are used to determine each state's share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, redraw voting maps for every level of government, and guide an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding for public services.
As risks to the 2020 count's accuracy mounted, Democrats held hearings, launched a congressional investigation and even took Trump officials to court after holding them in contempt of Congress. That extraordinary move came after the officials refused to hand over documents about their Supreme Court-blocked push for a census question about U.S. citizenship status, which was part of a scheme to exclude unauthorized immigrants from a key count the 14th Amendment requires to include the "whole number of persons" living in each state.
On the list of unfinished business of the departing Democratic-controlled Congress is reforming an often-overlooked keystone of U.S. democracy — the census.
Democratic lawmakers were among the most prominent critics of the years of census interference by former President Donald Trump's administration. The meddling laid bare many of the vulnerabilities facing the national tally.
Those numbers are used to determine each state's share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, redraw voting maps for every level of government, and guide an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding for public services.
As risks to the 2020 count's accuracy mounted, Democrats held hearings, launched a congressional investigation and even took Trump officials to court after holding them in contempt of Congress. That extraordinary move came after the officials refused to hand over documents about their Supreme Court-blocked push for a census question about U.S. citizenship status, which was part of a scheme to exclude unauthorized immigrants from a key count the 14th Amendment requires to include the "whole number of persons" living in each state.
A divided Congress may sideline protecting the census after Trump's interference
Posted from npr.orgPosted in these groups: 
Donald TrumpUS Census Bureau
Donald TrumpUS Census Bureau
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 3
3
3
0
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Former Census Bureau Director John Thompson has recommended limiting the number of political appointees at the bureau so that the agency is still run by career civil servants and giving more authority over the census to the bureau's director rather than the secretary of the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau. A key challenge, Thompson said, is how to make sure future appointees "have the best interest of our democracy at heart."
"The American people have it in their hands to elect people that respect our democracy. And they also have it in their hands to elect people that don't," Thompson said.
The bureau as an institution also has much work to do ahead of 2030, according to Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund who has served as an outside adviser to the agency. The more than tripling of the net undercount rate for Latinos in 2020 compared to a decade earlier, Saenz said, is an alarming signal about the country's second-largest racial or ethnic group that deserves more attention.
"That undercount could become a permanent feature of the census unless significant steps are taken today to address the very serious reputational harm dealt to the Census Bureau by the Trump administration and President Trump's very threatening rhetoric about immigrant families and his depiction of the census as a zero-sum game," Saenz added. "We can't wait until the eve of the 2030 census. That rehabilitation has to happen now."
..."Former Census Bureau Director John Thompson has recommended limiting the number of political appointees at the bureau so that the agency is still run by career civil servants and giving more authority over the census to the bureau's director rather than the secretary of the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau. A key challenge, Thompson said, is how to make sure future appointees "have the best interest of our democracy at heart."
"The American people have it in their hands to elect people that respect our democracy. And they also have it in their hands to elect people that don't," Thompson said.
The bureau as an institution also has much work to do ahead of 2030, according to Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund who has served as an outside adviser to the agency. The more than tripling of the net undercount rate for Latinos in 2020 compared to a decade earlier, Saenz said, is an alarming signal about the country's second-largest racial or ethnic group that deserves more attention.
"That undercount could become a permanent feature of the census unless significant steps are taken today to address the very serious reputational harm dealt to the Census Bureau by the Trump administration and President Trump's very threatening rhetoric about immigrant families and his depiction of the census as a zero-sum game," Saenz added. "We can't wait until the eve of the 2030 census. That rehabilitation has to happen now."
(3)
(0)
2
2
0
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good day Brother William, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
(2)
(0)
1
1
0
I hope that they do what's right! A polictical party might in influence the drawing of boundary lines drawn based on the completion of the census!
(1)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google