Posted on 02/05/2009 8:25:27 PM PST by STARWISE
The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday that the as-yet-unnamed Census Bureau director will have a direct line to the White House but sought to define the relationship as one in which the director would “work closely with” rather than report to President Obama’s senior staff.
***After black and Hispanic leaders raised concerns over Commerce Secretary-nominee Judd Gregg ’s commitment to core functions of the Census Bureau, a senior White House official told CQ on Wednesday that the director would report directly to the White House.***
That brought fire Thursday from Republicans, who accused the White House of attempting to gain advantage in the politically delicate process of counting Americans and of violating the law by circumventing the Commerce secretary.
The decennial census is used to determine the apportionment of congressional districts among the states and federal funding for numerous programs.
The White House took a small step back from what the senior official told CQ, releasing a statement late Thursday that couched the relationship between the Census Bureau director and the West Wing as one in which the director would work with the high-level officials rather than report directly to them.
“From the first days of the transition the census has been a priority for the president, and a process he wanted to reevaluate,” White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.
“There is historic precedent for the director of the Census, who works for the Commerce secretary and the president, to work closely with White House senior management — given the number of decisions that will have to be put before the president. We plan to return to that model in this administration.”
House Republicans are incensed about the prospect of the Census Bureau director reporting directly to the White House staff, which is led by former Rep. Rahm Emanuel (2003-09), a longtime political operative and onetime chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“Any attempt by the Obama administration to circumvent the census process for their political benefit will be met with fierce opposition as this ill-conceived proposal undermines a constitutionally obligated process that speaks to the very heart of our democracy,” said California Rep. Darrell Issa , the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Issa and North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, the top Republican on the subcommittee that oversees census issues, sent a letter to Obama detailing their concern that such a move might circumvent existing law and be used for partisan gain.
“Requiring the census director to report directly to the White House and placing responsibility for administration of the Bureau outside the Department of Commerce may even violate federal law,” they wrote.
“According to Title 13 of the U.S. Code, the Bureau is to be administered ‘within, and under the jurisdiction of, the Department of Commerce.’ ”
The selection of a Republican Commerce secretary by a Democratic president was always certain to cause some discomfort on the political left and the political right.
Gregg’s record on Census Bureau funding, in particular, highlighted the high stakes political battle over how people are counted.
Gregg opposed “emergency” funding for the 2000 census and sought to fund Justice Department programs at the expense of Commerce programs when he ran the Commerce-Justice appropriations panel. He also voted for a Republican-written budget that called for abolishing the Commerce Department in 1995.
“The constitutionally mandated decennial census needs to be fair, accurate and trusted. By circumventing the secretary of Commerce’s oversight of the Census Bureau and handing it directly to a political operative such as Mr. Emanuel, you are severely jeopardizing the fairness and accuracy of the 2010 census,” Issa and McHenry wrote.
As we've been reporting for the last couple of days, the Obama administration is considering placing a buffer between Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg and the Census Bureau to alleviate concerns among black and Latino leaders that he would try to downsize census outreach efforts.
CQ's Jonathan Allen moves the ball a bit the is morning, citing unnamed administration sources saying the bureau would likely report directly to the White House.
That's consistent with what we've been hearing from Hill staffers, though there may be a twist.
Sources on the Hill close to these negotiations say the Census would, more or less by default, would fall under the jurisdiction of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
That would be fine for Dems; But how would it sit with Republicans to have the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee exert control over the bureau that provides data used in redistricting?
A White House spokesman hasn't responded to us. ~~~
Aaah yes .. change is here.
~~DING!
Worse than a Banana Republic. Damn them to hell.
downsize efforts??
Its the Democrats who want to make up the numbers!!
They manufacture votes, they manufacture US residents.
"Game every system". The hallmark of the Democrat party.
Promises were made, that information collected for the 2000 census, would only be used for statistical analyses.
After 9/11, it was acknowledged that census data was accessed by Homeland Security.
Gregg should tell Obama to stick his job. Seriously, why would he want it anyway?
They already know the results they want so why spend the money to go through all the motions?
I’m sure we will find there are many more blacks and gays than anyone ever imagined and we will also find that the population decline in heavily leftist cities and states has been grossly overestimated.
Am I the only one who sees the possibility of nefarious intentions in every thing this man does?
Every single thing ........
Add in ACORN, et al. and you’ve essentially got Venezuela’s model by Chavez.
It is who counts the votes.
They’re going to cook the numbers.
He is in a rush to pass as much of his socialist, far left agenda as he can in the opening weeks of his administration because he thought his “Golden Boy” status would protect him from criticism and prying questions from the media for a while.
During the campaign he told everyone that he planned to change America and he even gave broad hints about the kind of changes he would make. Freepers knew what he had in mind and knew all along it wasn’t free gas and mortgage payments - at least not for us.
I can understand why the grifters, crack Ho’s, pimps, brood sows and welfare queens voted for him. But anyone actually working for a living who voted for this radical ultra-lefty deserves what they get.
Those of us who saw this coming had the slight advantage of knowing rough times were on the way and being mentally prepared in advance to know it would be a fight for our survival. Sooner or later it will dawn on the Obama supporters that they have been played for suckers by their new Messiah but by then the shelves will be bare and I’m not sharing.
Why did Gregg accept this appointment? Why?
It is bizarre. He’s not exactly a RINO... more like the last of a dying breed - a New England style conservative Republican.
When I asked why this was being done I was told by a Hispanic PhD candidate at the research foundation where I was visiting that it was to gain more budget and representation for the Hispanic community.
That was 19 years ago.
Until then I never had a thought that people would ‘game the census’ for political power. It was a further shock when I learned later that the this game was occurring in all Hispanic communities throughout the West.
In the 2000 census in Seattle I was comforted when the census taker at my door wanted to physically count the heads in my household and would not take a verbal report. He even read a statement that willfully providing false information to a census taker was a violation of federal and state law.
Now this crossed my mind just recently ...Obama is going to manipulate the 2010 census to benefit the rats.
Filling out census forms is voluntary. We could refuse to participate. ;)
“Obama is going to manipulate the 2010 census to benefit the rats.”
And he’ll use ACORN to do it.
That's a scary thought. You're probably completely on the mark, too. The census bureau always hires temps to do the counting, and with Rahm Emanuel in charge the list of ACORN employees is going to be their first resource they put in the census bureau's hands.
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