Posted on 02/07/2009 6:09:26 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
President Obama has decided to bring the U.S. Census Bureau under White House jurisdiction, a move that incensed House Republicans, who fired off a blistering letter to him Thursday, calling it "outrageous and unprecedented" and a "blatant partisan and political maneuver."
The move would shift the chain of command with the bureau and the Commerce Department, where the bureau currently resides. It comes after the Congressional Black Caucus, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and other groups expressed displeasure with Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.
Gregg, the groups said this week, opposed efforts to secure emergency funding for the 2000 Census, which they asserted exposes a potential lack of commitment to ensuring that hard-to-reach minority populations are properly accounted for in the 2010 census.
A White House spokesman confirmed Thursday that Obama plans to work closely with the bureau, which will remain within the Commerce Department.
"From the first days of the transition the census has been a priority for the president, and a process he wanted to re-evaluate," the spokesman said in a prepared statement.
"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," he said. "We plan to return to that model in this administration."
House Republicans reacted quickly. House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Oversight and Government Reform Census Subcommittee ranking member Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., seized on speculation that the move would place the yet-unnamed Census Bureau director under the watchful eye of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, instead of leaving Gregg in charge.
They suggested the move could improperly influence legislative redistricting, which is shaped by Census counts.
"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 Obama.
Details of the day-to-day relationship between the White House and the Census Bureau seem hazy.
Aides speculated Thursday that the bureau's budget and public-affairs functions may be routed through OMB, an arrangement that would assuage the fears expressed by advocates concerned that the Census director's public statements and congressional testimony would be subject to censorship by less-than-supportive leadership at Commerce.
Sources on both sides of the issue said black lawmakers and others interested in securing more funding for the 2010 Census had been hoping for assurances of support from Obama as soon as they learned about Gregg's possible selection to Commerce post.
One Democratic aide close to the matter called the administration's decision a direct response to the grievances of minority groups upset with Gregg's appointment.
"People started yelling at them," said the aide, who added that the details of how the White House's interactions with the Census director remain woefully undefined.
"Their answer was 'OK, fine, [Gregg] won't be in charge,'" the aide said. "It wasn't a plan. It was a reaction."
The administration's idea to shift jurisdiction over the Census Bureau was not entirely new.
In September, congressional Democrats, led by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., proposed legislation to make the bureau an independent federal agency. Such agencies report directly to the president, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency did before it became part of the Homeland Security Department.
A Census Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment on any organizational changes until a director is in place.
expansion of a mass data base of who lives where and what their likely threat is to Obama’s dominance
this will enable ACORN to even better tweak its system of stuffing ballots and rigging elections precinct by precint, county by country, especially in fly-over country
remember the stories of people (some freepers here) who were “visited” repeatedly by obama’s army of get-out-the-vote droids, their homes being observed, droids taking names, addresses and license numbers of those who did not cooperate in arguing with them
I suspect an important “census” question will be “Do you have a gun in your household?”
If Judd Gregg had any cajones, he would step down from the Commerce nomination and go back to the Senate
After thinking about it recently, why should “ God have mercy on this country.”?
As a Nation we certainly don’t give a crap about Him........
Judgement is what we deserve and, it’s what we’re getting. Gonna get worse, IMHO.
Looking up....
Sen from La offered an amendment to Porkulous during last night’s debate. It stated no funds would go to ACORN. Dick Durbin went balistic! Also, Sen from AL has been trying for days to offer amendment to require any business taking fed bailout monet to use easy-check to make sure they are legal. Reid will not even allow it to be offered. Sessions is fighting a battle with little help.
They thought they elected a Leninist and got a Stalinist.
Pray for America, Our Troops and obama’s Guidance
Golly darn it! You guys better cut that out or we're going to get really really mad! We really mean it this time!
I honestly came within a breath of posting the same thought!
>> I just love dealing with Census takers.
I suddenly discovered the most interesting thing about my family.
Turns out my great-great-grandmother had an affair with a former slave many years ago (no one is quite sure exactly when, or where; little is known about her, actually).
Mind you, some in our family dispute this, but I think it’s just because they are racist. I’m disavowing those non politically correct racist old white people. What do they know?
Therefore, I am, for the purposes of the Census (and any affirmative action bennies that might accrue), African American!
Who knew? It’s a real shock but you know, it’s kind of nice to know just how diverse I suddenly am.
Minority owned business special treatment here we come!
Ding ding ding ding -
What a better way to hold the house for decades to come - just add seats in liberal states.
Why doesn’t this guy just go on television, call for the permanent suspension of Habeas Corpus, get rid of the constitution all together and claim, for the good of the country to solve our emergency situations he is now president for life.
Then all can bow to the fuhrer as he re-writes over the next few decades the communist manifesto into another constitution.
Sad thing, America still has not woken up. Even if it does, it is too late to stop this megalomaniac.
Oh goody, time to start considering invasive census info again:
Name: Puddin” Tame
Race: Native American (at least i was born here dammit)
Number in house hold: make it up
Household income: $1
Well....the only good thing to come of all this is that the Democrats will have to shoulder ALL the blame for the mess they are creating.
This is about voter fraud and is the move of a tin pot dictator.
Yep, that's him. Like I said, he's an idiot. The question I ask is what exactly is he doing to the hollow eyed hippie from Haight-Ashbury to make her have that goofy expression on her face?
Pure power grab. The United States of America was killed by the enemy within and the Demonrats have done it. May they face the wrath of all the sacrifices of those who have passed on when they take their last breath on this earth. I am very fatalistic right now. I don’t see a recovery from what we are going through. Having said that, I am ready to take to the streets. Things cannot be taken lying down and they need to be called out and protested anywhere they go.
By the time 2010 get here people won’t be able to vote em out fast enough.
There was some discussion of this last night on Special Report with Bret Baier--Juan Williams was OK with it, the other two not, but they talked as if there's nothing to stop Obama and Rahm Emanuel from doing this.
Oh, great! ACORN is going to run the census...
I just LOVE when Obozo throws a temper tantrum and there will be more to come..and then his biggest ace card-—his “smoothness and calming maanner-—will be gone!
I guess this will be one way of keeping his new brown shirt bunch busy
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