Voting-Rights Advocates Monitor Who Trump Picks For Census Bureau Post
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Some people who follow the Census Bureau closely are dreading a possible appointment by President Trump. The president can name the No. 2 official who will oversee the census in the year 2020. Politico is reporting the candidates for the key job include Thomas Brunell. He has no government experience.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
He does have experience as a university professor who has supported Republican redistricting plans in the past. That's the drawing of legislative districts based on the census. Those concerned include Terri Ann Lowenthal. She's a former staff director of the House Subcommittee on Census and Population, and she spoke with Steve Inskeep.
TERRI ANN LOWENTHAL: What I'm really worried about is that that background will shake public confidence in the objectivity and integrity of the census. The census must be above any suspicion of partisan interference or an outcome that's tainted by manipulation of counting operations for partisan gain. And the deputy director is the day-to-day manager of the Census Bureau. So he or she must have significant management experience. And to my knowledge, Dr. Brunell does not have those qualifications.
STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: Couldn't Brunell, though, say - look, I'm going to set my politics aside. We all have political views, but counting is counting. And I'm going to make sure there's an accurate count.
LOWENTHAL: That would be a good thing. But I worry about how the public will view someone who's substantial body of work does not speak to that.
INSKEEP: So help me understand what could go wrong here as you try to count 320, 330, 340 million people. What is a scenario under which that count could go wrong in a way that would have a political effect?
LOWENTHAL: Many people don't realize that the census doesn't count all communities equally well. So people of color, immigrants, young children are all undercounted at disproportionately high rates while non-Hispanic whites and wealthier households were overcounted in the 2010 census. And it is the Census Bureau's goal, of course, to try and reduce or eliminate that disproportionate undercounting, the inequalities in the count.
But, you know, a director will make a lot of decisions about how money is spent on advertising and outreach to the hardest-to-count communities on where local offices are located, the types of people that are hired. And so there's really room in there for decisions that may not improve the accuracy of the count in these communities that historically have been vulnerable to higher undercounting.
INSKEEP: How did the overcount of white people and the undercount of people of color happen in 2010, when there was a Democratic administration?
LOWENTHAL: It's not just 2010. This is a historic pattern that the Census Bureau has been able to measure scientifically, in fact, going back to 1940.
INSKEEP: So you feel this job should belong to a nonpartisan expert. I'm sure you're familiar with the idea that lots of Americans have lost faith in experts, generally. Even the idea of nonpartisanship, they may not have a lot of faith in. What do you say to somebody who doesn't really buy there is a nonpartisan expert?
LOWENTHAL: It is incumbent on Congress, the Census Bureau and - I will venture to say - even the president to reassure Americans that the census is one of the most important activities the government does and that they will do everything possible to make sure it is carried out in the most objective, nonpartisan way possible.
The deputy director is a career civil service position. It is going to take a lot of trusted messengers, not just at the federal level but more importantly at the neighborhood level, to convince people that the census is important. It's vital that they participate for the benefit of their community so that they have a voice in our democracy. And that's going to take resources.
INSKEEP: Terri Ann Lowenthal, thanks very much.
LOWENTHAL: You're welcome. Thanks for the opportunity.
MARTIN: That was Terri Ann Lowenthal speaking to Steve Inskeep. She's a consultant on census issues for a variety of organizations.
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