CENSUS NOMINEE PREPARES FOR CONFIRMATION HEARING Plus: 2010 Advisory Panel Meets As Dr. Robert Groves, President Obama’s nominee to head the Census Bureau, prepares for his Senate confirmation hearing, critics are seeking assurances that “statistical adjustment of the 2010 Census will not occur under his leadership,” according to a press statement by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Ranking Member on the House census oversight subcommittee. The hearing, originally scheduled for tomorrow, has been rescheduled for Friday, May 15, at 9:30 AM. Rep. McHenry offered the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which will hold the confirmation hearing, four questions to ask Dr. Groves, who served as a Census Bureau Associate Director (a career position) during the 1990 count. The congressman suggested that the nominee’s support for a statistical adjustment of that census – as a member of a nine-member expert panel appointed by Census Director Barbara Everitt Bryant – amounted to “political tampering [that was] well-documented and rightly rejected.” The expert panel supported, 7 – 2, using the results of an independent quality-check survey to adjust the 1990 population numbers to correct undercounts and overcounts; Dr. Bryant agreed with the recommendation, but Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher rejected it. Rep. McHenry said the President’s choice of Dr. Groves to head the Census Bureau “raises fresh concerns about the White House’s desire to manipulate Census data for partisan advantage.” Rep. McHenry’s description of statistical adjustment as a partisan effort to manipulate the population count is at odds with the position of many Republicans following the 1990 census, when Secretary Mosbacher was considering whether to accept the Census Bureau’s proposal to adjust the raw census numbers, and later when the newly-elected Clinton Administration faced legal challenges to the Secretary’s anti-adjustment decision. Before the Secretary rejected Dr. Bryant’s statistical adjustment recommendation in July 1991, then-Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) urged the Commerce chief in an April 30, 1991 letter to statistically adjust “Georgia’s population figures to reflect the correct population,” saying the estimated state undercount of over 200,000 people might entitle Georgia to another seat in Congress and would “seriously dilut[e]” minority voting strength in the state. Last month on a National Public Radio All Things Considered program on the census (April 20, 2009), the former House Speaker said Republicans “are very worried …that somebody will try to apply some kind of abstract, theoretical, statistical model, which will totally distort the system.” Mr. Gingrich called the idea of using “statistical sampling” to account for people missed in the census “pretty whacked” and said he believed the Obama Administration would “try to use a statistical analysis to rig the game” after the census is finished. Other Republican proponents of statistically adjusting the 1990 census included Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), Sen. Connie Mack (R-FL), Sen. John Warner (R-VA), and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), now the Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Committee. In an August 18, 1994 letter to President Clinton, 32 members of the Congressional Sunbelt Caucus from both political parties urged the Administration not to appeal a Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturning Secretary Mosbacher’s decision not to adjust the 1990 count. (The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld the Secretary’s decision, saying it was not “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedures Act.) The Sunbelt Caucus members wrote, “Failure to adjust the census count meant denying the existence of 4 million people. It also has meant that federal funds did not follow the significant population shifts of the 1980s.” The lawmakers concluded by saying, “The inclusion of the undercount numbers will finally make accuracy in the 1990 Census possible. The adjusted census numbers guarantee that states, cities and counties will finally receive their fair share.” Rep. McHenry urged senators to ask Dr. Groves how he would respond to White House efforts “to exert political influence” over the census process, whether he will reject the possibility of adjusting the 2010 census “under any circumstances,” and why the nonprofit community organization ACORN should be a 2010 census “partner,” in light of “its pattern of criminal misconduct.” The Associated Press reported last week (May 7, 2009) that Dr. Groves, in written responses to traditional pre-hearing questions, told the Senate oversight committee that, “If the director is perceived to be a pawn of one or another political ideological perspective, the credibility of the statistical system is threatened.” The nominee said he would resign if faced with partisan interference from the White House, according to the AP article. 2010 advisory committee holds Spring meeting: The 2010 Census Advisory Committee (CAC) held its bi-annual meeting at Census Bureau headquarters, covering a wide range of topics, including the status of 2010 census preparations and early field work, the Communications Campaign, and the American Community Survey. The committee, led by its newly appointed chairman and National Urban League President Marc Morial, heard presentations from agency staff on the progress of address canvassing and the 2010 Census Partnership Program, as well as plans for following-up by telephone with households whose forms indicate that people might have been left off the form or included by mistake (Coverage Follow Up operation) and for measuring the accuracy of the census through an independent quality-check survey (Census Coverage Measurement program). Acting Census Director Thomas Mesenbourg reported that the handheld computers being used to verify addresses on the master list were “performing exceptionally well.” Associate Director for Decennial Census Arnold Jackson said that the Census Bureau has been able to hire a “higher quality workforce” than expected; Associate Director for Field Operations Marilia Matos added that the agency had exceeded its recruitment goals for the address listing operation, which will end in July. There are 150 Local Census Offices (LCOs) involved in field activities across the country this spring; the Census Bureau is completing leases for the remaining 344 LCOs, which will open in the fall. Next year, the bureau will recruit 3.8 million people to fill about 1.4 million temporary positions to conduct the census. Draftfcb, the prime contractor for the 2010 Census Communications Campaign – which includes paid advertising, outreach, and Census in the Schools – discussed its “creative” materials for paid advertisements, which recently came under criticism from the bureau’s Joint Advertising Advisory Review Panel and five Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees. Company representatives said they must begin to produce advertisements by August 1 in order to begin airing ads in January 2010. Mr. Mesenbourg said he was “confident” the 2010 census advertising campaign would be effective and noted that “it is still early in the process” of developing the campaign. The 2010 CAC unanimously recommended that the Census Bureau reconsider its decision to re-code as “unmarried partners,” responses to the “relationship question” that indicate a gay married couple. (See March 29 Census News Brief for more information on this issue.) Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wrote to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, urging the Census Bureau to report data on same-sex married couple responses in the 2010 census, as it would for all people who report they are married. The mayor and council chief said they were concerned that the current tabulation plans “could discourage [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] New Yorkers from fully participating in census efforts.” The advisory committee also expressed concern about the decision not to include messages on the “advance letter” in languages other than English, a change from Census 2000, when the letter sent to all households in advance of the arrival of census forms included information in several languages (and a toll-free number) about the availability of in-language questionnaires. The Census Bureau said the 2000 census procedure resulted in some households receiving and mailing back questionnaires in English and another language, and that it received only 100,000 telephone requests for an in-language form as a result of the advance letter, a number it said did not justify the resulting operational difficulties. Census Bureau officials said they would rely instead on partner organizations and advertising to spread the word about language assistance to limited-English proficiency households. Did You Know? For the average person, the decennial census (if they’ve thought about it at all) can elicit a yawn – nothing much exciting to consider. Knowledgeable census stakeholders know better: The census is one of the nation’s most vital civic activities, important enough to be mentioned in the second section of Article I of the U.S. Constitution. There are many fascinating facts about the census; sharing them with other stakeholders might help increase interest in the census and mobilize more people to participate. So we will start a new occasional Census News Brief feature, to share less-widely-known information that will help census stakeholders better understand census history and the daunting task facing the Census Bureau’s dedicated, experienced staff. In the 2010 census, for the first time, the Census Bureau has a specific plan to contact traveling carnivals, circuses, and fairs, to determine where they will be on Census Day and to make arrangements to distribute census forms to their employees. Traveling workers will be allowed to designate their “usual place of residence;” those who don’t will be counted as residents of the city in which their show or event is stationed on Census Day. Who knew? Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent legislative and policy consultant working with a wide range of census stakeholders to promote an accurate 2010 census. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is a consultant to the nonpartisan Census Project, organized by the Communications Consortium Media Center in Washington, DC. Previous Census News Briefs are posted at www.thecensusproject.org. -- Ed Christopher 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA Resource Center 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461