Senate Demands Explanation After Census Bureau Drops Political-Interference Ban

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asking why the Census Bureau’s scientific integrity policy was revised to remove the statement that “protection from inappropriate influence” is a hallmark of scientific integrity. The revision, dated in August, followed the release of a document prepared by a team linked to the America First Policy Institute, a think-tank founded by officials from the previous administration. Warren argues the change could undermine confidence in demographic and economic statistics.

NPR

In June, the administration halted a long-standing data-privacy technique used by the Census Bureau, delaying some survey releases and threatening data on small populations. This month, officials proposed two unprecedented actions: excluding certain non-U.S. citizen residents from the population count that determines congressional districts and Electoral College votes, and ending the bureau’s collection of race and ethnicity data. Both proposals appear to conflict with the 14th Amendment’s requirement to count the “whole number of persons” in each state.

NPR

A Federal Reserve spokesperson, Eric Kollig, said the Fed will answer Warren’s request for details by early October. Commerce Department and Office of Management and Budget representatives have not yet responded to NPR’s inquiries for comment.

NPR

• “Amid the Trump Administration's broader assault on the integrity of the nation's statistical system, in which you and the Department have played a key role, you owe the public a clear explanation of why the Department removed this language and how it arrived at this decision,” — Sen. Elizabeth Warren

NPR

• “That [census proposal] and other proposed changes would have sweeping implications for the quality of our economic data, the redistricting process that determines congressional representation, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions that rely upon key employment statistics and [Bureau of Economic Analysis] inflation data, and our ability to enforce civil rights and other laws,” — Sen. Elizabeth Warren

NPR

Warren warns that the census proposal and related changes could affect the quality of economic data, the redistricting process that allocates congressional representation, Federal Reserve monetary-policy decisions that rely on employment and inflation statistics, and the enforcement of civil-rights laws. The senator’s inquiry also seeks clarification on whether the Office of Management and Budget was involved in the decision to drop the political-interference safeguard.

NPR