Obama White House considers engagement in US Census surveys

Pres. Obama speaks with White House Chief of Staff Emanuel. Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Campaign Legal Center

Feb 19, 2009 -- The Hill's Congress Blog

With Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) withdrawing last week as Commerce secretary nominee, citing the Obama administration's plans to have census officials report to the White House, The Hill's Jim Mills recently interviewed Campaign Legal Center Policy Director Meredith McGehee about the census issue. See a partial transcript of the interview below.

Jim Mills : What's their rationale...why are they doing what they're doing?

Meredith McGehee : I don't think they've come up with an adequate rationale, to be honest, and when you have someone in that office -- this is where the appearance matters -- Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, was indeed the chief Democratic partisan for elections here for a number of Congresses. So there's at minimum here an appearance problem.

Meredith McGehee : This is a process that should be handled with professionals. It should be at the Commerce Department, it should be adequately funded. It should be, as they say in other policies, when they talk about greenhouse gases, it should be scientifically based, and I don't think you're going to get that if you have it politicized in the White House.

Meredith McGehee : Obviously, you want the most complete census you have. If there are new ways of ensuring that the census reflects the actual population, and there's been talk about sampling and other tools, those should be examined. That decision should be made, not by someone sitting in the White House -- that should be made at the Commerce Department, and with an enormous amount of input from the professionals.

[This article does not accept public comments]


>All Things Reform Mobile: allthingsreform.mofuse.mobi >Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (not toll-free) >US House/Senate Mobile: bit.ly/members >Contact your reps tips: bit.ly/dear >Shortened All Things Reform URL: bit.ly/dw

Related articles by Zemanta

• White House Intends to Circumvent Gregg on Census (politicalwire.com)