TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Don't Turn Census Count Into Political Project

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2009

President Obama may deny it, but his plan to keep a close watch, if not control, over the U.S. Census Bureau sure looks like the perfect way to make sure his party is well-represented when the nation's population is counted next year.

While activists hail this supposed "change" of policy, conservatives with good reason argue that putting the census under the control of the White House is a power grab.

And therein lies the problem: Rather than leave the counting of population and housing to an ostensibly autonomous, generally apolitical agency charged with getting the most accurate count possible, the politicians would take over, which in the 2010 count would give Democrats the advantage.

As the Washington Times put it, "If the census were to overcount here, undercount there, statistically alter this, adjust that, some districts and states could end up with more members of Congress (think Democratic areas) at the expense of others (think Republican areas.)"

It's akin to reapportionment in Florida, where the party in power can manipulate congressional and legislative districts to its benefit. Just as Florida reformers want redistricting done by a nonpolitical body, many critics of the national census believe it should be removed from government control and that an independent body should be given oversight. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the direction the president is headed.

Both parties know a precise count is difficult, and with so much at stake their approach to that goal is different.

The Democrats generally want to overcount, arguing the homeless, the poor, minorities and the underrepresented are often not counted. They fought to use statistics and sampling methods during the last census to estimate the number of people who might go uncounted. But the Supreme Court said that wouldn't fly. An estimate is not an accurate count for constitutional purposes. And the census numbers are used to determine congressional representation.

The Republicans, by contrast, would err on the side of undercounting.

The issue came to light again after New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican nominated to be commerce secretary, withdrew his name. Obama, appeasing the Democratic and minority advocates who worried Gregg would not be supportive, said while he would keep the bureau under the Commerce Department, he would exercise oversight. Evidently Gregg would not go along with having this key responsibility taken from him.

The issue is important because the 10-year census mandated by the Constitution determines how the 435 U.S. House seats will be allocated.

It guides the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid for education, public health, transportation and housing and provides demographic data used by local leaders to decide policy decisions and by businesses to guide everything from the location of new housing developments to the selection of products to be marketed in neighborhood stores.

The census should not be a political weapon. Placing the bureau under White House auspices would give that appearance. Congress should not let it happen.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT