U.S. Census director resigns amid turmoil over funding of 2020 count

[Recursion]

Source: Washington Post

The director of the U.S. Census Bureau is resigning, leaving the agency leaderless at a time when it faces a crisis over funding for the 2020 decennial count of the U.S. population and beyond.

John H. Thompson, who has served as director since 2013 and worked for the bureau for 27 years before that, will leave June 30, the Commerce Department announced Tuesday.

The news, which surprised census experts, follows an April congressional budget allocation for the census that critics say is woefully inadequate. And it comes less than a week after a prickly hearing at which Thompson told lawmakers that cost estimates for a new electronic data collection system had ballooned by nearly 50 percent.

“It’s like two trains going down the track toward each other, with Republicans decrying the budget overrun and Democrats saying the census has been underfunded,” Phil Sparks, co-director of the Census Project, a watchdog organization, said of the May 3 hearing before the House Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice and science. “This puts the census in the crosshairs both ways.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/us-census-director-resigns-amid-turmoil-over-funding-of-2020-count/2017/05/09/8f8657c6-34ea-11e7-b412-62beef8121f7_story.html

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Shit

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Jiggering the census is part of ongoing Republicon/Russian rolling coup attempt: Gerrymandering. .nt

[byronius]

2. Yes, this serves the KGOP quite well.

[Wawannabe]

3. Well the count

Would not be good anyway because Hispanic populations not wanting to tell a trump gov where they live.
Have worked Census in counties with a large Hispanic pop. They were scared to talk to you or fill out Census then. Would be CRAZY to participate in this hostile environment.

[LeftInTX]

6. The population of Texas will go way down and we will loose electoral votes

Hee-hee...Instead of the second most populated state, we would go down to like the 5th or something.

[former9thward]

11. If you worked for the Census you should know that is not how it works.

I worked for the Census on many projects starting in 2009 and extending to 2016. That included, of course, the Census year of 2010. I worked in Maricopa County of Arizona which includes Phoenix. A large number of Hispanics live there including many undocumented.

Yes, many if not most were resistant to give information. But we had many, many methods to get an accurate count. We might have ended up being off 1% either way but that's it.

[former9thward]

15. I will post what I want to post whether you like it or not.

You are saying that the Census has no idea how to get a count on Hispanics. That is not true. It does and did. We had about a million more Hispanics in my area than where you were at.

[Wawannabe]

13. In addition!

Was tRump* the so called Pres 2009-2016? Hell no. My point was this. Those demographics will be too scared to participate!

What will you do if you get to work 2020? Waterboard? Take an ICE rep with you?
You will get within ONE PERCENT, huh?
My ass you will!

[former9thward]

16. Maybe you couldn't

Our crews could. Trump will not be out there counting people. Census workers will. Waterboarding and ICE was not part of our Census tactics. Maybe yours I don't know.

[MissB]

17. I don't think you will get good responses.

It might be better to start a reasoned discussion. The tactic you are taking doesn't seem to be working.

My suggestion is to not attack people that disagree with you here. Have a reasoned (even spirited) discussion instead.

[Kber]

4. Most important news of the month.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. That is an appointee position

so it was only a matter of time.

[msongs]

7. good. the census is a massive invasion of privacy going way beyond a count of the population nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. One of the problem with Google maps is that they are very inaccurate in my town

as in miles off. My house is marked 2 blocks away from we live, we can barely be seen from the main road.
Which may explain why census takers never showed up here.

[Wawannabe]

14. I happen to agree!

[IronLionZion]

8. Maybe they'll find someone who won't count minorities

David Duke could be the next Census director

[dalton99a]

9. Perfect time for the GOP to get in the kitchen and cook the numbers