Kriston Capps CityLab - A potential new appointment at the U.S. Census Bureau has census-watchers worried that the agency's core mission could be at risk as it enters into the home stretch for the big 2020 count.
On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Trump administration may appoint Thomas Brunell, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, to be the bureau's deputy director. Critics recoiled at the news, citing Brunell's 2008 book, Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America, and his lack of experience as further evidence that the Trump administration means to sabotage the decennial count for partisan advantage...
"Bringing in two inexperienced people at the top of the Census Bureau-the yet-to-be-nominated director and the deputy director-to run the 2020 Census makes the conduct of that census even more risky than it currently is, and the current risk is quite high given the underfunding of the last several years," says Daniel Weinberg, former senior research scientist for the Census Bureau and a consultant for the Low Income Opportunity Advisory Board under President Ronald Reagan.
...While the appointment of a new director requires Senate approval, the deputy director only needs to clear the Commerce Department-leaving open the prospect that the Trump administration could decline to name a director in a timely fashion.
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