Washington » Utah's Republican members of Congress are none too happy about a plan that would have the Census Bureau report to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Utah lost out on a fourth House seat after the 2000 Census by a few hundred people and argued unsuccessfully all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court that the bureau should have counted Mormon missionaries from Utah serving abroad.
That legal fight has made Utah officials wary of the 2010 Census, and news out of the White House that the director of the Census Bureau will work under Emanuel has deepened that concern.
"The political land grab is stunning," said freshman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. The census "is not intended to be political in any way shape or form. … We're not even 15 days into this administration and they're already working on the next campaign."
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, echoed those concerns, saying neither the Constitution nor Congress has delegated census power to the White House chief of staff.
"It would politicize the process much more than it needs to be, and it shouldn't happen," Bishop said. "It takes something that is supposedly apolitical like the census, and gives it to a guy who is infamously political."
The White House move to place the census under more direct control comes after black and Latino advocacy groups argued that President Barack Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., has opposed increased funding for the census and is against sampling.
Sampling uses mathematical formulas to gauge population estimates instead of house-to-house counts. The method, typically opposed by conservatives and supported by liberals, is regarded by some mathematicians as a more accurate method to ensure some populations, such as immigrants, are counted.
Detractors of sampling say the Constitution is clear that every person must be counted, which rules out such a method.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials also argued that Gregg's record of fighting budget boosts for the 2000 Census is of concern.
"With Census 2010 less than a year and a half away, it is critical that the Census Bureau move forward effectively with its planning, enumeration and outreach activities," NALEO said. "This cannot happen unless the secretary of commerce demonstrates strong leadership and full support for the bureau's important work."
The White House denies any intention to politicize the census, saying that Obama has wanted to re-evaluate the program since his election.
"There is historic precedent for the director of the census, who works for the commerce secretary and the president, to work closely with White House senior management, given the number of decisions that will have to be put before the president," spokesman Ben LaBolt said. "We plan to return to that model in this administration."
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to advance a bill that would expand the U.S. House by two seats -- one more for Utah and one for the District of Columbia.
The committee plans to skip a hearing on the DC Voting Rights Act and move straight to a vote. A House version of the measure awaits a vote in the Judiciary Committee.
The bill, which supporters say has enough votes to pass the House and possibly the Senate, would create a fourth seat for Utah, which narrowly missed grabbing another House member after the 2000 Census, while also granting D.C.'s 600,000 residents their first full-voting member.
