Word: censuses
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...latest problem arose when Obama nominated Gregg to head the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau. Local Democratic officials and advocates for minority groups protested the nomination because they feared Gregg would not support efforts such as sampling that they think will result in a more accurate census count. The White House responded by publicly promising that the census director would "work closely with White House senior management...
...simple restatement of existing practice. But it was heralded by some liberals as a change in policy. The Huffington Post ran an article headlined: "Democrats, Minority Groups Relieved That Gregg Won't Oversee Census." Those reports, in turn, disturbed conservative activists who immediately condemned the White House "power grab." By Thursday, when Gregg bowed out, the GOP had launched a coordinated assault on the "politicization of the census." The White House was forced to issue a written clarification, noting that "this administration has not proposed removing the Census from the Department of Commerce...
...does it matter who oversees the census? In very general terms, Republicans would prefer to err on the side of undercounting and Democrats would prefer to err on the side of overcounting. The options can yield very different numbers for demographic groups and localities - and they have significant political and policy implications. This most recent skirmish is more manufactured than real, the result of willful misunderstandings. But it has its roots in an ongoing battle over whom the census counts...
...mandated by the Constitution, a census has been taken by the government every 10 years since 1790 in an effort to count every person living in the United States, both citizens and non-citizens. In recent times, the Census Bureau has arrived at a final count by relying on people to mail back surveys and then sending out census takers to go door-to-door in an attempt to fill in the gaps. Those census takers not only visit homes that have not returned the survey, but also seek to count those with no fixed address and those who live...
...problem is that it is not easy to count every person in the United States, and some communities are disproportionately left out of the total. The 1990 census missed an estimated 8 million people - mostly immigrants and urban minorities - and it managed to double-count 4 million white Americans. Recent or illegal immigrants are often reluctant to answer questions in a government survey, and many experts fear that concerns about government misuse of personal data post-9/11 could hamper participation in the 2010 census as well. Children have also traditionally been underincluded in census totals...