Obama's Census man gets nod from peers

US-- Robert Groves, President Obama's nominated candidate for the post of director of the US Census Bureau, has received a boost after the Council of American Survey Research Organisations (Casro) and the Consortium of Social Science Associations (CSSA) gave him their seal of approval.

Letters of support from the organisations have been sent to Senator Joseph Lieberman, chair of the Committee on Homeland Security. The committee has the power to rubber stamp the appointment and will meet next Tuesday to consider the nomination.

Casro issued a statement saying that Groves was an “excellent choice to lead the census at this critical time in our country.”

Association president Diane Bowers and chairman Andrew Morrison weighed in with a letter citing Groves's “academic and professional accomplishments” as being a major factor in advancing “the research industry's commitment to research reliability, non-bias and objective measurement and analysis”.

However, he can expect a cooler reception from Republican senators who have questioned his nomination. Groves irked the GOP when he proposed the use of sampling to adjust the 1990 Census data. Republicans believed this would result in an increase in the historically undercounted population in Democratic areas. See here for more information.

But according to the CSSA: “The issue of statistical adjustment raised by some is spurious. Commerce secretary Gary Locke, who will be Groves's boss, has assured the Congress that there will be no statistical adjustment in the 2010 count. The Supreme Court has also weighed in against such adjustment for reapportionment cases.

“The taking of a decennial census is the largest peacetime mobilisation that occurs in the United States,” said the CSSA. “The 2010 count is less than a year away. It is time for a leader to take charge and get this count done. Robert Groves is that leader.”

Author: Marc Brenner

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