Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham told the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday that he only learned of a recent presidential directive that excluded undocumented immigrants from representation calculations in the Census Congress. “when it was published on the web”.
Dillingham reportedly said he was not involved in planning President TrumpDonald John Trump Governor Approval Rates Drop As COVID-19 Cases Rise Gohmert Says He Will Take Hydroxychloroquine As Treatment For Virginia Governor COVID-19, Senators Seek CDC Help With Coronavirus Outbreak In Center immigration detention MORELast week’s executive order prevented undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census for the purpose of assigning seats in the House.
The order, which quickly ran into multiple legal challenges, follows the administration’s finally abandoned attempt to add a citizenship question to the census.
Dillingham told the panel that he could not say whether the office would need additional time for the census due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying those discussions “were not at my level” and that he had focused on progressing “as quickly as possible and getting it ” a complete and accurate count as soon as possible, ”reported CNN.
While the Trump administration said in early spring it would need another four months to complete the census due to the pandemic, numerous House Democrats have said the White House has backed down on the request.
Rep. Jimmy GomezJimmy Gomez: Hispano Caucus requests to meet with the executive directors of private detention centers. The Corona’s Virus Report: The CDC predicts that the death toll in the United States could reach 145,000 by July 11; First President Michael Alkire says more resilience is needed in the Hillicon Valley healthcare supply chain: Senate Republicans, DOJ target Section 230 | Facial recognition under the spotlight | Zoom launches encrypted beta E2E MORE (D-Calif.), During his Dillingham interrogation, he suggested that he has allowed the Trump administration to politicize the office.
“There seems to be an obvious pattern that you do not have control of the Census Bureau, and this administration’s political appointments are,” said Gomez.
Dillingham declined to comment on his feelings on the executive order, saying that “he is not in a position where I can express my views on the policy.”
“I cannot answer or even give my personal opinion because my job as director of the Census Bureau will be to run the 2020 census,” he said.
“We have experts in the Census Bureau who are now beginning the process of analyzing methodologies,” added Dillingham. “That process is just beginning. The presidential memoranda came out last week.”
.