By Mike Schneider -
The Associated Press
Robert Santos was confirmed Thursday as the next director of the United States Census Bureau, becoming
the first person of color to head the nation's largest statistical agency on a permanent basis
.
The Senate approved Santos, a third-generation Mexican-American statistician from San Antonio, Texas, to oversee an office that conducts the census once a decade, often described as
the nation's largest civil mobilization,
as well as polls that they create the country's data infrastructure.
The new director inherits an institution that is reeling from running America's toughest count of recent times.
The 2020 census was challenged by COVID-19, natural disasters, delays, and attempts at political interference by the Trump administration.
Latinos are the group of the US population with the least access to health insurance
Sept.
14, 202101: 19
The pandemic also disrupted one of the Census Bureau's most important programs, the year-long American Community Survey, which provides a broad picture of the population on everything from commute times to levels. of Education.
Office officials announced earlier this year that the 2020 survey will not be released in its usual format this fall due to data collection problems during the pandemic.
In his new role, Santos, 66, will be in charge of leading the agency while laying the groundwork for the next census in 2030, as well as coordinating the latest releases of data collected during the 2020 census and overseeing other office programs.
[The wage gap between men and women remained in 2020: they earned more]
During his confirmation hearing,
Santos assured senators that his two passions were statistics and helping people
.
He was president of the American Statistical Association and vice president and chief of methodology of the Urban Institute.
"The opportunities I have had have made me believe that I should give back to people and I have tried to do so every day of my life," Santos said.
“The data from the Census Bureau helps us intertwine to form a more perfect union.
Although this is a political position, I am not a politician,
”he added.
For the first time, Latinos are the second largest ethnic group in Chicago and all of Illinois.
Oct. 25, 202101: 13
Santos' predecessor Steven Dillingham resigned in January
amid data collection for the 2020 census, as he faced criticism for agreeing to then-President Donald Trump's demand to collect information on the immigration status of the people at the expense of data quality.
Office workers were under great pressure from two Trump political appointees to
investigate who was in the United States with illegal status using federal and state administrative records
.
Dillingham, also appointed by Trump, set a deadline for the Bureau's statisticians to give him a technical report to that end, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
The effort to collect information on citizenship was abandoned shortly thereafter.
[The percentage of the white population in the United States decreases, according to the 2020 Census data]
At the time, Dillingham described the events as a misunderstanding and said there were no possible violations of laws or regulations.
During Dillingham's tenure,
the Trump Administration tried unsuccessfully to include a citizenship question on the
2020 census
questionnaire
and named a group of political appointees that statisticians and Democratic lawmakers feared would politicize the annual count of every resident of the United States. USA.
The president also issued two directives that advocacy groups say were part of efforts to suppress minority and immigrant participation in the 2020 census.
Robert Santos told a Senate committee in July that he would bring transparency and independence to the nation's largest statistical agency.Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Following Dillingham's resignation, the agency's chief operating officer, Ron Jarmin, took over as director on an interim basis.
Santos will serve the remainder of Dillingham's term, which expires at the end of the year, and then begins a new five-year term.
Following Santos' confirmation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described him as the "perfect" person for the job.
"He is exactly the type of person our country needs to oversee our census:
an unbiased professional, with great experience and outside of politics,
" said Schumer.
[This is how the political map of the United States will change after the 2020 Census]
Santos told senators during his confirmation hearing that
the Census Bureau needs more independence and transparency to build
public
trust
and that agency staff needed to be nurtured after enduring "a tumultuous 2020."
The 2020 census experienced unprecedented hurdles from COVID-19
, as well as wildfires in the West and hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.
The pandemic forced the Census Bureau to delay until April the publication of the state population figures that are used to distribute the seats in Congress.
Release of redistricting data used to map congressional and legislative districts was postponed until August.
Census 2020: 10 simple questions that are worth a lot
Sept.
19, 202001: 57
Facing the next census in 2030, Santos was in favor of a proposal that never got under way:
combining the questions about race and Hispanic origin
.
An earlier Census Bureau study showed that
doing so would increase response figures for Hispanics
, who may not be sure how to answer the question about race because they often come from mixed ethnic and racial backgrounds.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had considered matching the questions for the 2020 census, but
the Trump Administration decided to keep race separate from ethnicity.
“I can use my own personal perspective as a Latino and I can use my research experience
and my leadership position to work with the OMB to make sure that proper attention is given to that specific issue, ”Santos said.
Santos is the first person of color to be confirmed as director of the Census Bureau on a permanent basis.
James Holmes, who is African American, was appointed interim director in 1998 following the resignation of Martha Riche.