Don't politicize Census Bureau

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Nothing could be less transparent or open than for President Obama to politicize the Census Bureau. By having the census director report to a political operative - White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel - the data that the bureau publishes will lose any sense of credibility for accuracy, honesty or truth.

The Census Bureau does far more than the decennial count of population for reapportionment. It includes ongoing economic censuses and statistical research of industry, employment, government, trade, population, education and income. Millions of business and government decisions and policies are based on the data that the Census Bureau produces.

Now that Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. has pulled out, President Obama has another chance to appoint a Commerce Secretary that he trusts to oversee the Census Bureau. But if Census reports to Emanuel, the president will destroy the integrity of one of the U.S. government's most trusted institutions. And in two years, no one will have any assurance if the stimulus packaged worked or if the White House manipulated the numbers to make it looked like it worked.

JOHN J. WALLACE Menlo Park