CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
Feb. 25, 2009 – 9:01 p.m.
Black Caucus Wants Obama Involved in Census
By Bennett Roth, CQ Staff
Congressional Black Caucus members plan to press President Obama to keep the 2010 census under White House supervision even if Democrat Gary Locke is confirmed as Commerce secretary.
“They need to be hands-on, very much involved in selecting the new census director as well as being actively involved and interested in the full and accurate count,” said Rep. William Lacy Clay , D-Mo., the caucus’ leading voice on the census and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform panel with jurisdiction over the decennial count.
On Thursday, Clay and other members of the 42-member caucus are holding their first meeting with Obama at White House. The census is expected to be among the issues atop the agenda.
The White House has traditionally been very involved in the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department, and should continue to do so, Clay said, adding that he wants Obama to spend political capital and use his office to get the public to participate in next year’s census.
The count determines how many House seats are apportioned to each state and plays a large part in the distribution of federal funding for numerous programs.
Rep. Maxine Waters , D-Calif., also said White House oversight of the census is an issue of top concern. “I think the census is extremely important, and support for avoiding the undercount takes leadership, and the president has to provide that leadership,” Waters said.
The census has been a point of contention for the caucus, which says that minorities are often not fully counted.
“It is exceedingly important to my constituency because of the services connected to the numbers,” said Rep. Al Green , D-Texas, a Black Caucus member from Houston. Green, however, said he would leave oversight decisions to the president as long as there is “an accurate count.”
The Black Caucus, all of whose members are Democrats, protested vigorously when Obama nominated Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H., to be Commerce secretary. Gregg came under fire from Democrats because he had previously sought to block census funding. Republicans have opposed the use of “statistical sampling” to adjust census data, which groups such as the Black Caucus say ensures that hard-to-locate groups such as the homeless and migrant workers are counted.
The White House responded to the furor over Gregg by saying that it would supervise the census, which Gregg cited as one of the reasons he later withdrew his nomination. On Wednesday, Obama named Locke, the former two-term Democratic governor of Washington, to lead the Commerce Department.
Republicans have criticized the decision to give the White House oversight of the census, arguing that it would politicize the process.
Black Caucus members said they expected the meeting with Obama also to cover disparities in health care, reforming criminal justice laws and education funding.
Rep. Barbara Lee , D-Calif., the caucus’ chairwoman, said of Obama: “He knows what the urban agenda is. He’s lived it.”
Recently, caucus members were vocal in their disappointment with the White House about compromises made in the final stimulus package (PL 111-5), particularly reductions in funding for school construction that had been included in the original House version.
“I think everyone would have probably liked a little bit more,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings , D-Md. Schools in his Baltimore district are about 75 years old and in need of repair, he said.
The caucus has traditionally requested a meeting with all presidents after they are elected, though not all have replied as promptly as Obama.
President George W. Bush did not meet with the group until the last year of his first term and then met with them again in 2005 after his re-election. One of the participants at that second meeting was the newly elected senator from Illinois, Barack Obama .
His replacement in the Senate, Roland W. Burris , D-Ill., said Wednesday night he was not sure if he would attend.
“I’ve been so busy today, I haven’t even looked at my schedule for tomorrow,” Burris said. “If my schedule will allow me to go there, I will be there. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk with the president.”
Bart Jansen contributed to this story.
Comments
"He's LIVED IT"? Who on earth are they talking about? Surely, not Obama. WAKE UP AMERICA!
My daughter and I worked going door to door getting census forms filled out in 2000. The only ones who either refused to give us any infomation or just flat out lied...and made sure we knew they were lying....were black Americans. Even illegal hispanics were more willing to answer the questions than were black American's. If blacks are undercounted, it is their own fault...just fill out the forms honestly and return them in a timely manner or answer you door and politely answer the questions the census taker must ask!
Falling -- grow up, or at least read. Any demographic group that rents more than owns or lives in a shared space will get undercounted. Whereas people with permanent addresses will likely get counted more often. So, in the undercounted group, you could have poor people of all races (but a disproportionate amount is black). You could also have college students or recent graduates. Often, this includes urban dwellers - who tend not to own either. Good grief.
Regardless of who supervises the census or what methodologies are used to arrive at a final offical tally, there's one aspect that needs changing: who supervises the redrawing of congressional districting lines, a process also known as -- better known as -- "gerrymandering." The Congress itself has run that part of the show, which is sort of like me supervising my own improved benefits package at work. Both parties love it, and are addicted to it. Yank it out of the hands of Congress.
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