On Weekend Edition, Simon and Schorr misrepresented census policies of Clinton, Obama

On the February 14 broadcast of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, host Scott Simon and senior news analyst Daniel Schorr misrepresented the policies of the Clinton and Obama administrations on the census. Schorr stated that "minority groups and the black caucus have objected to having the census come under a Republican conservative, because they say that there was an undercount in the census of up to 6 million in the last census." Simon replied, "But that was under the Clinton administration. That was under a Democratic administration." Schorr agreed, saying, "It was under a Democratic administration." In fact, contrary to Simon's suggestion that the Commerce Department under Clinton was opposed to the calls by "minority groups and the black caucus" to use statistical sampling for the decennial census, the Clinton administration did plan to use sampling for the 2000 census; however, the Supreme Court decided that while the Census Bureau could use sampling for some purposes, a federal statute barred its use for the reapportionment of congressional districts. Subsequently, the Bush administration reversed the Clinton administration's plan to use statistical sampling for census data released to states for the purposes of congressional redistricting.

Additionally, Schorr claimed that the Obama White House said that the census "won't be under the Department of Commerce. We'll take it to the White House." In fact, while a February 5 CQ Today article stated that according to an unnamed "senior White House official," "[t]he director of the Census Bureau will report directly to the White House and not the secretary of Commerce," the Obama administration has repeatedly denied that it plans to, in the words of White House spokesman Ben LaBolt, "remov[e] the census from the Department of Commerce."

Contrary to Simon's suggestion that the Clinton administration opposed the use of sampling in the census, the Supreme Court stated in the 1999 case Department of Commerce v. United States House of Representatives that the Commerce Department under Clinton "announced a plan to use two forms of statistical sampling in the 2000 Decennial Census to address a chronic and apparently growing problem of 'undercounting' of some identifiable groups, including certain minorities, children, and renters." In the case, which dealt with statutory and constitutional challenges to the Commerce Department's plan, the court stated in its majority opinion that the Census Act "prohibits the proposed uses of statistical sampling in calculating the population for purposes of apportionment." As Media Matters for America has documented, the court also explicitly stated that it was not deciding whether the Constitution banned sampling for that purpose.

The court decided that the Census Act did not bar the Commerce Department from using sampling in the decennial census for other purposes. Discussing amendments to the Census Act passed in 1976, the majority opinion stated:

[T]he amendments served a very important purpose: They changed a provision that permitted the use of sampling for purposes other than apportionment into one that required that sampling be used for such purposes if "feasible." They also added to the existing delegation of authority to the Secretary to carry out the decennial census a statement indicating that despite the move to mandatory use of sampling in collecting nonapportionment information, the Secretary retained substantial authority to determine the manner in which the decennial census is conducted. [emphases in original]

Subsequently, however, President Bush's first commerce secretary, Don Evans, decided that for purposes of redistricting, the department would release as its "official data" only data that had not been adjusted by sampling, thereby reversing the Clinton administration's policy.

Additionally, during the Weekend Edition segment, Schorr claimed that in response to the concerns of "the black caucus," "the White House said, 'OK, it won't be under the Department of Commerce. We'll take it to the White House.' " In fact, in a February 5 statement, LaBolt stated that the White House planned to "return" to the "model" of the "historic precedent for the director of the Census, who works for the commerce secretary and the president, to work closely with White House senior management." During a February 6 briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked whether the White House had "moved the control of the Census Bureau into the White House for the purposes of the 2010 census." Gibbs stated: "No. ... I think the historical precedent of this is there's a director of the census that works for the Secretary of Commerce, the President, and also works closely with the White House, to ensure a timely and accurate count. And that's what we have in this instance." Moreover, LaBolt reportedly said on February 11, "This administration has not proposed removing the census from the Department of Commerce and the same congressional committees that had oversight during the previous administration will retain that authority."

From the February 14 edition of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday:

SIMON: President Obama's nominee for commerce secretary, Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, took his name out of the running. He cited disagreement over the stimulus package.

SCHORR: Mm-hmm.

SIMON: There was another reason, though, too, wasn't there?

SCHORR: That is a fascinating story. That had to do with the Census Bureau, which is preparing for the big census in 2010. That's under the Department of Commerce. If he were the secretary of commerce, he would be in charge of it. Except that minority groups and the black caucus have objected to having the census come under a Republican conservative, because they say that there was an undercount in the census of up to 6 million in the last census, and there may be --

SIMON: But that was under the Clinton administration. That was under a Democratic administration.

SCHORR: It was under a Democratic administration. But the black caucus went to the White House and said, "We can't have a census that may work against us and take away some of our voting rights," so to speak. And the result of that was, the White House said, "OK, it won't be in the Department of Commerce. We'll take it to the White House."

At that point, Senator Gregg says, "What, what? One of the big things that the Commerce Department does is run the census, and you're going to take that away?" I have a feeling that that was a triggering mechanism for him to pull out.