House Oversight Hosts Census Bureau Director Rob Santos

On December 5, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the Oversight of the U.S. Census Bureau with Director Rob Santos as the witness. During his opening remarks, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) raised concerns over the 2020 Census and the overcount and undercount of different states, suggesting that undercounting was found in predominately Republican states while overcounting was found in predominately Democratic states. In his response, Santos indicated that the unexpected impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated overcounts and undercounts. Further, he clarified that the Census Bureau and subsequent surveys are non-partisan. Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (R-MD) pointed to a mistrust in government processes in some states as another potential exacerbation of undercounting during the 2020 Census and emphasized the need to have trusted community leaders working alongside the Census Bureau to ensure an accurate count. To this end, Representative Summer Lee (D-PA) spoke to the importance of the Decennial Census, underscoring the vitality of the bureau’s engagement with underserved communities.

Further, Chairman Comer requested clarification on the decision not to include the question of U.S. citizenship in the Decennial Census (see previous COSSA coverage). Attention turned to the American Census Survey (ACS), which does include a question of U.S. citizenship, among other questions that were once included in the Census (see previous COSSA coverage). As indicated by Santos, implementing a citizenship question in the Decennial Census was found to reduce response rates while inclusion of the same question in the ACS did not. While some Republican members, including Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), argued that the data collected by the ACS was not relevant to the government, Santos indicated the importance of both surveys to foster a broader understanding of the U.S. population.

With modernization at the forefront of the conversation, Santos discussed the ways the Census is expanding online-participation with the Decennial Census as well as implementing a community network to be the “trusted messengers” of the Census Bureau to individual communities to encourage participation. Some House Republicans, including Representative William Timmons (R-SC), indicated that it would become a priority for the following session to conduct oversight on the Census Bureau and draft legislation to include a citizenship question on the Decennial Census.

A full recording of the hearing can be found here.