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Census Bureau News |
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Senate Confirms Robert Groves as Census Bureau Director
Washington, DC, July 13, 2009 — After weeks of stalling and opposition by the US Senate, sociologist  Robert Groves, a veteran survey researcher at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center, was confirmed as director of the United States Census Bureau after a full Senate vote today. In early April President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Groves as U.S. Census Director, and on May 20, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved his nomination by voice vote. A Senate confirmation was delayed because of the opposition of two republican senators who feared the use of statistical adjustment in the 2010 Census.
With less than one year before Census 2010, the Census Bureau—the nation’s largest statistical agency—now has a leader who has the scientific credentials and experience to lead this complex operation. Groves has an impressive record of academic and professional experiences and accomplishments. He is a nonpartisan, academic researcher who has focused much of his research on non-response to household surveys and survey error and has published three of the most-cited textbooks and numerous journal articles on survey research.
Decennial Census counts of the nation’s residents (citizen and non-citizen) are conducted primarily to determine how many of the 435 U.S. House of Representative seats will be allocated to each of the 50 states to achieve fair representation. Census numbers also drive the flow of $300 billion in federal dollars to states and communities, supporting everything from education and housing to infrastructure and welfare.
The nomination and the importance of the U.S. Census were recently covered in the July/August issue of Footnotes. ASA Secretary-Treasurer Donald Tomaskovic-Devey will attend the swearing-in ceremony on behalf of ASA and the sociological community.
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