one US Census Bureau An advisory committee composed of scientific experts ruled by the Trump administration earlier this year is resurrecting and meeting Thursday without formal blessings or formal relations with statistical agencies.
The reconstruction of the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, re-listed in its name, is the research community’s phase-out of the Trump administration last winter, against the three advisory committees composed of external experts from private enterprises and academia.
Unlike past meetings, Census Bureau Staff will be involved directly or indirectly at Thursday’s meeting.
“Our scientific advice will still be Census Bureau? I have no idea. “But if we don’t provide their advice, our advice will have no impact at all.” ”
Latest efforts by statisticians, demographers and other researchers have brought committee members back together to challenge changes in the statistical system, which they see as worrying since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
Since then, data sets related to gender, sexual orientation, health, climate change and diversity have disappeared from federal websites, while workers and contractors of data guardians of statistical agencies have left or been forced to deport due to efforts to narrow the federal government. Last month, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the agency revised the number of jobs created in the spring.
Just last week, Census Bureau Says the contract “cannot be renewed”, which maintains its largest U.S. life survey for the online user community. An inspector general audit said this week that budget uncertainty and Trump administration’s frozen recruitment will be Census Bureau There is a risk of lagging behind in testing of the 2030 census operations at six locations next year.
Last month, Trump instructed the Commerce Department to have Census Bureau A new census will be initiated that will exclude immigrants illegally in the United States from determining political power and federal spending. The 14th Amendment says that “all numbers in each state” should be counted as a census that has been in the past decade, and any changes to the way the census is required to be approved by Congress.
Joyce Meyer was nominated as Secretary of Commerce at a confirmation hearing Wednesday, which oversees the department Census Bureauavoiding the immediate question of whether Trump should be able to conduct a new census without Congress changing the law, but she said she would comply with the law.
In addition to the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, the U.S. Department of Commerce killed the Census Advisory Committee last winter, which provided advice on the upcoming 2030 Census, and the National Advisory Committee, which provides insights on how to accurately calculate and collect racial, racial and other community data. At the time, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the committee’s purpose was “achieved.”
The committee’s phase-out frustrated the coalition of civil rights groups, describing it in a letter to Lutnik as a “major setback” in the bureau’s preparation for the 2030 census and modernizing data collection efforts.
Before Elimination Committee Census Bureau Appoint their members. The agency’s top leaders attended the committee’s biennial meeting and received their advice. Members of the Advisory Committee work for free, in addition to travel expenses and conference accommodation.
In the statement, Census Bureau The agency said Wednesday that the agency provided external comments through a rule-making process for the federal government that invites the public to comment.
When asked if the Census Advisory Committee may follow the path of the reorganized scientific group, its former chairman Arturo Vargas said in an email: “We are still discussing options and determining how to best utilize few resources to make the most impact and explore how to evaluate another independent advisory committee.”
Allison Plyer, former chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee, said Census Bureau Always benefit from the strategic recommendations of committee members who are experts in their fields.
“They don’t have it right now,” said Plyer, chief demographer at the New Orleans Data Center. “The external perspective is very important.”
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