Nomination Hearing of
Louis Kincannon
To be Director of the U.S. Census Bureau
Governmental Affairs Committee
Chairman Joe Lieberman
February 28, 2002
Good morning and welcome Mr. Kincannon. We’re
happy to have you before the Committee today because the post
to which you have been nominated exerts enormous influence
over the lives of all Americans. Quite literally, you are one
of the people who will decide who is counted and who is not,
who will benefit from federal resources and who will not. So
it is essential that the Census chief be fair-minded, a
professional administrator who will guarantee not only the
most accurate and scientifically-sound count but who will also
guarantee that all elements of our country, especially those
who are historically undercounted, are included in our census
tabulations.
Mr. Kincannon, your years of public service
speak well for you. Beginning your career 30 years ago as a
Census Bureau statistician, Mr. Kincannon steadily rose
through the ranks. In 1975, you left the Bureau for the Office
of Management and Budget where you worked with Jim Miller at
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and received
a commendation from then Vice-President Bush for your work on
regulatory reform.
In 1981, Mr. Kincannon returned to the
Census Bureau as deputy director and served in that post
through the first President Bush administration. Twice during
that period he served as acting director. And in 1992, he was
appointed the first Chief Statistician in the Organisation (cq)
for Economic Cooperation and Development.
For the record, Mr. Kincannon was born in
Waco, Texas, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at
Austin. He did graduate work at Georgetown University, George
Washington University, and the University of Maryland. Except
for eight years in Paris, he and his wife have resided in
Virginia. They have two daughters and are expecting another
grandchild in April. Congratulations to you.
Obviously, you have demonstrated your
loyalty to and affection for the Census Bureau and have twice
proven your expertise as the Bureau’s acting director.
Most people know the Bureau is the
government agency that counts the population every 10 years.
Less known is that it regularly provides government, business,
and academia with an updated picture of who we are as
individuals, as communities, and as Americans. With so many
aspects of our society dependent on the Bureau’s work, the
director must encourage cooperation and openness among his
ranks. The agency has long been criticized for its insular
nature. So, I hope you will work to make the Bureau a more
customer-friendly place.
You won’t be surprised that I must add a
word about the controversy that has surrounded the fairness of
the decennial count - a controversy that has been raging for
two decades. We are a nation of entrepreneurs, scientists and
thinkers - the most technologically advanced country on the
globe. Our population counts, I believe, should reflect that
mastery. In other words, we should be using the most advanced
methods at our disposal to capture the most accurate portrait
of our people.
We know that the actual enumeration - the
effort to count every head - doesn’t provide an accurate
count of the country’s diverse population - particularly the
poor, African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native
Americans. We also know that statisticians have long used a
variety of methods to help them provide more accurate data.
The Census Bureau has used these methods to
try to make the decennial census more accurate but, for a
variety of reasons, it has not incorporated the results into
its final census numbers. Consequently, we can’t be sure
that our House seats are correctly apportioned, our
congressional districts are properly drawn, or our government
resources directed to all the people they should be directed
to. In turn, the decisions of private investors, the
blueprints of community planners, the efforts of the local
school board, and many others are different from what they
otherwise might be.
I will say to you directly that I am
concerned about the Bureau’s methodology. But this is not
just a statisticians’ battle. This is about the equitable
treatment of all Americans, especially those whose voices are
too often not heard. The Census Bureau serves a very broad
constituency that blankets all of America. Its must be
responsive to that fact. Thank you. Senator Thompson? |