Political Fight Brewing on Census

hosted.ap.org — There's still a year before Americans start filling out their census forms. But even before President Barack Obama has named a new director for the U.S. Census Bureau, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have begun bickering about how that person will carry out the once-a-decade job of cataloging the country's population. The trouble started with Obama's surprise nomination of Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire to head the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau. Gregg once voted for a broader budget measure that would have abolished the agency, and he also opposed increased funding for the 2000 census. Gregg's record raised concerns about his commitment to an accurate census count, a priority for minority groups that have historically been undercounted.

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