Census Bureau, midway through his five-year term and in the midst of planning for the census, which will determine political power and federal funding nationwide for another decade to come. A Republican redistricting expert wrote that using citizen voting-age population instead of the total population for the purpose of redrawing congressional and legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.
Besides planning for the census, Santos and other bureau leaders were overseeing changes to the questionnaires for the next once-a-decade head count and the annual American Community Survey when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as race and ethnicity.
Queries about sexual orientation and gender identity were planned for the annual survey of American life for the first time. The bureau also was implementing a directive from the Biden administration to combine questions about race and ethnicity and add a new Middle Eastern and North African category.
Before joining the Census Bureau, Santos was a vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute and had spent four decades in survey research, statistical design and analysis and executive-level management. The Texas native said in his letter that he planned to spend time with his family in retirement. The story has been corrected to show that Robert Santos has decided to resign as director of the U. Census Bureau instead of has resigned from the agency.
By Associated Press ap dfmdev. More in National Politics.
