Letter to Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce - Senior House Democrats Call on Secretary Ross to Immediately Withdraw Unprecedented Political Appointees at Census Bureau

Letter

Dear Secretary Ross:

We are writing to object to the Trump Administration's continued efforts to politicize the Census--this time by installing a record number of President Trump's political appointees at the upper echelons of the Census Bureau, which historically has been run by a cadre of career, nonpartisan experts.

The Census is one of the most fundamental obligations of the federal government enshrined in the Constitution. For decades, the Census Bureau has been run by more than 4,000 career staff and has had no more than five political appointees.1 However, on June 23, Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham announced that the Administration had placed two more highly partisan political appointees into the upper management of the Census Bureau, bringing the total number of political appointees at the Census Bureau to six. The Census Bureau's press release stated that these new political appointees, Nathaniel Cogley and Adam Korzeniewski, were brought in to "help the Census Bureau achieve a complete and accurate 2020 Census, andstudy future improvements" and that "it is imperative that we consider public, private, and notfor-profit sector needs for relevant and quality data."2

According to press reports, since their arrival at the Census Bureau, Mr. Koreniewski and Mr. Cogley have "repeatedly questioned the need for census operations that focus on accurately counting the nation's hardest-to-reach residents."3 The Trump Administration has failed to adequately set forth its motives for this action, identify the specific needs it is trying to address, explain why it needs more political appointees running the Census than previous Administrations, or justify why the American taxpayers should be forced to pay for these partisan appointees running what should be an ideologically neutral count of the people in our country.

Unfortunately, this is only the latest example of the Trump Administration's politicization of the Census. Your campaign to add a citizenship question to the Census was struck down by the Supreme Court as unlawful. The Court found that the rationale you offered for adding the citizenship question--and which was advanced in a letter from the Justice Department to the Census Bureau on December 12, 2017--was a "pretext" and "contrived."4

Experts at the Census Bureau warned that the citizenship question would depress the actual count and result in a less accurate enumeration. On January 19, 2018, only days after the Department of Justice made its baseless request to add the citizenship question, the Census Bureau's Chief Scientist, Dr. John Abowd, wrote to you that "adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census" is "very costly, harms the quality of the census count, and would use substantially less accurate citizenship status data than are available from administrative sources."5

In addition, the House of Representatives held you in contempt of Congress on July 17, 2020, as a result of your refusal to produce documents subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee regarding your efforts to unlawfully add the citizenship question. The House found that you and Attorney General William Barr "obstructed and delayed the Committee's investigation by defying lawful subpoenas for documents issued by Chairman Elijah E. Cummings and authorized by the Committee in a bipartisan vote." Your actions left the Committee no choice but to pursue contempt proceedings and seek enforcement of the subpoenas in order to uphold the House's duties under the Constitution.6

Despite your refusal to comply with the Committee's duly-authorized subpoena, the Committee was able to obtain information from other sources indicating that GOP strategist Thomas Hofeller played a crucial role in your effort to add the citizenship question, writing in a study leading up to the 2016 election that adding the citizenship question "would be advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites."7

Even more troubling, the two individuals appointed to the Census Bureau, Mr. Korzeniewski and Mr. Cogley, have engaged in highly partisan--and in some cases extremely questionable--activities that make them unsuitable for positions running the Census Bureau or executing the 2020 Census.

For example, last year Mr. Koreniewski was a paid political consultant for Joseph Saladino, a YouTube personality with a history of racist depictions of Black people and other extremely troubling activity.8 As one recent news report explained:

Joseph Saladino, better known as Joey Salads online, has been permanently suspended from Twitter. A Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Dot that "the account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of our platform manipulation and spam policy." Over the past few years, Saladino has transitioned from prank YouTube channel to a more political voice, responding to tweets from President Trump and other Republican influencers. …

In 2016 Saladino released a series of videos showcasing faked pranks including getting attacked and robbed by fake "Bernie supporters."

One of his most scandalous videos happened in 2016, when Saladino asked a group of young black men to come beat up a car covered in Trump stickers. He claimed in the video that this was unprovoked and that "the black community is very violent towards Trump and his supporters." Saladino later admitted that the whole thing was a hoax and that he "thought (he) could get away with it," according to the BBC.9

In addition, according to his personal website, Mr. Cogley is a political scientist most recently serving as the Head of the Department of Government, Legal Studies, & Philosophy at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.10 His recent publications include several opeds in the Washington Examiner criticizing the House of Representatives' impeachment of President Trump,11 and he has tweeted repeatedly about Democratic primaries.12

A successful Census depends on the Bureau's ability to conduct its activities in a professional, impartial, and non-partisan manner. For these reasons, past Administrations historically have limited the number of political appointees within the Bureau. Breaking with this precedent and installing more political appointees--particularly those with such starkly partisan backgrounds as Mr. Cogley and Mr. Korzeniewski--threatens the Bureau's responsibility to successfully execute a full, fair, and accurate 2020 Census.

For all of these reasons, we call on you to immediately withdraw these appointments, eliminate these partisan positions, and remove Mr. Cogley and Mr. Korzeniewski from the Census Bureau.

In the alternative, in order to assist the Committee in evaluating why you believe these new positions are necessary, why these responsibilities should be carried out by political appointees rather than civil servants, and why the American taxpayers should be forced to pay for their salaries, we ask that you produce the following documents by July 24, 2020:

1. Communications and documents referring or relating to the establishment of new political positions or new political appointments within the Census Bureau, including but not limited to communications among or between individuals at the Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau, the White House, and outside parties; and

2. Communications and documents referring or relating to the duties and responsibilities assigned to the new political appointees within the Census Bureau.

The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate "any matter" at "any time" under House Rule X. In addition, the Committee has jurisdiction over "Population and demography generally, including the Census."13

An attachment to this letter provides additional instructions for responding to the Committee's request. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Committee staff at (202) 225-5051.

Sincerely,

Source