Dr. Robert Groves

Confirmed as 

Director of the Census Bureau 

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted 76-15 to end the debate on the nomination of Dr. Robert Groves as the Director of the U.S.Census Bureau.  This vote overcame the objections of several Republicans more than three months after President Obama nominated the renowned survey methodologist and former Census Associate Director to head the nation's largest statistical agency. The Senate then proceeded to approve Dr. Gates by a voice vote.

Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), chairman of the census oversight subcommittee, said that the census was mandated in the Constitution and that conducting the Census was the largest peacetime project of the federal government. . Conducting the Census required years of preparation and the hiring and training of thousands people to work in the field..  Sen. Carper called Dr. Groves "an inspired choice" and said the nominee was "ideally suited to this position" because of his credentials in survey methodology and his prior experience as a senior Census Bureau official.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), introduced the nominee at his confirmation hearing,  and said that  Dr. Groves "may be the best candidate ever nominated for this position." Dr. Groves holds Master of Arts degrees in statistics and sociology and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Michigan and most recently served as Director of the University's Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research. Sen. Levin noted that six former Census Directors, appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents, had written a letter in support of Dr. Groves' nomination.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the senior Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, addressed the concerns of colleagues that the Obama administration will politicize the census for partisan purposes reviewing  Dr. Groves' pledges under oath at his confirmation hearing "to resign and actively work to stop any action to improperly influence the census for political gain.

The President named Dr. Groves to head the Census Bureau on April 2, but the nomination stalled after Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) objected to a confirmation vote until they received assurances from the Administration that there would not be a statistical adjustment of the 2010 census and that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) would not play a role in the decennial count. During today's debate on a motion to "invoke cloture," or end debate, on the nomination, Sen. Vitter said he had written to the Administration in June, asking for assurances that ACORN -- one of thousands of official 2010 Census partners that have agreed to promote participation in the census -- "will have nothing to do with the census." Sen. Shelby said that he had sought similar assurances from the Administration in March. Both senators said they had not received responses to their questionsproved his nomination on May 20. .

Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Source: Xinhua General News Service (China)

WASHINGTON -- The World Bank and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday that family planning and other reproductive health programs vital to poor women had fallen off the development radar of many low-income and donor country governments and international aid agencies.

These programs, they said in a statement released on the eve of the 20th anniversary of World Population Day, were vital to boost women's economic and social well-being, especially during the current global economic crisis, and to reduce endemic poverty and high numbers of maternal and infant deaths.

"The global economic downturn has taken a wrecking ball to growth and development in poor countries worldwide, and has become a development emergency for women because invariably they're the first to suffer when economic crises strike," said Joy Phumaphi, vice president for Human Development at the World Bank, and former Health Minister for Botswana.

"Even before this crisis began, family planning and reproductive health had fallen off the radar of low-income countries, aid donors, and development agencies -- with the result that we've lost precious time in helping women get access to these vital health services, and helping countries get on a faster track to reducing poverty," he said.

Delivering a keynote address at the World Bank to mark the World Population Day, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid said that investing in women was a smart choice during a time of global economic crisis and cutbacks in health budgets worldwide.

"The sad and shocking truth is that maternal mortality represents the largest health inequity in the world, and of all the Millennium Development Goals, MDG 5 to improve maternal health is lagging the farthest behind," he said. "And with the financial crisis and the reduction in budgets for health, this goal will be even harder to realize. It is not a lack of knowledge that is hindering progress; it is a lack of political will to protect the health and rights of women.."

New preliminary World Bank figures show that while official global development aid for health soared from 2.9 billion dollars in 1995 to 14.1 billion dollars in 2007, roughly a five-fold increase in 12 years, aid for population and reproductive health had increased much more modestly during the same period, from 901 million dollars in 1995 to 1.9 billion dollars in 2007.

In the 35 highest-fertility countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, aid for women's family planning and reproductive programs started at 150 million dollars in 1995 and increased to 432 million dollars in 2007, while overall aid for health in these 35 countries went from 915 million dollars in 1995 to 4.9 billion dollars in 2007.

Support for population and reproductive health programs has significantly declined as a percentage of overall health aid, from about 30 percent in 1994 to 12 percent in 2008.

The Census Bureau is planning to hire more than 750,000 temporary workers over the next 9 months to conduct the Census. They will mail out 150 million questionaires to American households in March, 2010. And they are still without a Director.  Dr. Robert M. Groves was nominated by President Obama in April and confirmed by the Senate in May.  However, one or more anonymous Republican senators have placed a hold on his confirmation vote because of opposition to the "rushed" hearings of Judge Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Failure to have a director at this critical time in the planning and implementation of the 2010 Census could seriously jeopardize its success.

To shore up the management of the Bureau, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke appointed three former Census Bureau employees to assess the readiness and potential vulnerabilities of the Census.  Dr. Kenneth Prewitt, director of the 2000 Census, John Thompson, Census Bureau Associate Director in 2000 and Nancy Potok, former Chief Financial Office of Census Bureau in 2000 will provide advice on the overall management of the census, contracts and field operations.

 Congress continues to provide advice and guidance to the Bureau.  Two Republicans (Chaffetz R-UT and Bishop (R-UT) have introduced bills to have postal workers count residents who do not return the Census form rather than hiring the enumerators to visit those homes that do not respond.  This idea has been rejected several times by the Bureau and  in 1993 the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council reported that such an action " would have a negative impact on the ability of the Postal Service to deliver the mail.

These Republicans also introduced a bill that would count private American citizens living abroad in state totals.  Utah is particularly intersted in this because of the large number of young people living abroad while doing their  missionary period.  Utah lost a seat to North Carolina in 2000 because they could not count the private citizens.  Currently  only members of the armed forces and federal government civilina employees assigned to duty stations during the the census are included in the state population figures.  

Richard F. Hokenson (www.hokenson.biz) reports that Americans are still retiring.  Despite the dramatic declines in the 401K's of retirees, almost 500,000 men and women over 65 left the work force in 2008 according to Mr. Hokenson in his recent article Americans are Still Retiring. He concludes that retirement patterns have not changed significantly over the last 15 years, rather they reflect a persistent and steady increase in the number of people over 65 in the work force.

This pattern began in the "go-go" years of the 1990 rather than in response to the dramatically diminished retirement resources resulting from the recent economic reversals.  There has been an increase in work force participation among all age groups over 65 and among both sexes since 1990.  Mr. Hokenson argues that some retirees want to continue working even though the cost of retirement is not an issue.

The changing nature of work from manual and physical labor mean that fewer people wear out by 65.  In addition, the growing evidence that "use it or lose it" encourages people to continue working rather than embracing a sedentary  life which may lead to loss of both physical and mental abilities.

    Mr. Hokenson also attributes the increase in labor force participation rates among those over 65 to the changing marital patterns, with an increase in single households due to an increasing number of never-married people, the growing divorce rate and the death of a spouse.