This SC native will lead the 2020 census - and deal with a controversial question
A South Carolina native has stepped into the job of running the 2020 census, just as the legal controversy about a planned question could be headed to the Supreme Court.
Steven Dillingham was sworn in as director of the U.S. Census Bureau on Jan. 7, after his nomination by President Donald Trump was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Dillingham, an Orangeburg native who graduated from Winthrop University, didn’t have to wait long to face his first challenge in his new role. A federal court in New York ruled Tuesday the Census Bureau cannot ask if those surveyed in the 2020 census are U.S. citizens, setting up a potential showdown for the Trump administration at the Supreme Court.
Opponents had sued, arguing that asking the citizenship question would decrease participation in the census by non-citizens. The court ruled the question had been improperly added to the bureau’s planned survey.
Dillingham is a career civil servant, having gone to work for the Justice Department as a legal counsel in the 1980s and going on to direct two federal statistical offices, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Most recently, he worked for the Peace Corps.
The Census Bureau has been without a full-time director since May 2017. The 2020 census will begin rolling out early next year.
This story was originally published January 15, 2019 at 12:27 PM.
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