Locke says Census director will report directly to him

Commerce Secretary-designate Gary Locke Wednesday affirmed that the yet-unnamed Census Bureau director will report directly to him, answering after being pressed by Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

House Republicans have been vociferous opponents of an initial Obama administration announcement, made when Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., was its choice to head the Commerce Department, that the Census Bureau director would report to the White House.

Gregg eventually withdrew his nomination amid the census controversy.

Addressing GOP fears that the apportionment of federal resources and congressional redistricting -- determined by the decennial census -- would be influenced by a politicized inflation of minority and hard-to-reach populations, Locke vowed that the bureau will use an actual head count for apportionment and has "no plans to use any kind of statistical sampling with respect to population count."