DAILY BRIEFING
Census Director Quits
Census Bureau Director Martha Farnsworth Riche announced Monday she will leave her post on Jan. 30.
Riche, who has served as census chief since November 1994, was heavily criticized by congressional Republicans for her support of the use of statistical sampling for the 2000 census. Republicans worried that the results would be susceptible to tampering. Riche argued that sampling would provide a more accurate count of the U.S. population than methods used in previous censuses.
"I think I've done what I came to do. I came to reinvent the Census Bureau and as a part of that I've led a redesign of the Census," Riche told the Associated Press. "Now is the time for someone to come in who has experience in taking a large organization through the daily grind ... and that's a different person."
Riche plans to write a book on census history after she leaves the bureau.
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