Census director: Don't count me out
- By Judi Hasson
- Dec 05, 2000
Count Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt as one presidential appointee
who does not want to leave his job when the new administration arrives.
Prewitt said that he hopes, for the "stability of the Census Bureau,"
that he is not asked to resign. As an appointee confirmed by the Senate,
he serves at the behest of the president and can be asked to step down at
any time.
"I think it would be healthy for the census, indeed healthy for American
society, if the Census Bureau director were not thought of as a political
appointee who has to be removed immediately upon the appearance of a new
administration," Prewitt told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.
He said he will do whatever he is asked to, but his own preference would
be for the bureau to "do its work completely independently of any kind of
political influence."
He said his position is no different from that of a political appointee
at the National Institutes of Health or NASA who spearheads a major project
from start to finish, regardless of which administration made the appointment.