U.S. census director says bureau is strengthening 'firewall' after Trump meddling

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/21/ [login to see] /census-bureau-director-robert-santos-interference-trump
The Biden administration is drafting new regulations to try to better protect the Census Bureau from any future political interference from its parent agency, the Commerce Department, the bureau's director, Robert Santos, told NPR on Monday.

"I expect that there will be from deliberations with the Department of Commerce additional regulations to make sure that there is a harder wall between the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce to ensure that there won't be any inappropriate activity," Santos said in one of his first interviews since becoming the bureau's leader in January.

Asked when the regulations will be released, Santos did not provide any additional details but noted that he has reviewed "measures for that type of firewall."

The revelation comes after years of meddling with the 2020 census by former President Donald Trump's administration, which attempted to add a hotly contested question about U.S. citizenship status to the head count's forms, added a series of political appointees with no obvious qualifications to the bureau's top ranks and cut short counting efforts after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed many of the bureau's operations.