To try to prevent another citizenship-question debacle, the head of the Government Accountability Office would have to review whether all questions for the upcoming census have been "researched, studied and tested according to established statistical policies and procedures." The bill also specifies that only the bureau's director could make operational, statistical or technical decisions for the once-a-decade national count and that the agency could only have a "single" deputy director, who would be a career civil servant appointed by the director. And if there is no director in place, there would be a succession plan involving only the top career civil servants. The president would be allowed to remove the director - who currently can serve no more than two five-year terms - "only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office," according to the legislative text. National Immigration Hard-Liner Files Reveal 40-Year Bid Behind Trump's Census Obsession "It basically moves to make sure that the census is fair and accurate, that it is removed from political influence and that the decisions made are made on science and not politics," Maloney told NPR. citizenship status and installation of political appointees with no obvious qualifications at the bureau, among other extraordinary moves. Carolyn Maloney - a Democrat from New York who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee that helps oversee the Census Bureau - comes after the Trump administration raised the risks of an incomplete and inaccurate count of the country's population in 2020 with its failed push for a previously untested census question about U.S. If it becomes law, the bill would put up additional roadblocks against any attempt by an administration to interfere with the next once-a-decade census, which is used to divvy up political representation and federal funding to communities across the U.S. House of Representatives could help the 2030 census and other upcoming national head counts avoid the years of meddling by former President Donald Trump's administration that dogged the country's most recent tally. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the current chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, who's shown here in 2018, has introduced a bill to try to protect the 2030 census and other future head counts from political interference.Ī bill introduced Monday in the U.S.