Tag Archives: Wilbur Ross

Law & Crime reports: A federal court on Tuesday ruled that drafts of a letter that was ultimately sent by the U.S. Department of Justice in order to request a citizenship question on the 2020 Census are not public records that can be accessed under the Freedom of Information Act. The original letter, sent by DOJ General Counsel of the …

Roll Call reports: The 2020 census missed about one in every 20 Hispanic people in the country, according to estimates the Census Bureau released Thursday, following a count rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and Trump administration decisions. Black, Hispanic and Native American residents as well as young children also were undercounted in the census, which double counted the white population, …

The New York Times reports: A newly disclosed memorandum citing “unprecedented” meddling by the Trump administration in the 2020 census and circulated among top Census Bureau officials indicates how strongly they sought to resist efforts by the administration to manipulate the count for Republican political gain. The document was shared among three senior executives including Ron S. Jarmin, a deputy …

Bloomberg News reports: The U.S. Commerce Department released a report this week on proposed auto tariffs that the Trump administration refused to make public. The agency, under former President Donald Trump, kept the 2019 document private and was sued for holding back the information. The DOJ in January 2020 said the White House could use executive privilege to decline its …

The Washington Post reports: An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found. The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword …

NPR reports: Saddled with delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic and last-minute changes by the Trump administration, the first set of 2020 census results will not be ready for release by Thursday’s year-end deadline for numbers that determine representation in Congress and the Electoral College for the next decade. Under federal law, the commerce secretary, who oversees the bureau, is …

NPR reports: The Trump administration can end counting for the 2020 census after the Supreme Court approved a request for now to suspend a lower court order that extended the count’s schedule. The high court’s ruling, following an emergency request the Justice Department made last week, is the latest turn in a roller coaster of a legal fight over the …

CNN reports: The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow it to wrap up the 2020 census by blocking a lower court opinion requiring the count to continue until the end of October. The administration asked the high court for “immediate relief” because the trial court order will prevent Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from delivering an …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: A federal appeals refused Wednesday to allow the Trump administration to shut down the 2020 census a month ahead of schedule, saying the speedup would reduce public confidence in an accurate population count that is crucial to congressional representation and federal funding. Over the dissent of a judge appointed by President Trump, the Ninth U.S. …

Bloomberg News reports: A federal judge initiated contempt of court proceedings over allegations that the U.S. Commerce Department defied her order not to rush completion of the census. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said during a hearing Tuesday that Monday’s announcement that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is targeting Oct. 5 to wrap up the once-a-decade population count “is doing …

Raw Story reports: On Monday, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross “has announced a target date of October 5, 2020 to conclude 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations.” This comes despite an order by a federal judge on Friday directing the census to continue through October 31. The initial decision of the bureau to …

The Associated Press reports: A panel of three federal judges said Thursday that Presidential Trump’s order to exclude people in the county illegally when redrawing congressional districts violates the law. The federal judges in New York granted an injunction stopping the order, saying the harm caused by it would last for a decade. The judges prohibited Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, …

CNBC reports: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has been hospitalized due to health reasons not related to the coronavirus, according to a Commerce Department spokesperson. “Secretary Ross has been admitted into the hospital for minor, non-coronavirus related issues. He is doing well and we anticipate his release soon,” according to a statement NBC News obtained. Ross started working remotely …

The New York Times reports: The Department of Commerce is preventing the release of an investigation’s findings into whether it coerced the head of a federal agency into supporting President Trump’s erroneous claim that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama last year, the department’s inspector general said on Wednesday. In a memo to Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the inspector …

CNBC reports: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is working from his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, while the Trump administration tries to limit the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter. Ross, 82, is teleworking to the extent possible, according to the people, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. A representative …

Politico reports: In response to widespread fear among immigrants and activists over the Trump administration’s failed drive to put a question about citizenship status on the 2020 census, the Census Bureau is investing millions of dollars in an advertising campaign underlining the fact that participants’ information will not be shared with local or federal authorities. The handful of citizenship-focused advertisements …

NBC News reports: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak in China could lead businesses to bring jobs back to the U.S. and Mexico. “Well, first of all, every American’s heart has to go out to the victims of the coronavirus. So I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very …

Courthouse News reports: Riding on a unanimous Supreme Court ruling effectively blocking the Trump administration from including a citizenship question on the 2020 census, the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday sued Attorney General Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for not responding to a congressional subpoena for records on the hotly debated issue. Barr and Ross have refused to …

The New York Times reports: The White House was directly involved in pressing a federal scientific agency to repudiate the weather forecasters who contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian would probably strike Alabama, according to several people familiar with the events. Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, told Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, to have the …

Reuters reports: The news that a cabinet member in the Trump administration had threatened to fire politically-appointed staff at the agency in order to force the NOAA to contradict the advice of its own scientists prompted immediate condemnation. The head of the environmental group the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, called on Ross to resign to “maintain the dignity of the …