Don’t Starve the Census

[Commentary] Some Republicans in Congress are calling for cuts to the Census Bureau’s budget that would impair the agency’s already strained ability to gather basic data.

An accurate census is essential to determining the correct number of representatives from each state, the effectiveness of voting laws and the allotment of federal aid to states. In fact, information from the census and other surveys by the bureau is crucial to anyone — policy makers and businesspeople, researchers and citizens -- who wants to understand the United States, assess where it is headed and influence its course on the basis of hard data.

A threat to timely and accurate census data is a threat to fact-based debate and data-driven policy making. The census budget is small in terms of federal spending, but the White House should wage a big fight for it.