The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing for Don Graves, the Biden Administration’s nominee to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce, on March 10, 2021.
Noting the importance “that we have accurate data” from the 2020 Census, Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) worried that the delays in delivery of census data may create “challenges” for many states as they try to meet “their constitutional duties on redistricting.”
Cantwell asked Graves if he would “work to address these state issues” with a “truncated timeline” and “address the accuracy and timeliness of the census?”
Graves responded that he would “absolutely… work on that issue,” but more importantly, would “also listen to the experts — the career experts at the department — and not allow politics to impact the accuracy and timeliness of the census.”