Census Bureau director to resign amid criticism over data

Updated: Jan 18, 2021 / 03:27 PM CST

Director Steven Dillingham of the US Census Bureau testifies about the 2020 Census during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 16, 2019. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

(AP) — Facing criticism over efforts to produce citizenship data to comply with an order from President Donald Trump, U.S. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham said Monday that he planned to resign with the change in presidential administrations.

Dillingham said in a statement that he would resign on Wednesday, the day Trump leaves the White House and President-elect Joseph Biden takes office.

The Census Bureau director’s plan to resign comes as the statistical agency is in the middle of crunching the numbers for the 2020 census, which will be used to determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets, as well as the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year.

Last week, Democratic lawmakers called on Dillingham to resign after a watchdog agency said he had set a deadline that pressured statisticians to produce a report on the number of people in the U.S. illegally.