President Joe Biden has nominated Robert Santos to lead the U.S. Census Bureau as it inches toward releasing data from the 2020 census that would be used to redraw congressional and legislative districts.

Robert Santos, a Mexican-American, is the American Statistical Association president and also the vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute, according to an Associated Press report.

If confirmed, Robert Santos would become the first person of color to serve as a permanent Census Bureau director.

He is set to replace Steven Dillingham, who stepped down in January amid reports that former President Donald Trump pressured him to produce citizenship information at the expense of data quality in last year's census.

The White House issued Santos' nomination on Tuesday, USA Today reported. Ron Jarmin, the Census Bureau's chief operating officer, currently serves as the agency's acting director.

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Robert Santos' Profile

Robert Santos hails from San Antonio, Texas, and is deemed an expert in survey sampling with his 40 years of experience in survey design, policy research, and social science.

In a 2019 report that he co-authored, Santos cautioned that underfunding and the last-minute introduction of citizenship could result in serious miscounts of Blacks, Latinos, and others in the 2020 Census.

He noted that the percentage of native-born Hispanics in the U.S. has increased over the decades. Santos said his Spanish-speaking grandparents hailed from Mexico, but his generation only spoke English.

"It's this language loss that lead to personal conflict in my journey of identity: How could I call myself a Latino or Mexican‐American if I am a monolingual English speaker?" he said in a 2019 speech.

Robert Santos earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Trinity University in San Antonio in 1976, while he earned his master's degree in statistics at the University of Michigan in 1977.

In a statement, Santos said that he considers the nomination an honor to join some of the world's most talented statisticians and scientists.

"The principles of transparency, scientific independence, and integrity will be key in allowing the Census Bureau to thrive and innovate over the coming decade," Santos said as reported by NPR.

Robert Santos acknowledged that another big challenge facing the bureau is its plans to use a new method to protect people's information confidentiality.

The bureau is already facing several court challenges over the delay in the release of 2020 census results to run more quality checks.

The statistical agency is set to release state population counts and more detailed data at smaller geographic levels in August.

Census Bureau

The Census Bureau became a federal agency in 1902, and since then, it has been filled almost exclusively by white men.

In 1998, the bureau was temporarily led by an African American acting director when James F. Holmes filled the position for about nine months after the resignation of economist Martha Riche.

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