Who Counts?: The Politics and Policy Implications of the 2010 Census
 
Baker Center luncheon featuring 
Charles Louis Kincannon, former director of the US Census Bureau
 
February 22, 11:30 am – 1:00 p.m.
Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy
Toyota Auditorium 
$15 for lunch
 
RSVP by Feb. 15 to 974-0931 or Betsy Harrell at [log in to unmask] 
 
As the former director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Mr. Kincannon will discuss 
the political and policy implications of this year’s decenniel census.  
Information collected in the census are crucial in apportioning seats in the 
U.S. House of Representatives and deciding how more than $400 billion dollars 
of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services such as 
hospitals, job training centers, schools, senior centers, public works projects 
and emergency services.  He will also discuss how the census counts people 
and whether to count immigrants (documented or not), where to count 
prisoners, and how to deal with university students, American resident 
overseas, or persons with residences in two states. 

Mr. Kincannon began his career at the US Census Bureau in 1963 after 
graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1975, he joined the staff 
of the Office of Management and Budget, where he worked on statistical and 
regulatory policy. He also served as the statistical liaison to Vice President 
Nelson Rockefeller’s office and provided administrative leadership that 
supported the successful implementation of the first Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1980. He returned to the Census Bureau in September 1981 and was 
appointed as deputy director and chief operating officer in January 1982 by 
President Reagan’s first director of the Census Bureau, Bruce Chapman. He 
served as deputy director to John G. Keane in the Reagan administration and 
Barbara Everitt Bryant in the George H. W. Bush administration. Kincannon 
served as acting director from July 1983 to March 1984 and again from 
January to December 1989, during which time he directed the final 
preparations for the 1990 census. Throughout his tenure with the federal 
government, Mr. Kincannon received several awards recognizing his 
contributions, including the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Service and 
the Department of Commerce Gold Medal.  In October 1992, Mr. Kincannon 
was appointed as the first chief statistician in the Organisation for Economic 
Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. He coordinated the 
organization’s statistical programs and advised the OECD secretary general on 
statistical policy. He left this post in June 2000 to return to the United 
States.  In 2001 he was appointed as director of the US Census Bureau by 
President George W. Bush and served in that capacity until his retirement in 
2008.


Amy K. Gibson, Ph.D.
Director of Communications and Public Programming
Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
865-974-3816 (o)
865-363-9605 (m)