Transcript: Census Bureau Acting Director Ron Jarmin's Interview With NPR

Editor's note: NPR National Correspondent Hansi Lo Wang spoke with the U.S. Census Bureau's Acting Director Ron Jarmin in an exclusive interview — Jarmin's first with a news organization since stepping in last July to lead the federal government's largest statistical agency.

Jarmin discussed how the bureau is preparing for the upcoming 2020 census, including the controversial new citizenship question.

The following is a partial transcript of the conversation, which has been edited for clarity.

Hansi Lo Wang: You've been in this position as acting director for more than a year now.

Ron Jarmin: Just over a year, yep.

How is it different than when it was before, when you first started?

Obviously, I have had several different jobs over my tenure here at the Census Bureau, each with increasing amounts of responsibility, obviously. I used to be the senior career person, running the research methodology area. And I think that more than anything sort of prepped me for this job in the sense that I dealt with the entire range of activities across the Census Bureau, from economic surveys to household surveys to the 2020 census. And so I think that was very good preparation for this.

Because now you're seeing all of it.

Well, I'm seeing a lot more 2020 census than I'm seeing the other parts of the Census Bureau. There's a lot going on here even without the census going on.

Let's talk more about that. Just help explain to our listeners the 2020 census. A very basic question: who is supposed to be counted in the 2020 census?

The census is in the Constitution, and it asks for an enumeration of the resident population of the U.S. that is used to apportion the Congress amongst the 50 states. States use the numbers for redistricting, and billions of federal dollars are allocated based on census numbers. So who is supposed to be counted? All residents are supposed to be counted.

And when you say all residents, does citizenship status matter? Does immigration status matter?

It does not.

Does not. And that has been the case since?

As far as I know ... it's in the Constitution, the resident population, and the courts have interpreted that to mean everybody.

Well, certainly, historically, there have been debates about the Three-Fifths Compromise and we can get into that, but we don't have to right now. There is a lawsuit right