Censusgate: When and What Did Labor Know?

By John Crudele

A tipster tried to warn the Labor Department in 2011 that its unemployment statistics were being fabricated by the people at the Census Bureau who compile the data.

But the warning was either missed or ignored by Labor.

That allegedly allowed the data falsification to go on for years.

As I’ve been telling you, the falsification is now the subject of a number of investigations, including one by the House Oversight Committee and Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.

Also investigating is the Office of the Inspector General at the Commerce Department, which is in charge of Census. And I’m hearing that the US Attorney in the Philadelphia region is also poking around the matter, although a spokeswoman wouldn’t confirm that.

And, of course, I am also investigating. I’m waiting for the Commerce Department to comply with my Freedom of Information Act request for e-mails and text messages between people in the Philadelphia Census office.

So far, all I’ve heard is that the FOIA request is being worked on.

At the core of all these investigations is solid evidence that at least one surveyor — a guy named Julius Buckmon, working out of the Philadelphia Census office but polling in Washington, DC — submitted fake household surveys that were used in compiling the Labor Department’s unemployment rate.

Because of the scientific nature of the Labor Department survey, Buckmon’s actions alone would have affected the responses of some 500,000 households.

Read the rest here.