Columnist John Crudele goes to war against census director

Now, it's war!

The director of the US Census, which is spending more than $11 billion of taxpayer money, told some members of Congress that my recent columns about employment abuses by his organization are wrong.

Those columns quoted numerous workers saying that the Census was hiring people, then subjecting them to arbitrary firings after which they would be inexplicably rehired.

Lots of Census workers from around the country made these claims in e-mails to me.

Workers are also alleging that they are paid to train for positions but then given far less time on the job than promised. When they are told their jobs have been completed, others are then paid to train for the positions the original workers just vacated.

But Robert M. Groves, director of the Census, defended his organization's hiring practices.

"First, we do not hire, then fire, then rehire anyone. Any employee who is fired is fired for cause," Groves wrote in a letter to Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney and other members of the House Joint Economic Committee.

Congress apparently questioned Groves about what I've been documenting. Groves should have said "I'll investigate," instead of issuing an outright denial. OK, I'll ignore the fact that Groves carelessly uses the word "anyone" in his defense to Congress.

But since the director seems so clueless about his own organization, I decided to send some of the e-mails I received to Maloney's office, including the one below, which I'm editing and condensing for space reasons.