The Census Bureau Is Overrun With Staffers From a MAGA Think Tank
The Census Bureau Is Overrun With Staffers From a MAGA Think Tank
美国人口普查局被“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）智库人员渗透
Multiple staffers at a Trump-aligned policy think tank have burrowed their way into the US Census Bureau, where they have access to sensitive data and have contributed to a public report that bolsters conspiracy theories undermining trust in elections ahead of the midterms.
一家亲特朗普的政策智库的多名工作人员已渗透进美国人口普查局。在那里，他们不仅能接触到敏感数据，还参与撰写了一份公开报告，这份报告助长了旨在破坏中期选举前公众对选举信任的阴谋论。
In August, the Census Bureau published an anonymously authored report titled “Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election: A Beginning Analysis,” claiming to show that thousands of noncitizens voted in the 2020 election. A WIRED investigation revealed that the report appeared to employ faulty methodology, casting its conclusions into doubt, and that two of its authors work for the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank with deep ties to the Trump administration. Now WIRED has found that the two authors are part of a larger team, made up almost entirely of AFPI members, who have been detailed to the Census Bureau and given access to its data.
今年8月，人口普查局发布了一份匿名撰写的报告，题为《2020年大选中的非公民投票：初步分析》，声称有数千名非公民在2020年大选中投了票。《连线》（WIRED）的一项调查显示，该报告似乎采用了错误的分析方法，其结论令人质疑。此外，报告的两名作者均供职于“美国优先政策研究所”（AFPI）——这是一个与特朗普政府关系密切的右翼智库。《连线》现已发现，这两名作者只是一个更大团队的一部分，该团队几乎完全由AFPI成员组成，他们被借调至人口普查局，并获得了访问其数据的权限。
The Census Bureau is home to vast troves of sensitive data on nearly every person living in the country, which is used for apportioning and drawing congressional districts as well as allocating federal funding based on population sizes. Experts and Census employees who spoke to WIRED worry that the noncitizen voting report is the first salvo in Census data possibly being used to undermine the results of the upcoming midterms or the 2028 presidential election.
人口普查局掌握着全国几乎每一位居民的大量敏感数据，这些数据用于分配和划分国会选区，以及根据人口规模分配联邦资金。接受《连线》采访的专家和人口普查局员工担心，这份关于非公民投票的报告可能只是一个开端，未来人口普查数据可能会被用来破坏即将到来的中期选举或2028年总统大选的结果。
A Census employee who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity says that there has historically been “nothing close” to what AFPI is doing at the bureau. “Frankly, it’s disrespectful to the institution,” they say.
一位匿名接受《连线》采访的人口普查局员工表示，历史上从未出现过类似AFPI在局内所做的这种行为。“坦率地说，这是对该机构的不尊重，”他们说道。
The Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to cast doubt on the accuracy of Census data in order to reshape elections. Earlier this year, WIRED reported that the Department of Commerce, which oversees the bureau, was circulating a rule change that would eliminate noncitizens from being counted in the Census, a move that could drastically reshape how Congressional districts are drawn. Republicans also took aim at a little-known statistical method called differential privacy that is used to protect the privacy of individual respondents, alleging that it makes the Census count inaccurate in ways that favor Democrats in congressional apportionment.
特朗普政府曾多次试图质疑人口普查数据的准确性，以重塑选举格局。今年早些时候，《连线》报道称，负责监管该局的商务部正在传阅一项规则变更，旨在将非公民排除在人口普查统计之外，此举可能会彻底改变国会选区的划分方式。共和党人还针对一种名为“差分隐私”（differential privacy）的鲜为人知的统计方法提出质疑，该方法用于保护受访者的个人隐私。他们声称，这种方法导致人口普查统计不准确，从而在国会席位分配中偏袒民主党。
AFPI, meanwhile, has been integral to shaping the Trump administration’s policies and makeup. Brooke Rollins, who served as the group’s first CEO, is now the secretary of agriculture, and Linda McMahon, now the secretary of education, used to sit on the organization’s board. Former AFPI staffers have found their way to some of the highest ranks of the Trump administration, including former attorney general Pam Bondi, secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, US permanent representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker, deputy director of White House Domestic Policy Council Heidi Overton, and National Economic Council of the United States director Kevin Hassett.
与此同时，AFPI在塑造特朗普政府的政策和人事构成方面发挥了核心作用。该组织的首任首席执行官布鲁克·罗林斯（Brooke Rollins）现任农业部长，而现任教育部长琳达·麦克马洪（Linda McMahon）曾是该组织的董事会成员。许多前AFPI工作人员已进入特朗普政府的高层，包括前司法部长帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）、退伍军人事务部长道格·柯林斯（Doug Collins）、住房和城市发展部长斯科特·特纳（Scott Turner）、环保署署长李·泽尔丁（Lee Zeldin）、美国驻北约常驻代表马修·惠特克（Matthew Whitaker）、白宫国内政策委员会副主任海蒂·奥弗顿（Heidi Overton）以及美国国家经济委员会主任凯文·哈塞特（Kevin Hassett）。
In addition to Matthew Jensen and Jeff McCrea, the two AFPI members previously identified by WIRED, at least five other AFPI members have been or are currently staffed at the Census Bureau, according to sources and documents reviewed by WIRED. Sources who spoke to WIRED confirmed that all the AFPI members are detailed to the agency through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA), which allows people with specialized skills from certain institutions, like nonprofits and universities, to work for the government for up to two years on a temporary appointment.
据《连线》查阅的资料和消息来源显示，除了此前被《连线》点名的马修·詹森（Matthew Jensen）和杰夫·麦克雷（Jeff McCrea）外，至少还有五名AFPI成员曾在或目前正在人口普查局任职。消息人士向《连线》证实，所有这些AFPI成员都是通过《政府间人事法》（IPA）借调至该机构的。该法案允许来自非营利组织和大学等特定机构的专业人才以临时任命的方式为政府工作，期限最长为两年。
The Census Bureau and AFPI did not respond to requests for comment.
人口普查局和AFPI均未回应置评请求。
John Abowd, former associate director for research and methodology and chief scientist at the Census Bureau, says that having so many people from a single organization would be “unusual.”
曾任人口普查局研究与方法论副局长兼首席科学家的约翰·阿博德（John Abowd）表示，来自同一组织的人员如此之多是“不同寻常的”。
Among the names viewed by WIRED are Max Kossek, a researcher at AFPI’s Office for Fiscal and Regulatory Analysis, and Ryan Montgomery, who the website lists as a program assistant with the same AFPI office. Montgomery’s LinkedIn profile, however, says that he is now a “research engineer” at AFPI.
在《连线》查阅的名单中，包括AFPI财政与监管分析办公室的研究员马克斯·科塞克（Max Kossek），以及该网站列为同一办公室项目助理的瑞安·蒙哥马利（Ryan Montgomery）。然而，蒙哥马利的领英（LinkedIn）资料显示，他目前是AFPI的一名“研究工程师”。
AFPI’s director for secure elections policy, Thomas Lane, is also listed as one of the employees that has been detailed to the Census Bureau. Lane, a former Trump campaign staffer and election denier, was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice in 2022 as part of its investigation into the president’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. (Lane was not charged by law enforcement.) In a 2020 video posted by the Arizona Republican Party, where a group of fake electors attempted to deliver the state’s electoral votes to Donald Trump, Politico identified a man wearing a jacket with the name “Lane” on it passing out the documents for the electors to sign making them “duly elected” and “qualified.” In 2024, CNN reported that Lane was prepared to serve as a backup elector for that same group.
AFPI的安全选举政策主任托马斯·莱恩（Thomas Lane）也被列为借调至人口普查局的员工之一。莱恩曾是特朗普竞选团队的工作人员，也是一名“选举否认者”。2022年，他曾因司法部对特朗普试图推翻2020年大选结果的调查而被传唤。（莱恩未受到执法部门指控。）在亚利桑那州共和党发布的一段2020年视频中，一群虚假选举人试图将该州的选举人票投给唐纳德·特朗普。据《政客》（Politico）杂志辨认，视频中一名身穿印有“Lane”字样夹克的男子正在分发文件，供这些选举人签署，以使他们成为“正式当选”且“合格”的选举人。2024年，CNN报道称，莱恩曾准备担任该团体的候补选举人。
Earlier this year, Democracy Docket reported that Lane helped write part of an early version of the Save America Act, the law that would require voter ID to register to vote, while working for the Republican majority House Committee on House Administration. Parts of the Save Act have also been included in the separate Save America Act, which, if passed, would require proof of citizenship in order to vote, a move that experts say could disenfranchise more than 20 million people.
今年早些时候，“民主档案”（Democracy Docket）报道称，莱恩在为共和党占多数的众议院行政委员会工作期间，参与撰写了《拯救美国法案》（Save America Act）早期版本的部分内容，该法案要求选民在登记投票时提供身份证件。《拯救法案》（Save Act）的部分内容也被纳入了另一项独立的《拯救美国法案》中。如果该法案获得通过，投票将需要提供公民身份证明，专家称此举可能导致超过2000万人失去投票权。
Kossek, Montgomery, and Lane did not respond to requests for comment.
科塞克、蒙哥马利和莱恩均未回应置评请求。
David Peterson, who AFPI lists as a research engineer with expertise in “computing, machine learning, and advanced software architecture,” and Jackson Mejia, an AFPI fellow who is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin with a PhD in economics from MIT focusing on tax policy, also appear to be detailed to the Census Bureau. Peterson and Mejia did not respond to requests for comment. Another person, listed as an IPA f…
大卫·彼得森（David Peterson，AFPI将其列为在“计算、机器学习和高级软件架构”方面具有专长的研究工程师）和杰克逊·梅希亚（Jackson Mejia，AFPI研究员，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校助理教授，拥有麻省理工学院经济学博士学位，专注于税收政策）似乎也被借调到了人口普查局。彼得森和梅希亚均未回应置评请求。另一位被列为IPA人员的人士……