Top 2 census officials to leave

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - The top two officials at the Census Bureau announced Tuesday that they are leaving the government's main collector of information about Americans.

Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon told bureau employees that he will stay on until a new director is confirmed. Hermann Habermann, the bureau's deputy director, announced that he will retire in January, said bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner.

Kincannon's announcement comes two months after the Commerce Department revealed that census workers had lost a total of 672 computers since 2001. Nearly 250 of the computers contained some personal data, though there has been no evidence that any of that information has been misused.

The Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department, which acknowledged losing a total of 1,138 computers -- more than any other federal department.

President Bush tapped Kincannon, 65, to run the Census Bureau in 2001. Kincannon is a Texas native and a career government employee who first began working at the Census Bureau as a statistician in 1963. He left for nine years before returning as director.

Kincannon is leaving the bureau as it gears up for the 2010 census, the first without the "long form" questionnaire. The long form is being replaced by the American Community Survey, an annual survey of 3 million households that will provide social, economic and demographic information about every community in the country.