The White House announced President Donald Trump's intended nominee to lead the U.S. Census Bureau. File Photo by Gil C/Shutterstock

July 18 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump will nominate Steven Dillingham, a current Peace Corps official, to be the U.S. Census Bureau's next director, the White House announced Wednesday.

The bureau has been without a director since its previous leader, John H. Thompson, resigned in May 2017 amid disagreements over a congressional budget allocation of $1.47 million to pay for the 2020 census. Thompson, however, had also served beyond the usual five-year term and was expected to leave his position by the end of 2017.


Dillingham's term will last through the end of 2021, the White House said in a release. He currently is the Peace Corps' director of the Office of Strategic Information, Research and Planning and previously served as the director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Dillingham, a Virginia resident, holds degrees from George Washington University, Georgetown University, the University of South Carolina and Winthrop University, then known as Winthrop College.