The director of the U.S. Census Bureau announced that he is stepping down about a week after a whistleblower said he was pressuring bureau officials to collect and report data on non-citizens before the Jan. 20 transition. Director Steven Dillingham, a President Donald Trump appointee, said in a statement Monday that he is retiring from the bureau on Wednesday, almost a year before his appointment expires, but added that his retirement was planned and not due to the whistleblower’s complaint. “Whistleblower complaints must be taken seriously and appropriate steps taken as quickly as possible,” he wrote. He said that there was no suggestion that the data collection was in “violation of laws, rules, or regulations.” Dilingham continued, “From what I understand, the reported whistleblower concerns appear to be misunderstandings regarding the planned process for the review and potential postings of data, and the agreed-upon need to apply data quality standards. A …