The Census Bureau will miss the December 31st deadline to complete and submit final data used for congressional redistricting. It could be delayed until after Biden’s inauguration.
Summary
The day before the deadline to complete and submit population data, the U.S. Census Bureau announced it will not meet the target date.
- According to Axios, this will be the first time in history the U.S. Census Bureau has missed its end-of-year deadline.
- President Trump ordered the Census Bureau to take steps to ensure illegal immigrants are not included in the final count, and if the census data is not completed before President Trump leaves office, efforts to exclude non-citizens can be stopped by President-elect Joe Biden.
- If carried out, Trump’s order is expected to benefit Republicans by lowering the count in Democratic states which are believed to have higher numbers of non-citizens, weighting the apportionment of Congressional districts towards states with fewer non-citizens.
- The Census Bureau issued a statement saying it is working to complete the count “as close to the statutory deadline as possible,” while an unnamed source says the deadline was missed due to the coronavirus pandemic and “last minute changes” by Trump Administration officials.
- The Supreme Court recently dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s plan to not include illegal immigrants in the count.
- CNN framed their coverage around “political controversies” regarding the 2020 Census, noting the pressure from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to complete the data crunching on a “compressed time schedule.”
- A report by NPR similarly left the impression that pressure from Trump Administration officials has delayed the reporting of numbers.
- Fox News characterized the developments as likely to “subvert” Trump’s orders to exclude illegal immigrants from the count.
- The New York Post emphasized “Democrats could use the delay to rescind” Trump’s executive order, while also noting New York is set to lose at least one House seat in Congressional redistricting.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2020
