The United States Census Bureau will miss its projected end-of-the-year deadline for completing its data accumulation, jeopardizing the Trump administration’s plans to exclude those in the country illegally from the tabulation.
The Census Bureau announced it would fail to meet the deadline in a statement released on Wednesday.
“The schedule for reporting this data is not static. Projected dates are fluid,” the statement said. “We continue to process the data collected and plan to deliver a complete and accurate state population count for apportionment in early 2021, as close to the statutory deadline as possible.”
The tardiness of the 2020 census count will mark the first time the government agency missed its Dec. 31 deadline since it was implemented by Congress four decades ago.
The census will be used to allocate seats in the House of Representatives, which are subject to change every 10 years based on shifts in the population. A preliminary report indicated California and New York are expected to lose seats, while more Republican-leaning states such as Texas, Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina are poised to gain representation.
President Trump signed a memorandum in 2019 directing the Census Bureau to exclude illegal immigrants from the population count. He tweeted about the decision on July 3 of that year.
“The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE!” he wrote. “We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.”
The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019
Upon assuming office, President-elect Joe Biden has the power to reverse the Trump administration order, a move that would likely benefit Democratic-leaning regions of the country by awarding them additional House seats.
Democrats in Congress have been butting heads with the Trump administration over the official census count for years. Tensions flared when Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross demanding relevant documents.
“Your failure to cooperate with the Committee’s investigation appears to be part of a dangerous pattern of obstruction with the Census,” Maloney warned Ross at the time. “You personally have played a key role in blocking the production of information to the Committee regarding the Trump Administration’s efforts to politicize the 2020 Census.”
