Census speeds up count schedule

ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Census Bureau sped up the timetable for crunching 2020 census numbers on Friday after an earlier request for an extension stalled in the Senate and as pressure mounts to turn in data used to determine congressional districts by year's end, when President Donald Trump is still in office.

On its website Friday, the bureau listed the deadline for processing data used to apportion the districts as Dec. 31. As recently as Thursday, it had listed a time frame of Oct. 31, 2020 to April 30, 2021 — an estimate based on a request for an extension that it submitted to Congress in April.

Census experts and civil rights activists worry the sped-up deadline could affect the thoroughness of the count, which determines how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed and how many congressional districts each state gets.

“The rapidly changing census schedule is not only alarming; If earth at it will undermine confidence in the Census Bureau and call into question the thoroughness of remaining counting operations and quality of data processing,” said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former congressional aide who now is a census consultant for foundations and philanthropic groups.

Facing delays caused by the pandemic, the Census Bureau had asked Congress in the spring to extend the deadline for turning in apportionment data from Dec. 31, 2020, to April 30, 2021. As recently as this month, top Census Bureau officials said it would be impossible to meet the end-of-the-year deadline, and that the bureau expected bipartisan support for the request.

The request passed the Democratic-controlled House as part of coronavirus-relief legislation but is now stalled in the Senate. The chamber's in action coincides with a memorandum Trump issued last week to try to exclude people living in the U.S. illegally from being included during the process for redrawing congressional districts.