Delays in ’20 census could cause problems

President Donald Trump said he has asked about delaying the 2020 census over a citizenship question, but experts say any delay could gum up the U.S. Census Bureau’s finely calibrated timetable for the 10-year count.

Monday was the deadline to start printing the 600 million documents that will be mailed to 130 million households for next April’s census count.

For months, the Trump administration had argued that the courts needed to decide quickly whether the citizenship question could be added to the 2020 census because of the looming deadline.

“I think it’s very important to find out if somebody isacitizenasopposedtoan illegal,” Trump told reporters Monday. “There’s a big difference to me between being a citizen of the United States and being an illegal.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the question couldn’t be added for now. Trump tweeted that he had asked lawyers if the count can be delayed until the court can reevaluate the matter.

Julie Iriondo, a bureau spokeswoman, said early Monday that she didn’t know if any printing schedule changes had been decided.

From a logistical standpoint, any delay “would be a nightmare,” said John Thompson, who served as Census Bureau director during President Barack Obama’s second term.

The bureau is already in the process of signing almost 250 office leases across the U.S. and has hired 1,500 specialists who partner with community organizations to encourage people to participate in the census. More than 170,000 recruits have already filled out applications for the almost halfmillion positions being created for the count. The bureau has helped set up more than 1,500 committees nationwide that will work to get everyone to respond.

Furthermore, Congress would have to change the law for the count to be delayed because Title 13 of the U.S. Code mandates that it take place on April 1, 2020, Thompson said.

“I don’t think there’s any ambiguity, but I’m not a lawyer,” Thompson said.

More than two dozen Democratic U.S. senators last week sent a letter urging U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to drop any further pursuit of the citizenship question because it will delay the bureau’s ability to conduct the count.