Congress Must Listen to Experts and Extend Census Deadlines 

Census and Data Equity News, Census and Data Equity Resources 12.3.20

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Charmaine Riley, [email protected], 202.548.7166

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement on the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s hearing on “Ensuring the 2020 Census Count is Complete and Accurate” today:

“Despite the Trump administration’s campaign to manipulate 2020 Census data for political purposes, data scientists within the Census Bureau have concluded that they cannot possibly produce accurate results before January 20. Congress must trust the expert staff at the Census Bureau when they say they need more time and pass an extension to the statutory reporting deadlines — the stakes are too high to play political games with the 2020 Census.”

BACKGROUND

  • Multiple outlets have reported that statistical anomalies will delay the reporting of data used for congressional apportionment to beyond January 20, 2021. That timeline is consistent with reports from the Government Accountability Office, the Commerce Department’s Inspector General, and independent experts, that more time is necessary to let the Census Bureau finish the census as the agency’s experts planned.
  • House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Maloney has requested the Census Bureau brief the committee members on the anomalies, but they have refused to do so.
  • During oral argument before the Supreme Court on the president’s illegal memorandum that seeks to exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment totals, the Acting Solicitor General claimed that the administration was “not currently on pace” to be able to report census data to the president by the statutory deadline.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.