Census Bureau announces date change for in-person counts
Local communities could be left scrambling after the Census Bureau confirmed there will be one less month to collect population counts vital for determining how federal funds are dispersed and the number of representatives each state has in Congress.
The final date for collecting the once-a-decade survey is Sept. 30 rather than the proposed Oct. 31 deadline, Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham confirmed. That means all counts — including in-person followups with households that have not yet responded as well as self-responses by mail, phone or online — will end in September.
NPR reported the date change last week.
To make the new deadline, census officials are hiring more employees to “accelerate the completion of data collection and apportionment counts,” and implementing enumerator awards, which will recognize census takers who maximize hours worked. Phone and tablet devices will be in use for as long as possible, Dillingham said.
Officials have been pushing low-response areas to complete the census by sending out additional reminders through postcards and emails to ensure a complete count. Emails from 2020census@subscriptions.census.gov went out last week to households in census tracts that had response rates of 50% or lower.
Local leaders in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties noted they were not concerned about the date change but said they will need to expedite efforts for hard-to-reach populations. Chad Amond, president and CEO of the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce, previously reiterated the importance of the census to the Tribune-Review.
“Over the last three decades, we lost population in Westmoreland County. That’s a problem for all businesses, schools, municipalities, and so many other issues,” he said. “… The census is used to distribute billions of dollars in federal funding, which supports schools, businesses, hospitals, infrastructure developments and other community-based services.”
The deadline change seemingly reverses an April request when census leaders asked Congress for a four-month extension, or 120 days, for delivering final apportionment counts after the coronavirus pandemic delayed efforts into late summer.
But the request went largely unanswered by the Trump administration and members of Congress, who have been urging census officials to finish the count under a mostly pre-pandemic schedule, including delivering final apportionment counts by December despite in-person count delays.
In-person census takers, who were scheduled to collect data between May 13 and July 31, were delayed until early August in several parts of the country for safety reasons.
Still, Dillingham assured the health and safety of census workers and the public. He noted workers will follow federal, state and local guidance and that safety training and personal protective equipment will be provided to field staff. The bureau will analyze data and metrics from field work to ensure operations are on target with meeting the deadline, he said.
“Of course, we recognize that events can still occur that no one can control, such as additional complications from severe weather or other natural disasters,” he said.
Once self-response and field data numbers are collected, they will be reviewed for accuracy, streamlined and processed with apportionment counts as a priority.
In addition to those changes, census officials are looking at ways to meet citizenship requirements put in place by the Trump administration.
Most recently Trump signed the executive memorandum which seeks to bar people who are in the United States illegally from filling out the census. The move came after months of fighting for a citizenship question to be added to the census, which was denied by the Supreme Court.
Dillingham noted that experts are looking at options to ensure the memorandum is met.
So far, about 93 million households, or 63% of people in the United States, have responded to the census. In Pennsylvania, the response rate is 66%.
“Building on our successful and innovative internet response option, the dedicated women and men of the Census Bureau — including our temporary workforce deploying in communities across the country in upcoming weeks — will work diligently to achieve an accurate count,” Dillingham said.
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