Census document says cutting steps risks errors in count

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Photo credit FILE - This Sunday, April 5, 2020, photo shows an envelope containing a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident in Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau has spent much of the past year defending itself against allegations that its duties have been overtaken by politics. With a failed attempt by the Trump administration to add a citizenship question, the hiring of three political appointees with limited experience to top positions, a sped-up schedule and a directive from President Donald Trump to exclude undocumented residents from the process of redrawing congressional districts, the 2020 census has descended into a high-stakes partisan battle. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — To meet an end-of-the-year deadline, some steps in the numbers-crunching phase of the 2020 census will need to be cut and that could increase the risk for errors, according to an internal U.S. Census Bureau document made public Wednesday by House Democrats.

The internal document released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform says that some efforts to meet the Dec. 31 deadline for turning in numbers used for redrawing congressional districts “represent abbreviated processes or eliminated activities that will reduce accuracy."

The internal document was released as the House committee's chairwoman, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, appealed to congressional leaders to extend deadlines that would give the Census Bureau more time to crunch the numbers used for apportionment, the process of redrawing congressional districts, and redistricting at the state and local levels.

Legislation to extend the deadlines has passed the Democratic-controlled House but the Republican-controlled Senate has failed to act on it.

“In light of this new internal document and the additional information we have obtained, it is more urgent than ever that the Senate act," said Maloney, a Democrat from New York. “Congress has a solemn responsibility under the Constitution to help ensure an accurate and complete count, and there is bipartisan support in the Senate for extending these deadlines."

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