THREAD: After digging through Trump admin's document dump for a lawsuit over shortened #2020Census schedule, I found this email showing Census Bureau CFO Ben Page unsure of what to tell leaders in Congress re: if the bureau still needed reporting deadlines extended as of July 20
2. By July 21, the Census Bureau apparently had "developed a plan in response to Secretarial direction to provide an apportionment count by the statutory deadline of December 31, 2020," according to this slide dated 7/21 (DOC_0007297) for a 8/10 census steering committee briefing
3. There's a heavily redacted 21-page memo with the file name "20200327-Memo on UndocumentedFINAL.pdf" (DOC 0007092) that Victoria Velkoff, the Census Bureau's associate director for demographic programs, and Chief Scientist John Abowd prepared for Deputy Director Ron Jarmin.
4. John Abowd sent this redacted March 27 memo to other top officials at the Census Bureau on July 21, hours after President Trump issued the now-blocked presidential memo calling for unauthorized immigrants to be excluded from the apportionment count. npr.org/2020/07/21/892…
5. On July 17, Christa Jones, chief of staff in the Census Bureau's office of the director, sent an attachment called "Potential Cost Associated with Adjustments 7.17.20.docx" to Robin Wyvill apparently for "the record." Trump admin says it's a privileged document & withheld it.
6. On 7/27, 2 days before Census Bureau director testified before House oversight committee, bureau had "hearing prep" slide saying "current methodology" for processing #2020Census data won't allow it to meet "statutory deadlines based on projected current field completion dates"
7. "We're being asked again," Census Bureau Deputy Director Ron Jarmin says in a July 16 email to top #2020Census officials with the subject line "2020 processing acceleration." There are a lot of redactions in the replies so it's not clear who's asking for what again.
8. It looks like Trump admin attorneys took the time to redact the subject lines of these emails about July 30 meetings (L) but also identified them in an index (R) with a file name that looks a lot like a subject line:
"Fw_ EMERGENCY MEETING on 12_31 Delivery of Appo___.pdf"
9. On 7/30, the day senior career managers at Census Bureau were instructed to start formalizing a plan to shorten #2020Census, Ali Ahmad, a Trump appointee who's associate director of communications, notes "good news" that the bureau isn't getting "inside the beltway questions."
10. These emails make me wonder what it was like on July 30 for the career managers at the Census Bureau after they learned they were under orders to quickly figure out how to shorten the #2020Census schedule.
11. I wonder what career Census Bureau officials had to say about data quality (this email chain's subject line) and the last-minute changes to #2020Census schedule. Trump admin attorneys redacted this bc they consider it "pre-decisional deliberations regarding proposed updates."
12. It looks like Trump admin attorneys didn't want it to get out that there were "Impacts and Risks" involved in the process of shortening the #2020Census schedule.
Here's the same email message in different files -- DOC_0008686 (left) and the redacted DOC_0008939 (right).
13. It looks like there's an internal Census Bureau email distribution list about #2020Census data quality ("2020 Data Quality EGG List"), but Trump admin attys say they've don't have to disclose messages from Asst. Division Chief Jennifer Ortman bc "pre-decisional deliberations"
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A controversial Census Bureau proposal could shrink the rate of disability in the U.S. by about 40%. Public comments on this potential change are due Tuesday, Dec. 19, but NPR has confirmed there will be another opportunity to give feedback in the spring… npr.org/2023/12/18/121…
2. Public comments on these proposed changes to the disability questions on the American Community Survey can be emailed to acso.pra@census.gov. The bureau tells NPR they are set to be published here before the next public comment period in the spring: regulations.gov/document/USBC-…
3. The bureau says the proposed changes are part of a years-long effort to improve the quality of its disability data and standardize the statistics so they're comparable to other countries' numbers npr.org/2023/12/18/121…
The Supreme Court could upend how federal elections are run across the U.S. if it adopts even a limited version of a once-fringe idea called the "independent state legislature theory."
I wrote about what could happen after SCOTUS rules on Moore v. Harper: npr.org/2023/01/22/114…
A Supreme Court ruling that adopts some version of the “independent state legislature theory” could lead to more lawsuits and bring uncertainty to upcoming elections npr.org/2023/01/22/114…
A Supreme Court ruling that adopts some version of the “independent state legislature theory” could make it easier for state lawmakers to ignore voting rights protected under state law npr.org/2023/01/22/114…
I wrote about a push for the U.S. Supreme Court to change who counts as Black in redistricting.
Republican officials in Louisiana want a narrower definition of Blackness that excludes some Black people & could minimize Black voting power around the U.S. npr.org/2022/10/18/112…
2. A 2003 ruling by SCOTUS after the 2000 census — the first U.S. head count that allowed people to identify with more than one race — set a standard definition of "Black" for voting rights cases focused exclusively on the voting power of Black people. npr.org/2022/10/18/112…
3. That definition of "Black" has included everyone who identifies as Black for the census — including people who mark the boxes for Black and any other racial/ethnic category such as white, Asian & Hispanic/Latino, which federal gov't says is an ethnicity npr.org/2022/10/18/112…
SCOOP: Former President Donald Trump's payroll tax delay last year left a $7 million accounting mess for the Census Bureau, which has been trying to get ~28K former census workers to pay off their debt after giving up trying to collect from ~148K others npr.org/2021/11/05/104…
2. I deleted this earlier tweet that misstated the number of former 2020 census workers from whom the Census Bureau has decided to stop trying to collect unpaid payroll taxes. That number is 147,619 former workers (not ~178K):
3. The Census Bureau was one of many fed agencies the Trump admin directed last year to stop collecting some employees' share of a payroll tax that helps fund Social Security. Trump said it would get "bigger paychecks for working families.” But it’s also an accounting challenge.
I asked the office of Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. — who blocked an attempt to confirm Census Bureau director nominee Robert Santos by unanimous consent in October — why Scott said he's concerned Santos will “politicize" the bureau & not serve "in a fair and unbiased fashion"...
2. So far, Scott's office has not provided any evidence that would suggest Santos would “politicize” the Census Bureau and “not perform his duties in a fair and unbiased fashion."
Instead, Scott's communications director, McKinley Lewis, gave this statement by email:
3. I am waiting for any direct response to this follow-up question:
Does Sen. Rick Scott consider Robert Santos not qualified or competent to serve as Census Bureau director? If so, why?
NEW: The 2020 census likely undercounted people of color at rates higher than those of the last count, an @urbaninstitute study finds. That could translate into inequities in political representation & federal funding across the U.S. for the next 10 years npr.org/2021/11/02/104…
@urbaninstitute 2. Important to note: This @urbaninstitute study is *not* an analysis of 2020 census results & doesn't show actual over/undercounts. The estimates are based on a *simulated* census & a method for measuring accuracy that's different from the Census Bureau's urban.org/research/publi…
@urbaninstitute 3. Let's also keep in mind: When people of color are undercounted in the census, it's not just "some" groups who miss out on federal funding and political representation — it's *everyone* living in the local communities and states where there are people of color.