Thread by @jbendery

Today is the last day of the 2020 Census count. The Supreme Court rejected a lower court's order to extend the count after serious delays because of COVID.

This makes it easier for Trump to not count lots of people, esp minorities + tribes. This is what he's been trying to do.

This is easily the most damaging development this week outta the Trump admin.

This final stage of the census count is the only stage being cut short. It's the most crucial part for reaching "hard-to-count populations." Which largely happen to be... communities of color.

Non-English speakers + low-income people are among the hardest people to count.

They rely on census takers coming to their homes in this final stage of the count to do “nonresponse follow-ups" b/c they didn't respond via the internet, by phone or mail.

Some people in remote areas, like people on tribal reservations, have no internet. Some people move a lot and don't have landlines, which makes it harder to tie them to a mailing address.

Door-knocking is the most effective way to make sure everyone gets counted.

Because the Trump admin is ending census door-knocking early, after already losing months of time for door-knocking in the spring b/c of COVID-19, census takers simply won’t reach some of these communities at all.

“It’s clear they’re trying to manipulate the census,” Sen. Shaheen told me last month. She's the top Dem on the Senate panel charged with funding the census.

"They don’t really want the American people to know what’s going on." huffpost.com/entry/trump-20…

The census isn't just a head count.

It's used to draw congressional districts. If fewer people of color are counted in a given area, for ex, they lose political representation. They lose political power. For a decade.

The census is also used to decide how much federal $ goes to every community.

For *each person* not counted, their community loses *thousands of dollars* every year. For 10 years.

That $ would have gone toward things like health care, education and infrastructure.

Tribal advocacy groups are extremely concerned about what is happening. Some reservations have no internet and are very remote. They'll just be passed over entirely.

“Think of being powerless and poor. That’s what this does.” huffpost.com/entry/census-b…

This is very fucked up. For months, the Trump admin has been doing everything it can to end the census count early, knowing it will disproportionately leave behind minority, rural + tribal communities.

Not being counted = being weakened politically + economically. For a decade.

The Trump administration filed this "emergency application" with the Supreme Court last month to halt the census count. They won.

Congress coulda done something here. They could have passed a law extending the statutory census deadline to give the Census Bureau more time. That would've helped. But they didn't do it.

The House passed a bill to do it. The Senate did nada. So nothing changed.

If we're looking at this as a purely political power grab by the Trump admin/GOP, which it is, it's worth noting this is going to hurt rural, GOP communities too.

Some won't be counted here, either.

I don't know how it is constitutional to cut the census count short by choice.

I'm no expert, but the Constitution says everyone has to be counted.

It's not Census Bureau workers behind this. Trump's political appointees are driving this.

A Commerce Dept OIG report concluded last month:

"The decision to accelerate the Census schedule was not made by the Census Bureau."

That report was pretty damning. It also concluded:

"II. The accelerated schedule increases the risks to obtaining a complete and accurate 2020 Census."

Trump has been trying to weaken the 2020 census count for years, in ways that would hurt or intimidate minorities.

He tried to add a citizenship q. (Failed.)

He directed the govt not to count undocumented immigrants when redrawing congressional districts. (Uh, illegal.)

If Biden wins and if the Senate flips to Dem control, can they extend the count? Pass a bill to extend the statutory deadlines they will have blown past, and then authorize a supplementary count?

No idea. It feels very complicated and involves statutory changes.

I feel for all the census takers out there who have been busting ass to knock on doors and count as many hard-to-reach people as they can before time runs out. I've heard from quite a few.

Trump has made it harder for them in a number of ways. huffpost.com/entry/trump-20…

Anyway, today's the last day to be counted.

If you haven't done it yet, you can do it online here if you care about your community having some political and economic power for at least the next 10 years. No biggie. 2020census.gov/en/ways-to-res…