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WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Census Project, and the undersigned organizations, write to underscore the importance and urgency of extending statutory reporting deadlines for apportionment and redistricting data, to give the U.S. Census Bureau sufficient time to thoroughly implement complex data processing activities and complete the most accurate 2020 Census possible.
“The government acknowledged in recent court proceedings related to the census timeline that the Census Bureaucannot finish data processing by December 31 if counting continued past early October.”
“A rushed census during a pandemic inevitably will lead to misallocation of political representation, government funding, and private sector investment in every state and community. If data processing operations are not thorough, communities most in need of resources to improve quality of life and standards of living will not receive their fair share for the next decade. Accurate data from the 2020 Census are critical to informed decision- making and resource allocation by the public and private sectors, including preparation for and recovery from natural disasters and public health crises.”