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The census bureau was original granted an extension that has been rolled back. It's not being cut "unusually" short, but the pandemic drastically impacted the c
by learc83 6y ago
The census bureau was original granted an extension that has been rolled back. It's not being cut "unusually" short, but the pandemic drastically impacted the census bureau's ability to do their work, and we are giving them less extra time than they say they need.
- mkl 6y agoI'm surprised they're not just cancelling or postponing it. In 2011, earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, displaced thousands of people. The national census scheduled for the following month was cancelled, and a replacement was later organised for 2013. I think the theory was that delayed statistics were better than unreliable and incomplete statistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_census#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_census#History
- mcintyre1994 6y agoThe US constitution requires them to do it every 10 years, and it was last done in 2010. More cynically it’s been really politicised and not doing it this year would risk the Democrats being in power to do it next year.
- mkl 6y agoWow, it's kind of astounding to me that which party is in power could make a difference to a census. Being in the country's constitution does make it difficult to delay.
- Schiendelman 6y agoI think our government is unable to budget without it. And isn’t it constitutionally mandated?
- ghufran_syed 6y agoWhat government agency has ever said they need less time or less money? So giving them less than they say they need is the normal state of affairs for government agencies. The only difference is that now the aggrieved bureaucrats have a receptive audience in credulous journalists who are always ready to write a story about how the current administration is "ending democracy" if they don't do exactly what the bureaucrats want. So you would expect right wing media doing stories on how the military, the VA or the border patrol is underfunded or has had excessive "political interference" during Democrat administrations, and left wing media (which is 95% of the "mainstream" media on the US) would be expected to say the same about different parts of the government with a republican administration. Just normal politics at work - doesn't mean the stories aren't important, but let's keep things in context.