Trump Officials Ask To Delay Census Data For Voting Districts, House Seats

With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting plans for the ongoing 2020 census, the Trump administration is asking Congress to pass a new law that would change major deadlines that determine the distribution of political representation and federal funding for the next decade.

The Census Bureau is requesting that lawmakers extend the legal deadline for the bureau to deliver to the president new state population counts used to redistribute congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states — by four months to April 30, 2021 from Dec. 31, according to a statement released Monday by Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the bureau.

The bureau is also asking Congress to give it four more months to provide census data to state redistricting officials in order to redraw voting districts around the country. That deadline would move from March 31, 2021 to July 31, 2021.

If approved, the request could throw a wrench into redistricting plans in many states. New Jersey and Virginia are set to redraw legislative districts next year before their filing deadlines for elections in 2021, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.