The U.S. Census Bureau has identified multiple “high complexity” problems involving data issues on the 2020 Census, which could cause the final results to be delayed until February, CNN reports.
House Democrats on Wednesday received internal Census documents showing the issues that the bureau recently identified, which could keep President Donald Trump’s administration from making sure that undocumented immigrants are excluded from the official count used to divide seats in the House of Representatives.
The documents note that some of the “high complexity” issues could cause serious problems with the count if dealt with incorrectly, and will likely need about 20 extra days to resolve.
"These kinds of anomalies and issues are expected and are similar to the Census Bureau's experience in prior decennial censuses,” the bureau said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Internal tracking documents would not convey the uncertainty around projected dates and may fail to reflect the additional resources employed to correct data anomalies," the statement continued. "The anomalies affect less than seven-tenths of one percent of records and are being resolved as expeditiously as possible."
The statement also noted that the bureau "is working to thoroughly correct and address all issues and anomalies as a part of its mission to deliver accurate 2020 Census data products as close to the statutory deadline as possible."
House Democrats called on Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to provide additional documents requested by the House Oversight and Reform Committee that were not produced last month.
"Despite the Trump Administration's obstruction, the Committee has now obtained several internal Census Bureau documents from another source that not only confirm these press reports, but indicate that unresolved errors may be more extensive than first reported," panel chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., wrote. "I write to urge you to end your obstruction of the Committee's inquiry on this critical issue and produce a full and unredacted set of the documents requested by the Committee. If you refuse, the Committee will have no choice but to issue a subpoena."
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