The U.S. Conference of Mayors is backing a lawsuit filed by the National Urban League challenging the Trump administration’s decision to shorten the 2020 Census count, citing the potential loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds for local communities and congressional seats, reports Axios.
Census Bureau officials on Wednesday said they were attempting to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for turning in numbers used for divvying up congressional seats by states, a process known as apportionment. The census also determines the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year.
Bureau statisticians only started crunching the numbers last week after the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could stop the head count of every U.S. resident, leaving them only two and a half months to process apportionment data collected from the nation’s households due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Several mayors are lobbying lawmakers to take up their cause, including Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mesa, Arizona’s John Giles, Rochester Hills, Michigan’s Bryan Barnett and Louisville’s Greg Fischer.
“It is more clear now than ever that there is still an attempt to interfere with an accurate count,” Bottoms said Monday in a U.S. Conference of Mayors call.
“I am irritated. I am frustrated with this administration, I am disappointed in this administration that something this important, something that is guaranteed and called upon by our Constitution is now being cut short in the midst of a pandemic,” Bottoms said.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.