Census Says Deadline Can Be Reached With Tech, Nonstop Work

Technology and working around the clock should allow the U.S. Census Bureau to crunch numbers from the 2020 census in half the time originally allotted, but if the work isn’t completed by a year-end deadline, the statistical agency will take the extra time needed to finish it, bureau officials said Wednesday.

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“Our plan right now is if we need more time to fix a problem that comes up, we are taking it,” Al Fontenot, an associate director for decennial census programs, said during a news conference by telephone. “We are maintaining flexibility to get the job done in a quality way.”

Advocacy groups are concerned that the Census Bureau is rushing the data-processing phase of the once-a-decade census in order 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.

“The bureau urgently needs more time to process the data,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.