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The Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month shorter than previously announced, the bureau's director confirmed Monday in 

. That includes critical door-knocking efforts and 

The latest updates to the bureau's plans are part of efforts to "accelerate the completion of data collection and apportionment counts by our statutory deadline of December 31, 2020, as required by law and directed by the Secretary of Commerce," who oversees the bureau, Director Steven Dillingham said in the 

written statement posted on the bureau's website

These last-minute changes to the constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the U.S. threaten the accuracy of population numbers used to determine the distribution of political representation and federal funding for the next decade.

4 out of 10 households nationwide yet to be counted

 and already delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, the bureau now has less than two months left to try to reach people of color, immigrants, renters, rural residents and other members of historically undercounted groups who are not likely to fill out a census form on their own.

Census workers begin door knocking this week

 that the agency had decided to cut short 

 for the 2020 census. Those in-person interviews with unresponsive households started last month in 

 and are set to expand nationwide on Aug. 11.

For days, the bureau has been sending mixed signals about its plans by 

references to Oct. 31 — the previously announced end date for all counting efforts — from its website.

Before the pandemic hit, counting for the 2020 census was originally supposed to be finished by the end of July. But in April, the bureau, with 

public support from President Donald Trump

, announced that it needed to extend its timeline, including pushing back the end of counting to Oct. 31.

But during a hearing last week before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Dillingham signaled a shift in plans by 

 that "the Census Bureau and others really want us to proceed as rapidly as possible."

The bureau also asked Congress to push back by four months the legal deadline of Dec. 31 for reporting the latest state population counts to the president. Delaying that deadline would allow the bureau to keep counting through Oct. 31 to "ensure the completeness and accuracy of the 2020 Census," Dillingham and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in 

Democrats in Congress and many census advocates have become increasingly concerned that the White House is pressuring the bureau to stop counting soon in order to benefit Republicans when House seats are reapportioned and voting districts are redrawn.

" of meeting the current census deadlines.

negotiations over the latest coronavirus relief package

 continue, there is a window for lawmakers to include a provision that would give the bureau more time.

So far, however, only Democrats have introduced legislation that would extend deadlines, and 

Republicans have released no similar proposals

Politics and Government News

Hansi Lo Wang

Author

Under pressure to meet legal deadlines Congress has not changed despite pandemic-related delays, the Census Bureau announced a new end date after NPR reported that door knocking will be cut short. 

Census cuts all counting efforts short by a month

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