AUSTIN, Texas — The 2020 Census has been stopped after the Supreme Court sided with President Donald Trump's administration to end the census early for now.
The order allows field operations to end while the court of appeals considers the case.
President Trump's administration asked the Supreme Court to suspend a district court's order that allowed people to continue filling out the census through the end of the month.
The Trump administration argued that the count needed to end so the U.S. Census Bureau could meet a year-end deadline to determine how many seats each state gets for the next decade.
"So, we're disappointed. And more than anything right now, we just want to understand the implications of this for us tonight, tomorrow and the rest of the week," Travis County Census Program Manager John Lawler said. "The city and county have grown so much over the last decade that if we don't capture that, that growth, if we don't actually record it, then we may miss out on a lot of federal dollars."
Lawler also told KVUE on Tuesday that the census website was still up, but he couldn't say with certainty that the site will still be up in the near future. So, he encourages anyone who has not filled out the census to do so while they still can here.
The Travis County Census Program also said KVUE a statement Tuesday:
"We are currently reviewing the Supreme Court’s ruling with our attorneys. As of this afternoon, the Census’ website is still taking submissions online. Please – if you have not already done so – complete your Census immediately online at My2020Census.gov. Having an accurate count of our community is critical to providing healthcare for our families, safe roads for buses and cars to travel on, and good schools for our neighborhood children to attend."
Several local governments and civil rights groups were suing the Trump administration because they say minority groups and others in communities that are more difficult to count would be missed if the count ended early.
Lawler added that not counting people could be costly.
"As Bruce Elfant, our county tax assessor-collector, always likes to say, for every person we don't get counted, we will lose $1,500 a year on average from that person not getting counted in federal funding. And that's a conservative estimate," Lawler said. "It's also the data that we use to draw school board seats or that we [use to] draw city council seats. It's also the data that dictates how many free lunch schools ... our neighborhood schools may get for federal programs. It helps determine how much funding we get for highways and transit plans and other things that federal money flows into."
As of Tuesday night, the census website was still active.
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