A divided Congress may sideline protecting the census after Trump's interference

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/16/ [login to see] /census-political-interference-congress-senate-bill
On the list of unfinished business of the departing Democratic-controlled Congress is reforming an often-overlooked keystone of U.S. democracy — the census.

Democratic lawmakers were among the most prominent critics of the years of census interference by former President Donald Trump's administration. The meddling laid bare many of the vulnerabilities facing the national tally.

Those numbers are used to determine each state's share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, redraw voting maps for every level of government, and guide an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding for public services.

As risks to the 2020 count's accuracy mounted, Democrats held hearings, launched a congressional investigation and even took Trump officials to court after holding them in contempt of Congress. That extraordinary move came after the officials refused to hand over documents about their Supreme Court-blocked push for a census question about U.S. citizenship status, which was part of a scheme to exclude unauthorized immigrants from a key count the 14th Amendment requires to include the "whole number of persons" living in each state.