China News Service, September 21. According to the US "World Journal" report, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, coupled with natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes, the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial census is facing numerous difficulties.
On September 17, local time, near Juniper Hill, California, USA, a transport plane dropped flame retardants to limit the spread of "Lynx" wildfires.
Wildfires on the West Coast of the United States forced tens of thousands of people to flee California and Oregon, missing the census time; Louisiana was hit hard by Hurricane Laura in August, and over 30,000 people were not included in the census; and the southern region was hit by hurricanes In the area affected by "Sally", nearly 250,000 households were not included in the calculation.
The Deputy Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Fonteno, recently reiterated his plan to complete the census by the end of September, but the disaster made it difficult to proceed.
In major cities in California and Oregon, wildfire smoke poses a greater threat to the health of census personnel.
If the number of people is undercounted, the annual budget allocated by the US federal government will be reduced. In addition, the census will also determine the seats of each state in Congress. The loss of seats due to population decline may weaken the political power of some states.
Affected by the epidemic, the Census Bureau originally extended the deadline from the end of July to the end of October. Because the Republican-controlled Senate did not pass the proposal to extend the time, it announced in August that the deadline would be changed to the end of September.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s congressional liaison stated that enumerators will go to the refuge center to investigate and calculate based on the location of residents on April 1. In extremely dangerous areas, enumerators choose to contact the people by telephone, while officials in some areas encourage the people Fill out the questionnaire online.