(The Center Square) – The Census Bureau is planning for 2030, making decisions that will shape the distribution of federal funding that topped $2.8 trillion in fiscal year 2021, even as lawsuits over the 2020 Census remain unresolved.
The decisions being made now will determine how hundreds of millions of Americans are represented in Congress, how legislative districts are drawn in every state for the next decade, and how much federal funding flows to programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
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