A watchdog agency investigating the origins of a failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form was unable to question top Trump administration officials because they either refused to cooperate or set unacceptable interview terms.

A federal investigation has found that President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary misled Congress about why he sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 10, 2020, file photo, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill, in Washington. The Trump administration blacklisted Chinas top chipmaker Friday, Dec. 18, limiting the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporations (SMIC) access to advanced U.S. technology because of its alleged ties to the Chinese military. We will not allow advanced U.S. technology to help build the military of an increasingly belligerent adversary, Ross said. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)WASHINGTON – The Trump administration blacklisted China’s top chipmaker Friday, limiting the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s access to advanced U.S. technology because of its alleged ties to the Chinese military. Among them is Chinese dronemaker DJI, sanctioned for allegedly helping the Chinese government conduct surveillance on its own citizens.

The congressional committee that oversees the Census Bureau issued a subpoena Thursday to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, seeking documents related to data irregularities that threaten to upend a yearend deadline for submitting numbers used for divvying up congressional seats. The anomalies will likely force a delay of several weeks past a Dec. 31 deadline for the Census Bureau to turn in the congressional apportionment numbers. In a letter last week, Maloney wrote that the Commerce Department — which oversees the Census Bureau — missed a Nov. 24 deadline to give the documents to the committee. The Census Bureau said last week that the data irregularities affect only a tiny percentage of the records and are being resolved as quickly as possible. The House committee has obtained three new internal agency documents showing the Census Bureau plans to deliver the apportionment numbers to the president no earlier than Jan. 23, which would be shortly after Trump leaves office and President-elect Joe Biden takes over.

Maloney wrote that the Commerce Department — which oversees the Census Bureau — missed a Nov. 24 deadline to give the documents to the committee. Maloney threatened a subpoena if “a full and unredacted set” of the requested documents are not given to the committee by Dec. 9. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Census Bureau switched its deadline for wrapping up the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident from the end of July to the end of October. The Census Bureau already was facing a shortened schedule of two and a half months for processing the data collected during the 2020 census — about half the time originally planned. The bureau has not officially said what the anomalies were or publicly stated if there would be a new deadline for the apportionment numbers.

Last week, the San Jose, California, judge suspended the U.S. Census Bureau’s deadline for ending the head count on Wednesday, which automatically reverted the deadline back to an older Census Bureau plan in which the timeline for ending field operations was Oct. 31. Her order also suspended a Dec. 31 deadline for the Census Bureau to turn in numbers used for apportionment, the process of deciding how many congressional seats each state gets. The New York judges' order prohibits Ross from excluding people in the country illegally when handing in 2020 census figures used to calculate apportionment. The Trump administration has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and asked for the judges' order to be suspended during that process. Under questioning from the federal judges, federal government attorney Sopan Joshi said the Census Bureau had no intention of using statistical sampling.

ORLANDO, Fla. – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross says the 2020 census will end Oct. 5, despite a federal judge's ruling last week that the head count of every U.S. resident should continue through the end of October, according to a tweet posted on the Census Bureau's website Monday. The tweet said the ability for people to self-respond to the census questionnaire and the door-knocking phase when census takers go to homes that haven't yet responded is ending Oct. 5. The announcement came as a virtual hearing was being held in San Jose, California, as a follow-up to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh's preliminary injunction. The injunction ordered last week suspended the Census Bureau's deadline for ending the head count on Sept. 30, which automatically reverted the deadline back to an older Census Bureau plan in which the deadline for ending field operations was Oct. 31. Koh asked federal government attorneys during Monday's hearing to provide documents on how the new decision to end the head count on Oct. 5 was made.

It wasn't immediately clear whether an appellate court or the U.S. Supreme Court will get the case next since the Trump administration filed notices for both courts. A panel of three federal judges in New York last week said Trump's order was unlawful. The judges said that those in the country illegally qualify as people to be counted in the states they reside. After Trump issued the order in July, around a half dozen lawsuits across the U.S. were filed by states, cities, immigrant advocates and civil rights groups challenging its legality and constitutionality. The New York case was the first to get a ruling.

In a significant departure from the way representation is typically divided up, President Donald Trump in July signed a memorandum directing Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to exclude undocumented immigrants from the base population used to distribute seats in Congress. Excluding undocumented residents from the counts used to parcel out congressional districts would likely lead to a drastic realignment of political power throughout Texas. But the New York panel of judges blocked Ross, who oversees the census, from providing any information on the number of undocumented people in each state. Recent estimates indicate the size of the undocumented population in Texas has reached nearly 1.8 million. His July memo raised questions about what data lawmakers would use to determine how to exclude undocumented residents from the census totals.

NEW YORK – A panel of three federal judges on Thursday blocked an order from President Donald Trump that tried to exclude people in the country illegally from the process of redrawing congressional districts. The federal judges in New York, in granting an injunction, said the presidential order issued in late July was unlawful and the harm it would cause would last a decade. The judges said that those in the country illegally qualify as people to be counted in the states they reside. The lawsuits challenging the presidential order were brought by a coalition of states led by New York and several civil rights groups. “President Trump has tried and failed yet again to weaponize the census against immigrant communities.

Trump attempted last year to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, but was shot down by the courts. Recent estimates indicate the size of the undocumented population in Texas has reached nearly 1.8 million. Texas now has 36 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, in districts which are supposed to be drawn to nearly equal population. The state is projected to gain several more seats in the next redistricting round based on population growth. But the presidents efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants is likely to be tied up in courts.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump is preparing to direct the federal government to overhaul its hiring to prioritize a job applicants skills over a college degree, administration and industry officials say. The federal government is the nations largest employer with 2.1 million civilian workers, excluding postal service employees. Ivanka Trump predicted the change in federal government hiring would create a more inclusive and talented workforce. We are modernizing federal hiring to find candidates with the relevant competencies and knowledge, rather than simply recruiting based on degree requirements, she told The Associated Press in a statement. The White House isnt eliminating degree requirements altogether but instead will stress skills in jobs where having a degree is less important.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump is preparing to direct the federal government to overhaul its hiring to prioritize a job applicants skills over a college degree, administration and industry officials say. The federal government is the nations largest employer with 2.1 million civilian workers, excluding postal service employees. Ivanka Trump predicted the change in federal government hiring would create a more inclusive and talented workforce. We are modernizing federal hiring to find candidates with the relevant competencies and knowledge, rather than simply recruiting based on degree requirements, she told The Associated Press in a statement. The White House isnt eliminating degree requirements altogether but instead will stress skills in jobs where having a degree is less important.