Census Extended the Comment Period - Now it needs to fix the docket.

October 06, 2026

UPDATE as of 3PM ET today: They fixed it! The original docket has been updated with the extended deadline, and the new docket was removed. There were a few comments submitted to the new docket that were not published so I hope those get added to the original docket manually.

Recently, US Census Bureau responded to community calls to extend the 30-day public comment period on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would upend more than 200 years of precedent on how the decennial census to about 50-days. That’s great to have an extension (even if it is not the full 90 days that the community requested). However, Census botched the administrative process on the extension. Now, there are two dockets, four places people can comment, and one of the regulations.gov dockets isn’t even a docket. I’ve asked the official responsible for this rulemaking and comment process to fix it.

Here’s my letter in case it’s useful to you:

To: Daniel Sweeney Deputy General Counsel for Economic, Statistical, and Regulatory Affairs Office of the General Counsel, Department of Commerce

Dear Mr. Sweeney,

Thank you for the extension on the NPRM comment period.

I am noting that the Census appears to have botched implementation of the extension. There are now TWO active dockets. The original docket (https://www.regulations.gov/docket/USBC-2026-0628) is still active, receiving comments, and properly configured but appears to still close on 10/13. The new docket is not a docket. Instead, it points to a document in the Census’s archive of federal register notice documents on regulations.gov: https://www.regulations.gov/document/USBC_FRDOC_0001-0076 . Therefore, any comments submitted here will be mixed with comments on previous notices in this full docket (https://www.regulations.gov/docket/USBC_FRDOC_0001, which has 21 other FRNs attached) and you can already see the effect by examining the 23 existing comments as of the date and time of this message are all from prior FRNs). This is confusing to the American people, overly burdensome, and an exercise in inefficiency - all things this Administration wishes to minimize. The following corrective actions should be taken immediately:

1) remove the “new” docket and migrate the 13 submitted comments to the original docket 2) update the original docket to the new deadline 3) file a press release indicating the error and instructing the public on where it should be submitting comments.

Additionally, while the community appreciates the 20 day extension, it really should have been extended to a full 90 days (to December 10th, 2026). Please consider that as well.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely, Chris Marcum

Tags: general