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.

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 are targeted to end Oct. 5. Monday's statement was noteworthy in that it was solely attributed to the commerce secretary, while previous announcements about census schedule changes had been made either by Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham or both men jointly. In upstate New York, a census supervisor told her census takers Friday that the Buffalo office was operating with Sept. 30 as the end date, according to a text obtained by AP. In response to the pandemic, the Census Bureau last April pushed back the deadline for ending the 2020 census from the end of July to the end of October. The bureau also asked Congress to let it turn in numbers used for apportionment from the end of December to the end of April.

WASHINGTON – The Commerce Department will roll out a ban of transactions in the U.S. using TikTok and WeChat starting Sunday. The order Friday was put into place, according to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to “combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens' personal data.”Aug. 14, 2020: Trump orders Chinese owner of TikTok to sell US assetsThe government previously said that using and downloading the app to communicate won’t be a banned transaction, although messaging on the app “could be directly or indirectly impaired” by the ban, and people who use it for messaging won’t be subject to penalties. Some security experts have raised concerns that ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese company that owns TikTok, would maintain access to information on the 100 million TikTok users in the United States, creating a security risk. Read the Commerce Department release here.

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.

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.

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.

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic escalates throughout the country, the schedule for the 2020 Census has been significantly impacted. In light of this impact, U.S. Census Bureau Director Director Steven Dillingham and U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are requesting “statutory relief from Congress of 120 additional calendar days to deliver final apportionment counts,” officials said. This news comes after the bureau adjusted the census operations schedule last month due to the COVID-19 outbreak. With this extension, the bureau would deliver apportionment counts to the President by April 20, 2021 instead of its original date of December 31, 2020. Redistricting data would then be delivered to the states by July 31, 2021 instead of its scheduled April 1, 2021, officials said.

The Trump administration has extended for 90 more days a limited reprieve on U.S. technology sales to Huawei. That means U.S. firms aren't allowed to sell technology to Huawei without government approval. U.S. companies, for example, continue to supply Huawei chips made outside the United States. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says Mondays extension will allow wireless companies to keep offering service in remote parts of the U.S. Larger U.S. wireless companies do not use equipment from Huawei, while smaller, rural carriers do.

Asian shares have advanced after the Dow Jones Industrial Average returned to a record high. Benchmarks rose across the region, led by a 2% jump in Japans Nikkei 225 index. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)BANGKOK Asian shares have advanced after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other benchmarks closed at record highs. Upbeat comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross about progress in trade talks with China has helped to raise sentiment. Benchmarks rose across the region, led by a 2% jump in Japan's Nikkei 225 index to 23,315.47.

Showing up is important," said Charles Freeman, senior vice president for Asia for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. If realized with all 16 members, the RCEP trade bloc would be one of the world's biggest, encompassing a market of 3.6 billion people and accounting for roughly a third of world trade and of world business activity. Organizers pointed to 3.4 million U.S. jobs related to exports to Asia and $1.8 trillion in trade with the Indo-Pacific region. Some of that trade has been displaced to other Asian markets, with exports from Thailand and Vietnam rising sharply. But more than two-thirds of world trade involves supply chains based in more than one country.

Thai policemen walk in front of a banner welcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations at the venue of The 35th annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Nonthaburi province, Thailand. But intractable differences, often hidden behind handshakes and ceremonial photo-ops, have stymied those efforts by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. China is among those leading the negotiations along with ASEAN members and their dialogue partners Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand. The talks were progressing toward a conclusion last month when new issues cropped up, which may again delay the signing to next year, Philippine Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told reporters. Territorial rifts involving China, Taiwan and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have emerged as the most divisive issue in recent years.

The 35th annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual leaders' summit will be hosted in Thailand Nov. 2-4. O'Brien recently took on his role after national security adviser John Bolton was ousted by Trump. Ross is leading a Nov. 3-8 trade delegation to Bangkok and is to speak at an Indo-Pacific Business Forum on Monday. Although Trump attended the 2017 meeting in Manila, he left early and skipped the East Asian Summit, noted veteran Thai political commentator Kavi Chongkittavorn. Regional trade ministers were hoping to make progress toward completing a long-awaited free trade agreement at the meetings.

(CNN) - The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt over a dispute related to the Trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The move is virtually guaranteed to further inflame hostilities between the administration and House Democrats as they pursue oversight efforts. It is unclear, however, what practical impact the House contempt vote will have since a US attorney is not likely to take action against the head of their own Justice Department. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called the contempt vote "nothing more than a political stunt." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the timing of the criminal contempt vote last week, saying, "Next week, the full house will vote on a resolution of criminal contempt for Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross so we can enforce our subpoenas and get the facts."

When asked to consider adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, Census Bureau leadership had a clear position: It's a bad idea. This is something the Census Bureau does regularly for other sets of data, such as economic surveys. The Census Bureau recommended that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross choose the administrative records option because those records are higher quality and significantly less expensive. "In the 2010 decennial census, the Census Bureau was able to match 88.6 percent of the population with what the Bureau considers credible administrative record data," Ross wrote. He instructed the Census Bureau to both ask the citizenship question on the census and compile administrative records.

"I respect the Supreme Court but strongly disagree with its ruling regarding my decision to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 Census," Ross said in a statement Tuesday. "The Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question. As late as Monday afternoon, however, the administration asked a federal judge in Maryland for more time to decide how it would proceed following the Supreme Court decision. Even without the question on the census forms, it remains unclear if the Census Bureau will still publish a file of citizenship data when it releases the census results in early 2021. The Census Bureau has not responded to a request for comment from CNN.

His case raises a question that could have broad repercussions and could impact at a minimum 2,000 other prisoners in state court and self-identify as Native American. Under federal law, major crimes committed by Indians on Indian country must be tried in federal court. The Trump administration appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. At the time, the President predicted success: "We want to be in the Supreme Court on DACA," he said. A lower court held that the law presents an undue burden to a woman's right to abortion in violation of Supreme Court precedent.