U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) led a bipartisan letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Rob Fairweather urging the agency to abandon plans to change the current definition of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
OMB has proposed doubling the minimum requirement for a MSA from 50,000 to 100,000. This recommendation would eliminate MSA status for more than 140 cities across the country and could negatively impact federal funding in these communities.
“Though the consideration of nonstatistical uses is not the priority of OMB, ignoring the unwritten effects that MSA’s have on the decision-making process of our government would cause major disruptions with grant and entitlement programs, medical reimbursements, economic development, housing initiatives, and more. The MSA metric has become a critical tool so broadly used that changing it without considering its far-reaching impacts is short-sighted,” members wrote.
The letter was also signed by Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mike Braun (R-IN), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Hoeven (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Todd Young (R-IN).
A copy of the letter is here.
Original source can be found here.
