New York will lose a seat in the House of Representatives based on numbers released Monday by the Census Bureau.
The state will have 26 seats in the House. It’s not yet clear which part of New York caused the loss of a seat in the House, but if 89 more people had filled out the census, the state wouldn’t have lost the congressional seat.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was hopeful the seat would not come from New York City.
“In the middle of a pandemic, they managed to reach the same response rate in 2020 that happened ten years earlier in 2010. I mean, that’s really extraordinary,” he said. “So, hopefully since that happened, New York City will be judged more accurately. And if there is to be a loss of a seat, it won’t be here. It will be someplace else.”
The 435 seats in the House of Representatives are divided among the states based on population. As growing states get more seats, that means fewer seats for states that lost population.
The state stands to lose out on more than political clout: The census also determines the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal funding each year.
California, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia also lost seats. Florida, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon all gained one seat each while Texas gained two seats.
The AP, Cristian Benavides and Henry Rosoff contributed to this report.
