WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Budget Committee member, joined two bipartisan letters to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 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 which would eliminate MSA status for nearly 150 cities across the country – including Minot, Bismarck, and Grand Forks – and could negatively impact federal funding in these communities.
The first bipartisan letter was led by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
“The designations … have important ramifications for the counties, cities and towns that receive these designations,” wrote the senators. “While OMB has stated that these designations are established solely for statistical purposes and are not intended to be used in program funding formulas, several federal programs and agencies rely on these designations for the allocation of funding and provision of services.”
Click here to read the letter.
Senator Cramer also joined a bipartisan letter led by Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
“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 senators wrote. “The MSA metric has become a critical tool so broadly used that changing it without considering its far-reaching impacts is short-sighted.”
Click here to read the letter.
Earlier this month Senator Cramer joined Senator John Thune (R-SD) in urgingOMB to reject recommendations that would increase the population threshold for communities to be classified as metropolitan statistical areas (MSA).