Upton joins bipartisan plea for OMB to retain metropolitan statistical area standards

Proposed changes to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area standards has U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) worried that his home state of Michigan could lose federal dollars.

“We are extremely concerned about the recommendation that the minimum urban population to qualify as a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is being increased from 50,000 to 100,000. This change would arbitrarily relegate hundreds of MSAs to micropolitan status and cause Michigan to lose nearly half of their MSAs,” wrote Rep. Upton and four of his Michigan colleagues in a bipartisan March 11 letter sent to OMB Acting Director Rob Fairweather.

OMB on Jan. 19 published a request for public comment on recommendations it received from the Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Standards Review Committee for changes to OMB’s metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area standards.

The lawmakers acknowledged that while metropolitan area delineations are used for statistical purposes at OMB, changing designations could have “significant unintended consequences” that negatively impact area residents, they wrote. The regions in Michigan that could potentially lose MSA status would be Battle Creek, Bay City, Jackson, Midland, Monroe, and Niles-Benton Harbor, according to their letter. 

Rep. Upton and his colleagues, who included U.S. Reps. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Dan Kildee (D-MI), also pointed out that the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB), through a federal-state cooperative agreement, works with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Market Information and Strategic Initiatives to produce statistical information for all MSAs. “If this recommendation is implemented this critically important data would no longer be provided for the six areas being downgraded,” they wrote.

“As we continue to emerge from the pandemic we must focus our energy on policies that improve the well-being and economic opportunities for all Americans and request you do not implement the recommendation increasing the population to be considered a metropolitan statistical area,” wrote Rep. Upton and the lawmakers.