path. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Commerce Department separately investigated the incident and concluded that the Commerce Department "ran a 'flawed process' that did not sufficiently engage NOAA and went against the interests of the agency and the National Weather Service." In a July 2020 letter to Ross, Inspector General Peggy Gustafson expressed "deep concern" that the department was blocking OIG from publicly releasing its report by asserting "amorphous and generalized privileges." The letter prompted Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, to call upon Ross to "immediately cease this campaign to keep the public in the dark." The House Science Committee also probed Ross's role in the issuance of the NOAA statement. Coronavirus pandemic In a January 30, 2020, interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business, when asked if the COVID-19 outbreak in China would threaten the U.S. economy, Ross said, "I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America ... I don't want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease ... the fact is, it does give business yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain." The outbreak became a pandemic, and caused a major recession, with 10 million Americans filing unemployment claims and unemployment rising more than during the entirety of the Great Recession. 2020 Census count early completion Due to delays and operation challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ross and U.S. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham announced on April 13, 2020, that they would extend the timeframe for field data collection and self-response for the 2020 United States Census to October 31, 2020. However, on August 3, 2020, the Census Bureau announced that they were moving this deadline up to September 30, 2020. Community advocates and former Census Bureau employees expressed concern that this shortened timeframe would result in poor-quality data and a significant undercount that would disproportionately affect traditionally hard-to-count groups such as ethnic minorities, young adults, and people living in rural areas. On September 24, 2020, federal district court judge Lucy Koh issued a preliminary injunction against the plan to end counting on September 30 rather than the scheduled October 31, saying the Commerce Department "never articulated a satisfactory explanation." She also blocked a plan to deliver the count results to the White