On Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) backed off from a proposed change to the federal definition of “city.” OMB changes the definition of a “metropolitan statistical area” approximately every decade, but this rendition of the change caused significant concern from many rural constituencies after the agency proposed doubling the threshold from 50,000 to 100,000 people. Following criticism from Members of Congress, business leaders and rural communities themselves, OMB said it would announce in a Federal Register notice on Friday it would back off the proposed doubling of the threshold and instead make “modest revisions” to 2010 definition standards.
