I largely approve of this in order to declutter our absurdly high number of metropolitan areas as currently defined, but eliminating NECTA definitions is nonsensical unless the OMB is planning on inventing a tighter set of parameters to measure New England urban areas.
Since they are revisiting their definitional categories, I would also highly recommend the OMB join the rest of us in the 21st century and reclassify Maryland and Delaware (and DC) for the Census Bureau as no longer being Southern states.
Delaware, Maryland, DC, and West Virginia should all be in the same region. If some of them are moved to the Northeast, all of them should.
