June 2025 Census Project Update

Appropriations Update

On June 25, the Department of Commerce released the long-awaited details of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. The details, known as the Congressional Budget Justification (CBJ), outlines the Administration’s priorities for the Census Bureau in FY 2026.

As reported in a recent Census Project blog, the request, $1.675 billion, is an increase over the agency’s enacted FY 2025 funding level, but falls short of the $2 billion that census stakeholders recommended. It affirms topline numbers that the Administration released in May regarding the Bureau’s two major accounts: $1.388 billion for Periodic Censuses and Programs and $288.5 million for Current Surveys and Programs. In addition, the CBJ addresses, as well as overlooks, several census stakeholder priorities, and in other cases, fails to provide thorough details about major administrative restructuring and data modernization proposals. These changes include a proposed reorganization that would bring the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis under the Department of Commerce and major changes to the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

In addition, the request:

Recommends a proposed increase of $383.4 million or 63.8 percent in funding for the 2030 Census, for a total of $982.9 million for development and testing, and recognizes the 2026 Census Test.
Acknowledges the American Community Survey (ACS) as “the premier source of social, demographic, economic, and housing information for the Nation, states, counties, cities, and towns,” and confirms the amount that the Administration has requested “ will also enable the Census Bureau to continue data collection and publication for the American Community Survey, including the Puerto Rico Community Survey and the group quarters sample, while reducing respondent burden compared to prior years.”
Reduces funding for the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) by $40 million and proposes shifting SIPP away from its current structure to a “more effective approach that merges modern survey techniques with advanced data science methods.”

More details are available in the June 30 Census Project blog.

Congress will consider the President’s budget request as it crafts the FY 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill. The House CJS Subcommittee is scheduled to consider or “markup” its version of the bill on July 7, with the full House Appropriations Committee taking up the bill on July 10. Once the Committee approves the bill, it will be scheduled for floor action by the U.S. House of Representatives. As of July 1, the Senate Appropriations Committee had not formally announced its FY 2026 mark up schedule. However, the Senate CJS Chair, Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), was quoted in a media report that his bill “is one of the next in the tranche” for markups in early July.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick Testifies on Fiscal Year 2026 Funding Request

On June 4 and 5, 2025, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittees, respectively, regarding the Department’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. Given the Department of Commerce is the Census Bureau’s parent agency, subcommittee members could ask questions about the Bureau. While no census-related questions were asked during the Senate hearing, several questions were asked during the June 5 House CJS hearing.

Representative Hal Rogers (R-KY), Chair of the House CJS Subcommittee, noted the Administration’s FY 2026 request includes a 20 percent funding increase for the Census Bureau. The Administration had, as of June 5, not released complete details of its budget request, which motivated several members to ask follow-up questions.

Ranking Member Grace Meng (D-NY) asked for an update on the 2026 Census Test. In addition, she asked for an assessment of how the loss of over 1,000 Census Bureau staff and DOGE’s activities had impacted the agency and what the Secretary was doing to address the concerns that these developments had generated. Secretary Lutnick responded by highlighting the Administration’s proposal to reorganize the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis into one agency. He also assured Ranking Member Meng that there was no “weakness in accuracy” in the Bureau’s data. He did not provide additional details regarding the FY 2026 Census Test, stating that “the decennial census is quite far away.” Representative Dale Strong (R-AL) followed up with a question about the 2026 Census Test, noting Huntsville, Alabama, which he represents, is one of the Test’s six sites. Specifically, he asked if Secretary Lutnick would commit to fully funding the test. Lutnick responded by saying “we will deliver the structure to have the greatest census with the best statistical analysis ever in the United States of America.” As part of the same question, Rep. Strong asked the Secretary for his thoughts on excluding “non-citizens” from the census, but the Secretary did not address that in his response.

Policy Update

Florida Report on Transportation Impact from Census Undercounts

A new Florida TaxWatch report on “the potential fiscal loss to local areas” as a result of the 2020 Census undercount in Florida focused on the transportation industry and “how it impacts infrastructure planning and federal funding allocations.” It also recommended four actions for Floridians to take to “prepare residents for full participation in the 2030 Census.”

Official End of Census Advisory Committees

The U.S. Commerce Department posted a Federal Register Notice on June 10, 2025, officially terminating its federal advisory committees, including the 2030 Census Advisory Committee, Bureau of the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, and Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. A coalition wrote to the Secretary of Commerce in May expressing concerns about the termination of these advisory committees.

Annual Report from Texas Census Institute

The Texas Census Institute (TxCI) released its annual report. The Institute was founded following the 2020 Census in which the Census Bureau determined Texas was undercounted by more than 550,000 people. The report outlines the work that it has done to ensure every Texan is counted.

Requests for Public Comments

In June, The Census Project highlighted requests for public comments that may be of interest to census stakeholders:

The U.S. Census Bureau seeks to extend information collection Form BC-300 for use with Freedom of Information Act requests, with comments from the public due by August 8, 2025.
The Bureau seeks public comment on the proposed extension of the Survey of Construction: Questionnaire for Building Permit Official by August 26, 2025.

Census Bureau Releases

The U.S. Census Bureau released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey that measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis, on June 5 and June 18.

The U.S. Census Bureau released the 2023 County Business Patterns (CBP). CBP provides annual subnational economic data for businesses with paid employees.

Shipments of goods in the United States reached 12.2 billion tons in 2022, virtually unchanged from 2017, according to the latest Commodity Flow Survey estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The U.S. population age 65 and older rose by 3.1% (to 61.2 million) while the population under age 18 decreased by 0.2% (to 73.1 million) from 2023 to 2024, according to the Vintage 2024 Population Estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The U.S. Census Bureau released the 2023 Nonemployer Statistics (NES) estimates of the U.S. Marine Economy. NES provides subnational economic data for businesses that have no paid employees, are subject to federal income tax, and have receipts of $1,000 or more ($1 or more for the Construction sector).

The U.S. Census Bureau released new Business Formation Statistics (BFS) for May 2025.

The U.S. Census Bureau has launched a nationwide effort to hire a limited number of temporary field representatives and supervisors. This effort is based on a temporary hiring waiver granted by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to help conduct various surveys and special censuses.

More than 1 in 5 people (22%) age 5 and older in the United States spoke a language other than English at home during the five-year period from 2017 to 2021, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The newly released table package — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2017–2021 — provides data on over 500 individual languages and language groups spoken across the country during this time. The information is based on data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).