Chairwoman Maloney Introduces Legislation to Combat Politicization of U.S. Census Bureau

Press Release

Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, introduced the Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Census Act to enhance the institutional independence of the Census Bureau and to improve its operations.

"The census is a foundation of American democracy, and it must be protected from partisan interference. The American people saw firsthand how the Trump Administration tried to weaponize the Census Bureau to tip the scales in favor of one political party. From the illegal effort to add a citizenship question to the unconstitutional attempt to exclude millions of immigrants from the apportionment count, it is clear that we need stronger laws to protect the census from political meddling," said Chairwoman Maloney. "The Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Census Act is a commonsense bill to safeguard the integrity and independence of the Census Bureau."

The decennial census of people living in the United States is required by the Constitution. The data collected through the Census affects the distribution of more than $1.5 trillion dollars in federal funding, apportionment in the House of Representatives, and public and private sector services across the country.

The Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Census Act enhances the independence of the U.S. Census Bureau and protects it from partisan manipulation. Chairwoman Maloney's bill would prevent the removal of a Census Bureau Director without just cause, provide transparency into the projected resource needs of the Census Bureau, and ensure that any new questions added to a decennial census are vigorously researched and tested.

Specifically, the legislation would:

Safeguard the position of Census Bureau Director by permitting removal only for cause.

Ensure that any question added to a decennial census is researched and tested according established statistical procedures, and verified by the Government Accountability Office.

Codify advisory committees for 2030 census planning, hard-to-count populations, and scientific and statistical standards.

Provide transparency into the budgetary needs of the Census Bureau and the operational status of each decennial census.

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