On Tuesday, July 9, by a party line vote of 31-26, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the Fiscal Year 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill (H.R. 9026), which funds, among other agencies, the U.S. Census Bureau.
As The Census Project has been reporting, the House bill would provide the Census Bureau with a total of $1.354 billion, which is $28.5 million below the agency�s 2024 funding level and $223.7 million below the President�s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request.
The bill includes two provisions, Section 559 and Section 621, impacting the Census Bureau:
SEC. 559. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to allow the United States Census Bureau to include aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States in rendering apportionment determinations in subsequent decennial censuses.
SEC. 621. None of the funds in this Act may be used to enforce involuntary compliance, or to inquire more than twice for voluntary compliance with any survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census.
Section 559 would exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment counts. Section 621, while vaguely worded, would have two impacts. First, it would prohibit the enforcement of the mandatory response requirement for Census Bureau surveys. It would also preclude the Bureau from “inquiring” more than twice to secure a response to a survey.
Prior to the committee�s consideration of the bill, The Census Project sent a letter expressing concern about the bill�s proposed funding level as well as the potential problems Section 621 presents.
During the committee�s deliberations, Representative Grace Meng (D-NY-6) offered an amendment to strike Section 559, which was defeated on a voice vote.
The report accompanying the bill included very little explanatory language other than a paragraph addressing poverty data collected in the Current Population Survey (CPS) urging the Census Bureau to update its June 2020 feasibility report on increasing the sample size of the March CPS supplement and to review the feasibility of expanding the CPS into the U.S. territories.
The FY 2025 CJS appropriations bill is expected to go to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives the week of July 29. The Census Project will update stakeholders if any floor amendments affecting the Census Bureau are made in order by the House Rules Committee.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to consider its version of the FY 2025 CJS appropriations bill on Thursday, July 25.
