The full U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee markup on July 10, 2025 of the Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce Justice Science (CJS) Appropriations legislation, which funds the Census Bureau, was derailed (at least temporarily) by an unrelated dispute over the siting of the FBI’s headquarters.
Meanwhile, the House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee announced it would meet to markup its own version of the legislation on July 15 at noon.
Senate CJS Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-KS), in introducing the draft legislation, noted that “approximately half of the increase” in the bill from FY 2025 “is dedicated to the census.… We begin funding the census preparation for the next decennial census.… So half of the increase is consumed by something that I don’t know that many of us have a lot at stake in — its apportionment of Congressional houses [sic], making sure our constituents are enumerated — and yet it is the Constitutional responsibility that we are responding to.”
Previously, at the Senate CJS Subcommittee’s markup the evening before, Moran also mentioned that, “conducting the census is a Constitutional mandate and it is this subcommittee’s responsibility to provide the Bureau with the resources to fulfill this mandate.” The bill was approved by the subcommittee by voice vote.
The legislation (and accompanying full committee report language) will not be available until after the markup is concluded, but we have heard rumor that while the Senate bill would fund an increase for the Bureau, it would be less than the Trump Administration’s budget request, and definitely less than the Census Project’s FY 2026 funding recommendations. It remains unclear if or when a deal may be struck to resolve the siting dispute and complete work on the Senate CJS bill, and time is running out before Congress’ August recess.
