Appropriations Update
On November 12, the President signed into law H.R. 5371, the Fiscal Year 2026 Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Extensions Act, ending a 43-day federal government shutdown. The bill funds the Census Bureau through January 30, 2026. In addition, the bill reinstates federal employees who were laid off during the government shutdown. Throughout the shutdown, the Census Bureau had maintained only limited operations, mostly related to 2026 Census Test preparations.
At the end of November, the outlook for consideration of the final Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Act, which funds the Census Bureau through the balance of 2026 , was unclear. Several press accounts reported that Congress could consider the CJS bill as part of a “minibus” spending package that includes other appropriations bills. The Census Project will release information as it becomes available regarding progress on the FY 2026 CJS appropriations bill.
As a reminder, on October 30, The Census Project sent a letter, signed by 67 organizations, to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging them to provide the Census Bureau with no less than $1.6765 billion in the final FY 2026 CJS appropriations bill. In addition, the letter also expresses concern about language (Section 605 of the House CJS bill) that would render the decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary, while also restricting the Bureau’s ability to conduct non-response follow-up operations across all of its surveys.
Policy Update
BLACKOUT Webinar from The Census Project and Minnesotans for the ACS
Minnesotans for the American Community Survey (MACS) and The Census Project presented a webinar on November 10, “BLACKOUT: Communities Without Vital Data.” The discussion focused on: “What happens if we lose the public data that fuels funding, representation, and private enterprise? Under new proposals in Congress, many rural communities and small population subgroups across the country will be “blacked out” due to insufficient data collection.” Insider experts explored evidence from a case example from Canada, as well as results from Census Bureau research, emphasizing the challenges posed by legislative maneuvers threatening the ACS and its mandatory response, as well as Section 605 in the House FY 2026 CJS funding bill.
POGO Releases Report on Census Directed Funding
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) released a report providing census-guided spending in each state. The report concluded that, overall, “these programs directed more than $2.24 trillion in federal dollars to state agencies, local governments, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, companies, and households.” In its release, POGO stated that they hoped the report helps policymakers “understand the stakes of a miscount in 2030 — and better recognize that ensuring an accurate census count is critical to ensuring their constituents are fully represented.”
Redistricting Legislation Introduced in Congress
In November, a flurry of legislation was introduced in Congress, reflecting heightened interest in redistricting. The Census Project published four blogs summarizing these recent proposals:
- RESET Act
- SAD Act
- Redistricting Transparency and Accountability Act
- Redistricting Reform Act of 2025
House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on 2020 Census Outcome
On November 19, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing, “Enumeration or Estimation: Why Inaccurate Census Results Hurt American Citizens.” The purpose of the Committee’s hearing was to examine the constitutionality of counting undocumented immigrants in the Census and review potential implications for the outcome of the 2020 census. The full hearing can be viewed on the Committee’s website.
The Census Project Presents to Groups of Stakeholders
On November 13, Steve Jost, consultant to The Census Project, spoke to local and state representatives of the Washington State Cowlitz Regional Information Forum, and on November 20, Howard Fienberg, co-director of The Census Project, spoke to the ALICE Working Group of state and local United Way staff. Their presentations focused on the decennial census and ACS—particularly, the ACS’ uses and legislative efforts in Congress that threaten the survey’s mandatory status and data integrity.
House Announces Action on H.R. 151, Equal Representation Act
On November 25, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced that on December 2, it would be marking up H.R. 151, Equal Representation Act. The bill, which, as The Census Project reported previously, is sponsored by U.S. Representative Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11). The bill’s primary objective is to exclude non-citizens from the population count used to apportion representation in Congress.
Requests for Public Comments
Throughout November, The Census Project published several blogs, highlighting requests for public comments that may be of interest to census stakeholders:
- Request for comments to extend Special Census Questionnaires
- Request for comments to extend Survey of Construction Questionnaire for the Building Permit Official
- Request for comments to extend Current Population Survey
Census Bureau Releases
On November 20, new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey that measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis, were released.
New data about the sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status and other characteristics of U.S. business owners was published on November 20. According to the Census Bureau, the data come from two sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which covers employer businesses (those with paid employees), and the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which covers nonemployer businesses (those without paid employees).
On November 19, the Bureau released a report, “Women’s Living Arrangements at First Birth.” In its release, the Bureau describes the report as providing “women’s living arrangements (i.e., married, cohabiting, neither married nor cohabiting) at the time of their first birth and how they differed by educational attainment, race and ethnicity from the early 1990s to the early 2020s.”
On November 13, the Census Bureau released preliminary data from the 2024 Annual Survey of School System Finances.
News You Can Use
Below are several articles posted on The Census Project home page in November 2025. The news media coverage posted is not necessarily endorsed or supported by The Census Project, but is provided to give census stakeholders a wide spectrum of views and materials. For a complete listing, go to: 2025 Media – The Census Project
After Shutdown, Labor Dept. Says Some Data Is Gone for Good
The New York Times
November 19, 2025
Republican push to make U.S. census surveys voluntary alarms statisticians
Science
November 14, 2025
Government Reopens Without Data That Guides Markets and the Fed
The New York Times
November 14, 2025
Without decent data, the country is flying blind
The Times
November 13, 2025
October jobs data may never be released, White House says
Politico
November 12, 2025
California Republicans file legal challenge to redistricting push
Politico
November 5, 2025
The biggest careers that have now vanished, according to data
The Washington Post
November 3, 2025
