Appropriations Update
The Senate Appropriations Committee canceled previously-scheduled committee meetings to markup the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, funding the Census Bureau, among other federal agencies, primarily due to disagreements over top-line budget numbers
As The Census Project reported last month, the House Appropriations Committee approved their version of the FY 2027 CJS bill on May 13. The bill has not been scheduled yet for full consideration on the House floor.
At this rate, it appears that there will need to be a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government when the current fiscal year ends September 30.
Policy Update
The Census Project mourns former Census Director Kenneth Prewitt
The Census Project family mourns the passing of one of our strongest advocates and supporters, Dr. Ken Prewitt. He was more than a member of our Advisory Committee. He helped secure vital funding for our mission and coached us on challenges the Census faced that we needed to focus upon.
We undoubtedly benefited from his broad experiences, not just as a former Census Bureau Director during a challenging era. He turned 90 in March this year, and it was only a few years ago that he retired from Columbia University as a Professor Emeritus where he guided the opening of several foreign campuses. A family member reminded us that not only was he an esteemed academic, but he was also an adventurer who flew and dived, a counter of a country, a world traveler, a writer of books, a gifted administrator and researcher, a planter of trees, and a mentor to generations. He returned to the classroom time and again to be invigorated by young minds.
He was the author/co-author of several books on the decennial Census, the most notable being his exposé on the flawed effort to classify Americans: What Is Your Race?
In addition to a blog from The Census Project, Census Bureau Director George M. Cook penned a Director’s Blog on Remembering Kenneth Prewitt.
New Deputy Directors
The U.S. Census Bureau announced the appointments of Michael Lachanski as deputy director for Data, Policy, and Science and John Studds as deputy director for Administration and Operations.
“Dr. Lachanski currently serves as senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, where he leads two major Census Bureau modernization initiatives: broadening the agency’s administrative records database and lowering barriers to the adoption of artificial intelligence across the federal statistical system. A demographer by training, he holds a joint doctorate in demography and sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in statistics and data science from the Wharton School, and a bachelor’s degree in economics (summa cum laude) and a master’s degree in public administration (with distinction) from Princeton University. Dr. Lachanski is committed to strengthening the federal statistical enterprise to ensure the Census Bureau delivers accurate, relevant, comprehensive and timely data for the nation. His full biography is attached below.”
“John Studds serves as the Census Bureau’s chief information officer and has more than 30 years of executive experience driving digital transformation and aligning enterprise technology strategies with mission critical objectives. His leadership has shaped some of the Census Bureau’s most consequential modernization that’s underway, including the expansion of enterprise Internet data collection. He has overseen major statistical programs such as the Consolidated Federal Funds Report and the Federal Audit Clearinghouse and has spearheaded development of innovative data management platforms, including Data Ingest and Collection for the Enterprise and Enterprise Data Lake. His career demonstrates a consistent ability to conceptualize, develop and deliver complex data services to policymakers, researchers and businesses alike. Studds’ full biography is attached below.”
Department of Commerce Issues Order Limiting Disclosure Avoidance Methods
On June 4, 2026, the Department of Commerce issued a new order “Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products” (DAO 216-26) that limits the types of privacy protection methods that the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) can use for their data products. Specifically, the order limits the Census Bureau and BEA to the use of “coarsening” (rounding, aggregating, and reporting in ranges) or suppression (not reporting). Several scientific societies, including the Association of Public Data Users, Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, and the Population Association of America, issued a statement expressing concern about the order. The statement criticizes the order, saying it “subverts processes developed over decades to foster transparency and public trust and creates a scenario in which there will either be less privacy for our personal information, or less usable data, or both.” The order was effective upon its release.
The Postal Service and the Census
On June 24, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing, “Reforming the U.S. Postal Service’s Broken Business Model.” During the hearing, Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) asked Postmaster General David Steiner questions about the ongoing 2026 Census Test in which postal carriers are being evaluated as enumerators. The exchange can be viewed at the 1:07 mark.
In a related development, The Census Project revised and posted a 2-page fact sheet on The U.S. Postal Service and the Census.
GAO reports on Census Bureau IT Modernization and the 2030 Census
- The General Accountability Office (GAO) released a report recently on the Census Bureau’s “large-scale effort to modernize essential IT data storage and processing systems.” GAO concluded that the Bureau “has begun implementing leading practices that can help with this effort—such as managing risks and estimating costs,” but “the Census Bureau’s schedule for this project is unreliable. Specifically, it is not comprehensive, well-constructed, credible, or updated regularly.”
- GAO also issued a report called “2030 Census: Census Bureau Needs Additional Data to Inform Design Decisions.” The report is a first in a series that will focus “on the status of preparations, planning decisions, and testing for the 2030 Census, as well as emerging challenges that could affect the Bureau’s approach for the 2030 Census.” This initial report focuses on the implications of the modified 2026 Census Test. Given its dramatic changes, GAO concludes that “the 2026 Census Test will not produce data on the viability of certain proposed 2030 Census design features as originally envisioned.”
Count All Kids in 2030
On June 17, 2026, the National League of Cities, First Focus Campaign for Children, and the Coalition on Human Needs held a briefing on Capitol Hill for Congressional staff, titled “Count All Kids in 2030: How to Improve Census Accuracy.” They also provided a list of resources of interest to census stakeholders.
Report on Census-Guided Funding for Children
Recognizing that “children aged 0–4” have been historically undercounted in the decennial census, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) recently released a report tracking the distribution of census-guided federal funding for children’s programs to individual states. POGO noted that, “A census miscount can influence where billions of dollars go.” “Of the 371 federal assistance programs operating in fiscal year 2023 that POGO identified, 70 were census-guided programs that supported children. These programs accounted for $792.77 billion in funds disbursed to all 50 states and Washington, DC, representing 35% of the total census-guided funding in FY 2023.”
Requests for Public Comments
Throughout June, The Census Project published several blogs, highlighting requests for public comments that may be of interest to census stakeholders
- The U.S. Department of Commerce and Census Bureau are seeking public comment on a joint Workforce Development Collection by August 11, 2026.
- The Census Bureau seeks follow-up comments on the Current Population Survey 2026 Field Test by July 5, 2026.
- The Census Bureau seeks public comments on the Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey (HTOPS) data collections for July, September, and November 2026. Input is due by July 4, 2026.
Census Bureau Releases
All age groups in the South grew faster than in any other region from 2020 to 2025, primarily fueled by outlying metro counties, according to new Vintage 2025 estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. New data released for all counties in the United States and Puerto Rico provide a closer look at what age groups were driving the growth of U.S. counties across different stages of life: childhood (0-17), young adulthood and higher education (18-24), early work and family-building years (25-44), midlife (45-64), and retirement (65 and older).
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 4 and June 18, 2026.
On June 1, Census takers and specially trained U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers began visiting households in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, which haven’t yet responded to the 2026 Census Test. Residents in select parts of these metro areas were first invited to respond online May 1.
The U.S. Census Bureau released new Business Formation Statistics (BFS) for May 2026. The BFS provide timely and high frequency information on new business applications and formations in the United States and Puerto Rico.
News You Can Use
Below are several articles posted on The Census Project home page in June 2026. For a complete listing, go to: 2026 Media – The Census Project. (News media coverage is not necessarily endorsed or supported by The Census Project but is provided to give census stakeholders a wide spectrum of views and materials.)
America at 250: What the Census reveals about our journey
NEXTGOV/FCW
June 29, 2026
How the South’s Youth Boom Could Change America
Newsweek
June 27, 2026
Census Bureau Quietly Scraps Plan for Improved Data Collection on Race and Ethnicity
Talking Points Memo
June 26, 2026
Better decisions depend on data, but only if people can actually use it
Federal News Network
June 25, 2026
Threatened changes to 2030 Census could suppress NM’s count
KUNM
June 24, 2025
Op-Ed: Spend now on Census preparation or risk future of NJ
NJ Spotlight News
June 23, 2026
Florida TaxWatch gearing up to scrutinize 2030 U.S. Census count
Florida Politics
June 21, 2026
What Does ‘Rural’ Even Mean?
The Dispatch
June 15, 2026
A Trump push to cut ‘statistical noise’ could mean less data from the Census Bureau
NPR
June 12, 2026
Detroit loses legal fight to add over 28K residents to Census count
The Detroit News
June 10, 2026
California’s population is stagnating as immigration and birth rates decline
Cal Matters
June 5, 2026
Who’s knocking on your door? This Alabama city may see census visits
AL.com
June 4, 2026
