URGENT CTA: SUBMIT COMMENT TO STOP US CENSUS CHANGES

Please stand against changes to the US census and take 5 minutes to do drop a comment at handsoffourcens.us today. More information and a video clip below:

@ahbeeolah

Changes to the US Census could be detrimental

On September 10, 2026 the Census Bureau posted a notice in the Federal Register titled “Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions.” Despite the stale-sounding title, this proposed rule upends nearly 250 years of history, ignores Constitutional mandates, will make life harder for all Americans, and proposes to codify all of those changes into the Code of Federal Regulations (rather than, as is traditional, Census Bureau policy).

The goal of every census is to “count everyone once, only once, and in the right place.” Not only is that catchphrase memorable, it is the outgrowth of the mandates of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution regarding apportionment. In addition to being the foundation of political representation, the population count in each decennial census is the common denominator in nearly every aspect of public life. Census counts are used for emergency preparation and disaster response. They are used to plan for schools, roads, and hospitals. They are used to track crime rates and to monitor public health. They are used to understand whether we are making progress in alleviating historic patterns of discrimination. They are used to understand employment patterns and economic opportunity. They are used by businesses to understand their workforce and customer base in order to make sound investments. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg—a comprehensive list could go on for pages (in fact the Census Bureau published a list of 50 common uses).

The proposed changes will lead to a census that counts only part of the population, and will contain limited demographic information. These changes, and their knock-on effects on response rates, will lead to inaccuracies and insufficient demographic data that will hobble not only the decennial census itself, but our ability as a society to make evidence-based decisions.

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