The Trump Administration is proposing making changes to the U.S. census that could have a sweeping—and unequal—impact on the federal funding and congressional representation that states receive. The proposals, which still need to go through an approval process before being enacted, were publicly shared by the Administration earlier this week. In the document, the Trump Administration proposes excluding people who are not U.S. citizens and don’t have permanent residency from the census count.
It also proposes barring census officials from including some demographic questions, such as ones about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, in the questionnaire. If the changes are approved, they would upend the federal government’s understanding of the country’s population, which would have cascading effects on the resources allocated to certain states. Here’s what to know about the census, the proposed changes, and which states could be impacted most heavily by the proposals.
The U.S. census takes place every 10 years, as required by the Constitution. The purpose of the census is to count every person residing in the U.S. The results are then used to help allot the appropriate number of seats to each state in the House of Representatives, as well as to redraw electoral districts.
The federal government also uses the data collected in the official count to help decide how to allocate funding to states. The next census will take place in 2030. The Trump Administration is proposing that census officials add a question related to citizenship to the questionnaire, and exclude people who are undocumented immigrants and non-citizens without permanent resident status in the official count.
That would mean that immigrants who are in the country legally but do not have green cards would not be included in the tally. The Trump Administration is also suggesting barring census officials from including certain demographic questions, such as ones about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, on the questionnaire. The Administration argued that the official tally “should be colorblind and should not be distorted in any way by questions about immaterial personal characteristics.” It also claimed that “the (potentially) sensitive nature of questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation,” as well as “the reduced need for or usefulness of this information” were other reasons it was suggesting excluding the topics from the national survey.
The census has included questions about race and ethnicity since the very first count in 1790. These proposed changes are expected to be met with legal challenges. Many politicians, advocates, and experts have previously objected to the suggestion of excluding topics such as race and ethnicity from the survey.
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