Reinstate Census advisory committees now to ensure fair 2030 Census

Today I’m writing to urge you, to pressure the US Department of Commerce, and Secretary Lutnick’s decision to terminate the Census Bureau's three advisory committees. It seems to me to be another attack by this Administration on civil rights, fairness and good governance. This action by Lutnick, wholly unwarranted, and likely discriminatory on the part of the Trump Administration, poses a significant threat to the accuracy and fairness of the 2030 Census and other crucial data collection efforts. This represents a bold-faced attempt to simply ignore significant parts of the population, and leaves state, cities and towns unprepared and underfunded to serve the public, whoever they are. These external advisory bodies have long provided invaluable expertise and community input that strengthens the methodologies, outreach strategies, and transparency of the Census Bureau's work. Eliminating these committees undermines decades of precedent and strips away vital infrastructure for engaging scientific experts, community leaders, and key stakeholders during the critical preparation phase for the 2030 Census. The census takes a long time to plan. The input of thee three committees — 2030 Census Advisory Committee, the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, and the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations — is essential to addressing stubborn undercount issues in marginalized communities and developing cost-effective solutions to overcome participation barriers. Without these advisory voices, the Census Bureau loses its ability to proactively identify and mitigate potential sources of error that could lead to an unfair, inaccurate census with disproportionate undercounts. This threatens the very integrity of the population data that guides redistricting, federal funding allocation, and innumerable policy decisions at the federal, state and local level. Data guides federal assistance, not politics, to the tune of $2.8 trillion annually. I urge you to pressure and get Secretary Lutnick to testify as to the reasons why he’s taken this action. Then, pressure him to reinstate all three Census advisory committees immediately, so that they can resume their important work. If he will not do these things, I urge you to engage the legal forces of civil rights groups to sue the Department of Commerce. Thank you for your attention to this critical matter.