Oppose CJS Appropriations Cuts and Riders That Undermine the 2030 Census

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to vote against the FY 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill in its current form. The bill as written does several alarming things: It slashes the Census Bureau's budget by over $500 million — more than 25% below the president's $2.0115 billion request — during the single most critical ramp-up year for the 2030 Census. FY 2027 is when the Bureau must analyze 2026 Census Test results, finalize operations, and prepare for the 2028 Dress Rehearsal. Cutting this funding now guarantees a less accurate, more expensive census later. The bill's riders make it worse. Section 553 would exclude undocumented persons from apportionment counts, in direct violation of the 14th Amendment's requirement to count the "whole number of persons in each State." Every census since 1790 has counted citizens and non-citizens alike. Section 579 caps household contact attempts at two — but in the 2020 Census, the national response rate after two contacts was only about 50%, with even lower rates in rural areas, historically undercounted communities, and American Indian reservations. That provision alone would gut the decennial census, the ACS, the Current Population Survey, and the Economic Census. I urge you to increase Census Bureau funding to at least $2.0115 billion, and strip Sections 553 and 579 from the bill entirely. An accurate census is the foundation of fair representation and federal resource allocation. This bill attacks that foundation on three fronts at once. Oppose these anti-democratic moves. Thank you.