The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed a rule change that would alter aspects of how census data is collected every decade. The adjustments would change who gets counted, where, and what questions are asked. 

The changes could affect political representation — like how congressional and state legislative districts are apportioned — as well as how much state or federal funding communities can get for public services. 

The changes include a shift from counting everybody living in communities to only counting American citizens and lawful permanent residents, changing what counts as a person’s “usual residence,” and ending the collection of information on people’s race and ethnicity. It would also make other demographic questions optional. 

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said that President Donald Trump’s administration “will stop at nothing to undermine and chip away at our democracy, and their recent effort to attack the census process is the latest example.” 

He added: “Census data determines congressional seats. Census data informs the policy and programs that serve communities. This isn’t a tweak to the way a census is run – it’s Trump’s effort to rig the board, and my office will not stand for it.” 

On Nov. 4, Jones announced Virginia had joined a multi-state challenge to the proposed rule change submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Jones is among over 20 attorneys general from states and Washington, D.C., along with governors from Kentucky and Pennsylvania. 

Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia — a fair housing organization in the state that takes on housing discrimination cases — submitted a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik last week in opposition to the changes.

Accurate census information is critical to the work that HOME of Virginia does, policy director Laura Dobbs said in a recent call with The Mercury. 

Housing and legal aid groups in Virginia and other states joined HOME of Virginia in the letter to the secretary. Those include Washington, D.C.-based Equal Rights Center, the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, the Fair Housing Center of Southwest Michigan, the Legal Aid Justice Center and the Virginia Poverty Law Center. 

“Without this information, it will be harder for fair housing and legal aid organizations like ours to identify and redress longstanding racial, social and other disparities to meet the needs of underserved communities,” the groups stated. 

They requested the secretary have the Bureau withdraw the proposed adjustments entirely. 

“These sweeping changes …  will lead to a decade-long theft of critical funding for food, housing, schools, healthcare, and legal services for our communities,” the organizations added. 

When federal agencies suggest altering how certain functions are carried out, proposals are posted to the Federal Register website for an official public comment period. 

For the proposed census rule, nearly 150,000 responses were submitted to the website between Sep. 10 and Nov. 2, when the comment period closed. 

Beyond leading to funding and political representation changes, Dobbs explained that the new usual residence criteria will create confusion and inaccuracies. 

“(The federal government) would be looking at a newly defined enumeration period that runs from January 1 to April 1 of that year, which I’m sure you can understand would create a lot of confusion,” she said. “They also want to verify that through things like tax records, which aren’t necessarily always showing people’s current residence, so this creates a lot of problems.”

Now that public comment has closed on the proposal, the Trump administration could withdraw their changes, make further adjustments or proceed in the next regulatory steps before the rule could take effect.  

If the administration tries to advance the rule shift, state attorneys general could launch an official legal challenge..

Data collection for the next census is not set until 2030.