Firestorm Ignited Over Proposed US Census Rules. Here Is What Citizens Can Do About It.

If you are a U.S. citizen, you possess a power you probably did not know you have. Every American has until October 13, 2026, to tell the government what he or she thinks about the 2030 Census. 

The Census Bureau just ignited a firestorm over its notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) released into the Federal Register on September 10, 2026. The government is proposing changes to Part 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) on the residence reporting criteria and demographic questions that will be asked for the 2030 Decennial Census; The criteria and questions are used to measure the population of Americans and apportion congressional seats.

The proposed rule changes how the counting of foreign citizens will be done. It differs radically from the criteria from the 2020 Census. The new proposed rule for 2030 says,

§ 60.4 

Foreign citizens in the United States.

(a) Citizens of foreign countries who are also either citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States as of April 1 of a decennial census year. Counted at their usual residence in accordance with § 60.2.

(b) All other citizens of foreign countries as of April 1 of a decennial census year. Not counted for apportionment.

This means only U.S. citizens, including dual citizens and green card holders (legal permanent residents), will be counted in 2030 for the purposes of apportionment. All other foreigners will not. This excludes several categories of persons who were included in the 2020 Census; namely, all undocumented persons, foreign students, foreign executives assigned to their companies' U.S. offices, and, the oddball category of 2020: foreigners in the U.S. on temporary work permits living in California. Both the 2020 and 2030 censuses do not count people visiting the U.S. on tourist visas or persons here for business trips.

Make no mistake about it: this tiny passage is a powerful change in U.S. policy. It reverses long time U.S. practices of inclusion by mere presence within our borders to a policy that focuses on making people who are here legally the priority. The census and its impact on apportionment goes beyond assigning the distribution of congressional districts. It affects the how the wealth of the United States is spent when it comes to helping the domestic population of the country. If you have ever complained over a beer with your friends or in a comment on social media that America should look out for our own first, this is what turning that sentiment into the legal obligation of the United States of America to its people in the decade from 2030 to 2040 looks like.

And then there is an even more profound proposed change in information collection in this notice. It concerns what kinds of questions can be asked on the census form. This change is just 27 words long.

§ 70.2

Restrictions on the inclusion of certain demographic questions.

On first glance, this is a dramatic reversal of the emphasis of information collection for the U.S. Census from previous practices. In 2020, the emphasis was on finding the most granular level of detail that could be collected about the U.S. population.

It goes without saying that every special interest group in America that came to know and love that granular approach to identifying how special they are to the American cultural tapestry are already outraged about it.

The Census Bureau definitely knows that they are standing barefoot in a pit of poisonous snakes poking all of them with a stick and hoping to not get bit by this one. The language of the NPRM contains what I would characterize as apologetic information about the availability of commercial databases and other government information collection surveys that already collect granular information. It also makes allusions to advances in technology that allow even the simplest data collection granules in government surveys to be used to create personal identifiable information profiles about people.

I do not buy either one of those excuses, and neither should you. I do not think the U.S. government should softly sell this change to rule 70.2. In my opinion, one of the most devastating consequences of the 2020 Census emphasis on granularity is that it encouraged an unhealthy pattern of valuing self-segregation in one’s identity in U.S. society over the core values in our Declaration of Independence, in which we held the aspiration to the truth that we are all created equal. Subtle things have profound effects on the social harmony of our nation. This has not been a healthy decade for our people. In my view, reminding everyone that none of us is special unless all of us are special together is a paramount element of U.S. national interest, the further we get into the mid 21st-century. Those 27 words are a statement about what we aspire to be.

Call to Action

If these proposed changes to 15 CFR 60.4 and 15 CFR 70.2 survive the comment and review process, you can rest assured that deep-pocket lobbying, lawsuits and counter-lawsuits will follow. But it will not do special interests any good, because once the information collection process becomes part of the census preparation engine, it will be impossible to stop. Therefore, you can also rest assured that between now and October 13, 2026, every special interest group will be attempting to muster allies to file comment letters, either supporting or opposing these changes.

What I am here to tell you is that you as an individual citizen can file exactly the same type of comment letter as these organizations, and let your opinion be known to the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau. Your comment letter will count with equal weight as any one of theirs.

Before you comment, be a good citizen and take the time to read the notice of proposed rule making for yourself. Here is the link. It does not take that long to read the abstract, and you will learn something about how your government works, which will make you a better citizen.

And then, between now and October 13, go to the online comments form for this rule here, and make your comment about how you would like the U.S. Census to be conducted in 2030.

Finally, just a little bit of coaching on how to structure a comment. First, all comments are public records, so do not put any personally identifiable information into your comment that you are not comfortable with the entire world being able to see. 

Second, comments have to be specific and ministerial in letting the government know exactly what it is you are commenting about, because the administrative process is to break comment letters into the various sections of the NPRM that the comment is targeting, and hand those comments to the team dealing with that particular section. For example,

“My name is _____________________, I am a citizen of the United States of America, and I am commenting as an individual. I am addressing sections 60.4 and 70.2 of the NPRM. I support the proposed language of section 60.4 as published. I further support the language of section 70.2 also as published. The reasons for my support are as follows.”

And then you can go on as much as you like about why you believe these sections should be adopted into Part 15 of the C.F.R. when the final rule on the 2030 Census is published later this year.

You can even do it as a group. List your names. Say, for example, "We are a group of friends who decided to comment together. We are all citizens of the United States…” then state your position. An even more fun option: create a quickie letter where all of you sign it, turn it into a PDF, and upload it along with your comment.

If you do not like these proposed changes and you are a U.S. citizen, you also have a perfect right to express your opinion in a comment letter opposing the proposed language. There is plenty of special interest group language out there articulating why the language of the proposed rule is unfair or illegal. Do be forewarned that the government is already aware of all of these arguments, and they decided to propose the rule in the manner they did anyway.

Hope you learned something. Stay tuned for more commentary on public policy.

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