The Trump Administration’s Catastrophic Census Proposal

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

The Trump administration recently announced significant changes to the 2026 Operational Test for the 2030 Census. If implemented, the changes would undermine the utility of what should be a broad, multi-site rehearsal of census operations, potentially compromising the validity of the 2030 Census results. The changes transform the test from a safeguard into a source of additional risk and uncertainty.

The sweeping changes to the Operational Test include...