Trump officials review census racial category changes : NPR

A Trump administration official on Friday signaled a potential rollback of the policy. racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 Census and other future forms of the federal government.

Proponents of these categories fear that any last-minute changes to the US government program Race and Ethnicity Data Standards could harm the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redistricting, civil rights protections, and policy development.

These standards were last revised in 2024 under the Biden administration, after Census Bureau Study and public discussion.

The White House agency at the time approved, among other changes, new checkboxes for “Middle Eastern or North African” and “Hispanic or Latino” under the “Hispanic or Latino” section. reformatted question which asks survey participants, “What is your race and/or ethnicity?” The changes also require the federal government to stop automatically categorizing people who identify as Middle Eastern or North African groups like white.

But at Friday's meeting of the Council of Professional Associations for Federal Statistics in Washington, D.C., the chief statistician of the White House Office of Management and Budget said the Trump administration had begun a new review of those standards and how the 2024 amendments were approved.

“We are still at the very beginning of the review. And this, again, does not predetermine any particular outcome. I think we just wanted to be able to look at the process and decide what we want to accomplish on a number of these issues,” Mark Calabria said. “I certainly heard a wide range of opinions in the administration. Therefore, it is too early to say how we will end up.”

OMB's press office did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.

Calabria's comments were the first public confirmation that Trump officials are considering not using the latest changes to racial and ethnic categories and other amendments. They come against the backdrop of the administration attack on diversity, equity and inclusion programspush to stop production data that could protect the rights of transgender people And threats to the reliability of federal statistics.

In September OMB said these Biden-era amendments “continue to apply” as it announced a six-month extension to the 2029 deadline for federal agencies to follow new standards when collecting data on race and ethnicity.

Calabria said the delay gave agencies more time to implement the changes “while we review.”

First Trump administration stopped the process for revising racial and ethnic data standards for the 2020 Census.

Political agenda of Project 2025 The release, from The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank, called on the Republican administration to “carefully consider any changes” to the census' race and ethnicity questions due to “conservatives' concerns that data under the Biden administration's proposals could be skewed to support progressive policy agendas.”

However, proponents of change view the new categories and other changes as long-needed updates that better reflect people's identities.

“What is at stake is a more accurate and deeper understanding of the communities that make up our country,” says Meta Anand, senior director for Census and Data Equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It doesn’t bother me as long as it’s looked at in an honest attempt to understand what the process was. My concern is if this is for a predetermined outcome, which is to ignore the entire process that was done in a very transparent manner.”

Edited by Benjamin Swasey