COUNT Act
The COUNT Act would require the Department of Commerce and multiple federal agencies to actively collect and share information to determine citizenship status for all individuals residing in the United States, including citizens, noncitizens, and illegal aliens. It directs agencies to provide access to a broad set of administrative records (from DHS, DOS, SSA, HHS, and others) to help establish citizenship status, and it creates an interagency working group led by the Census Bureau to maximize the use of administrative data for this purpose, with the goal of obtaining citizenship status data for the entire population. The bill also pushes for adding a citizenship question to the 2030 decennial census and expanding citizenship data collection in the American Community Survey (ACS), while requiring State record access and annual reporting on state cooperation. It would end the use of differential privacy in Census data processing six months after enactment, requiring new privacy guidance in its absence.
Key Points
- 1Purpose and scope: Establishes a nationwide effort to generate complete data on the number of citizens, noncitizens, and illegal aliens in the United States to inform immigration policy and policymaking.
- 2Data access and sources: Requires federal agencies to provide maximum assistance and access to a wide range of administrative records (e.g., DHS USCIS and ICE files, passport data, visa data, refugee/asylum processing data, SSA Master Beneficiary Records, and CMS Medicaid/CHIP data).
- 3Interagency working group: Creates a Census-led, cross-agency group to coordinate and maximize administrative-record data use for citizenship status, with agency heads appointing representatives.
- 4Census and ACS expansion: Directs the Commerce Secretary to pursue a citizenship question on the 2030 census and to broaden citizenship data collection in the ACS and other Census surveys.
- 5Privacy approach and state cooperation: Ends differential privacy protections for Census data six months after enactment and requires annual reporting on state cooperation and access to state records.