Trump officials propose sweeping changes to the census that would reshape voting maps
The Trump administration has proposed significant changes to the 2030 U.S. census, including the exclusion of non-citizens from population counts and the removal of questions regarding race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. These changes could fundamentally alter congressional representation, electoral college votes, and the distribution of federal funding.
Why it matters
The census is the foundation for U.S. political representation and resource allocation; altering its methodology could have profound, long-term impacts on civil rights and democratic equity.
The Trump administration is proposing major changes to how the U.S. government produces census results for the next national head count in 2030.
While the plan faces likely legal challenges, such changes would affect the population numbers used to determine each state's share of representatives in Congress and votes in the Electoral College, redraw maps of voting districts for all levels of government and distribute federal funding for public services.
The administration's proposal , which was released online Wednesday, calls for an unprecedented exclusion of non-U.S. citizens without a green card from a key set of 2030 census results that the 14th Amendment says must include the "whole number of persons in each state."
Trump officials are also proposing to stop using the census to ask about people's race and ethnicity, a topic that the national tally has included since the first count in 1790 .
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