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  • 1.  The latest FRN on the ACS and PRCS..

    Posted 5 days ago
    See https://thecensusproject.org/2026/05/15/follow-up-frn-on-the-acs-and-puerto-rico-community-survey/

    Can someone who knows more, explain the ins and outs of what's going on here, particularly the omission in this FRN of the implications for SPD15?

    Thanks,
    Margo

    Margo Anderson





  • 2.  RE: The latest FRN on the ACS and PRCS..

    Posted 5 days ago
    Margo,
    Hansi Lo Wang is reporting that the Census Bureau has stopped plans to include the updated race and ethnicity question in the 2027 ACS. According to the regulatory supporting statement filed with OMB, the Bureau is citing a White House agency's delay of the deadline for agency SPD 15 compliance plans as the reason:
    "In light of OMB's March 27, 2026 announcement of a one-year extension to submit an Action Plan for compliance with the updates to Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, the Census Bureau will use the 1997 standards in the American Community Survey and the Puerto Rico Community Survey, and will use the delayed deadline to continue to develop implementation plans for the 2024 standards."
    This confirms that the omission in this week's 30-day FRN wasn't an oversight. OMB has now extended the deadline for agency action plans twice, most recently to March 28, 2027.


    ------------------------------
    Mark Mather
    Associate VP
    PRB
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: The latest FRN on the ACS and PRCS..

    Posted 5 days ago

    Thanks, Mark [and Hansi for being on the case]...

    This is very interesting.  Roughly the same thing happened in 2017-2018, when the incoming Trump administration issued an FRN extending the comment period for a new SPD version that had been in the works for several years.  OMB did not act on the revision.  The revision had been expected for the 2020 census [one question format, MENA category]. In late 2017, the bureau had to make decisions for the questionnaire to be used in the End to End Tests, and for the notification to Congress on the questions to be used in 2020. Because of OMB inaction, the bureau was bound to use the 1997 version of SPD15. 

    Margo Anderson






    Original Message


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