COUNT Act
Sponsored By: Representative Pfluger
Introduced
Summary
Require a complete federal count of citizens, lawful residents, and unauthorized immigrants. The COUNT Act would push the Census Bureau to use federal administrative records and to pursue a citizenship question on the 2030 census.
Show full summary
- Residents and families: The bill would aim to establish citizenship status for 100% of the U.S. population by linking administrative records, to provide more complete citizenship data to inform immigration policy.
- Federal agencies and states: It would direct each agency to give the Department of Commerce maximum assistance and create a Census-led interagency working group. Commerce would seek access to seven specific record streams, including USCIS lawful permanent resident and naturalization files, Customs arrival/departure data, passport applications, Social Security Master Beneficiary Records, and Medicaid and CHIP records, and report annually which States refuse to comply.
- Privacy and researchers: The bill would bar the Census Bureau from using the differential privacy process six months after enactment and require the Director to publish public guidance explaining how individual responses will be protected without that method.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 0 costs, 2 mixed.
Census to collect more citizenship data
If enacted, the Census Bureau would lead a federal working group to get more records for the count. Federal agencies would have to share, as allowed by law, named files like green card and naturalization records, student visas, travel entry/exit data, refugee and asylum records, passport applications, Social Security benefit files, and Medicaid and CHIP data. The goal would be records that help confirm citizenship status for 100% of people. The Secretary of Commerce would start steps to add a citizenship question to the 2030 census and collect citizenship data in other surveys, and expand the American Community Survey. The Secretary would report to Congress each year on progress, including which States refuse to share records.
Census would stop using differential privacy
Starting 6 months after enactment, the Census Bureau would be barred from using the differential privacy process. The Census Director would have to publish how individual responses will be kept private without it. This could make some statistics more detailed but could raise privacy risks.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Pfluger
TX • R
Cosponsors
Edwards
NC • R
Sponsored 9/4/2025
Luna
FL • R
Sponsored 9/4/2025
Collins
GA • R
Sponsored 9/4/2025
Van Duyne
TX • R
Sponsored 9/4/2025
Dunn (FL)
FL • R
Sponsored 9/4/2025
Baird
IN • R
Sponsored 9/8/2025
Rulli
OH • R
Sponsored 9/15/2025
Moore (AL)
AL • R
Sponsored 10/17/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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