On June 22, the House Appropriations Committee voted out the Commerce Justice Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which includes $1.505 billion appropriated to the Census Bureau. You can read more about the appropriations update from the Census Project’s recent blog.
The committee report included specific recommendations concerning children and families as well as their recommendation on disaggregated data. You can read the exact language below.
The bill is likely to go to the House floor for consideration in the next few days. The Senate expects to release its version of the FY 2023 CJS bill by the end of July; advocates that would like to support parallel language in the Senate Appropriations Committee should reach out to members of the CJS subcommittee immediately.
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2023
CURRENT SURVEYS AND PROGRAMS
The Committee recommends $336,176,000 for Current Surveys and Programs, which is $36,176,000 above the fiscal year 2022 enacted amount.
High Frequency Data Program.—The Committee directs no less than the fiscal year 2022 enacted level for the High Frequency Data Program and encourages the Bureau to include frequent and timely measures of poverty and material hardship, including measures focused on child poverty and children and family wellbeing, as part of the continued expansion of the program. The Committee encourages the Bureau to consider measures of children and family wellbeing related to housing and food insecurity; access to child care and transportation; ability to balance work, educational, and caregiving responsibilities; ability to pay household expenses; family savings and debt; and ability to afford educational and extracurricular activities for children. Where appropriate, the Committee encourages the Bureau to include a breakdown of data by race and ethnicity, including for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) racial and ethnic subgroups and for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN). Additionally, the Committee directs the Bureau to report to the Committee not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act on these efforts.