LWVUS joins letter expressing concern over indefinite delay on the release of ACS data and urging the Department of Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, to release the data from the survey.
September 4, 2026
The Honorable Howard Lutnick Secretary
Department of Commerce Washington, D.C. 20230
Dear Secretary Lutnick,
As members and affiliates of The Census Project coalition, we are writing to express our concerns about an indefinite delay in the release of data from the American Community Survey (ACS) that the Census Bureau announced on August 4, 2026.1
The Census Project is a broad coalition comprised of over 800 national, state, and local organizations representing thousands of data users and census stakeholders in the public, private, non-profit, and research sectors. Our members depend on reliable, high-quality census data to analyze changing U.S. economic and demographic trends. ACS data are especially critical to their planning, investment decisions, market strategies, and public services, for example, on behalf of businesses, state and local governments, consumers, veterans, and children.
The release of the 2025 1-year ACS estimates is being delayed as a direct result of a new order that the Department of Commerce issued in June.2 As you know, this order, “Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products” (DAO 216-26), limits the types of privacy protection methods that the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis can use for their data products. By barring the use of “noise infusion” methods, the family of modern privacy protection techniques that federal statistical agencies have used for years, the Census Bureau is being forced to rework their approaches to safeguarding the confidentiality of the sensitive data they have on every person, household, and business in the United States.
We urge the Department of Commerce to work with the Census Bureau to resolve the issues affecting the scheduled release of the 1-year ACS estimates. Timely release of ACS data is imperative if communities, service providers, policymakers, businesses and others are expected to responsibly assess the public’s needs, allocate taxpayer dollars, and make informed decisions.
Thank you for considering our views.
Sincerely,
National
Academic Pediatric Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Anthropological Association
American Educational Research Association
American Pediatric Society
American Statistical Association
Americans for Indian Opportunity
Arab American Institute (AAI)
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF)
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote)
Associated General Contractors of America
Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs
Association of Population Centers
Association of Public Data Users
Census Quality Reinforcement Task Force
Claritas
Coalition on Human Needs
Common Cause
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics
Data Rescue Project
Decision Demographics, LLC
Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA)
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
Fair Count
Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS)
Funders' Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP) and Funders' Committee Census Initiative (FCCI)
FuturePlan Consulting, LLC
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families
Geospatial Professional Network (formerly URISA)
Gerontological Society of America
ICPSR, The Data Consortium
Insights Association
Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP)
IPUMS
League of Women Voters of the United States
Meals on Wheels America
Movement Advancement Project
NALEO Educational Fund
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum
National Association for Business Economics (NABE)
National Association of Counties
National Association of Development Organizations
National Association of Home Builders
National Community Development Association
National Congress of American Indians
National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA)
National Education Association
National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC)
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Restaurant Association
National Women's Law Center
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Nielsen
Pediatric Policy Council
Population Association of America
Population Reference Bureau
Prison Policy Initiative
Project On Government Oversight
Research Allies for Lifelong Learning
Simply Put
Society for Pediatric Research
South Asian Public Health Association (SAPHA)
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
UNITED SIKHS
State-Level
The Grove Foundation CA
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families AR
California - U.S. Census Bureau Federal-State Co-operative for Population Estimates and for Population Projections CA
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network CA
Civic Nebraska NE
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families NY
Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy & Research Organization (CLLARO) CO
Common Cause MN MN
COOLJC Region 8 SJEREC SC
Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage MN
Equality California
Every Texan
Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda
Indivisible Hawaii Statewide Network
Kansas Action for Children
MACS 2030 - Minnesotans for the ACS and 2030 Census
Maine Children's Alliance
Merck Family Fund
Michigan League for Public Policy
Minnesota Budget Project
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
Minnesota Council on Foundations
Missouri Foundation for Health
N.Y. Elections, Census & Redistricting Institute (at New York Law School)
Our Children Oregon
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
Rhode Island KIDS COUNT RLS Demographics, Inc.
Silver State Equality Voices for Virginia's Children
Local/City/Regional
Alameda County Health, Public Health Department
Center for Urban Research,
CUNY Graduate Center
Data You Can Use
FreshAir Collective LLC
Maxfield Research & Consulting
Northeast Wisconsin Data Exchange
Northspan Group, Inc.
REACH Healthcare Foundation
Twin Cities Research Group
VOICE Buffalo
cc Acting Director George Cook
1Census Bureau Releases Schedule for Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Statistics and Updates About the American Community Survey Estimates. August 4, 2026. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2026/iphi-acs-media-advisory.html 2Per the Aug. 4 press release, "The release date for the 2025 ACS 1-year estimates is being determined. The Census Bureau is assessing the impact of the new departmental administrative order (DAO), Department of Commerce Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products, and seeking DAO-compliant solutions to allow the release of the ACS 1-year tables later this year."