The Trump administration removed language banning political interference from the scientific integrity policy for the Commerce Department, the parent agency of the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which are headquartered in Suitland, Md.
Michael Zamora/NPR
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The reliability of Census Bureau information during the Trump administration is coming under question again.
This month, the bureau's parent agency, the Commerce Department, quietly cut language banning political interference from the department's scientific integrity policy, NPR has learned.
The removal was part of an unannounced policy revision dated Aug. 19 — the day after the bureau issued a highly unusual report with claims about non-U.S. citizen voting from a team that, as NPR previously reported, has ties to a think tank founded by officials from President Trump's first administration.
The revised scientific integrity policy applies to all agencies under the Commerce Department, including the weather data-providing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Economic Analysis that's known for tracking the country's gross domestic product.
But the change comes amid growing concerns from former Census Bureau officials and other data experts about political interference at the U.S. government's largest statistical agency, as it prepares for the 2030 national head count that's set to be used to redistribute political representation and federal funding to communities for the next decade.
The Commerce Department updated its policy for promoting a "culture of scientific integrity" in January 2025, days before Trump's second inauguration.
The 2025 version included bans on attempts to shape or interfere in data collection, statistical analysis and other scientific activities "against well-accepted scientific methods and theories or without scientific justification."
The department's policy, the 2025 version said, involves ensuring scientific findings at its agencies "are not suppressed, delayed, or altered for political purposes and are not subjected to inappropriate influence," as well as making sure there's "independent review of facilities, methodologies, and other scientific activities as appropriate to ensure scientific integrity."
That language is missing, however, in the Trump administration's revision of the policy, according to an NPR analysis of text posted on the Commerce Department's website.
And while the revision adopts a definition for "scientific integrity" that is similar to the previous version, it no longer says that "protection from inappropriate influence" is among the "hallmarks of scientific integrity."
Spokespeople for the Commerce Department and Census Bureau did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.
The revised scientific integrity policy has heightened concerns among former Census Bureau officials and other data experts that the Trump administration is making moves to weaponize the statistical agency.
While most of the public may not be familiar with the policy, Nancy Potok, a former deputy director at the bureau who has also served at the Commerce Department, sees the removed language as "a major change that eliminates the guardrails against political interference in the statistical and scientific data products of the department."
Potok has been tracking how statistical agencies have been responding to a years-long, bipartisan effort to make sure the federal government produces trustworthy information. That included a 2018 law that led to a rule known among federal data experts as the "Trust Regulation." The rule requires that statistical agencies "determine the policies and practices that ensure objectivity of its statistical activities" and produce data that is "impartial and free from undue influence and the appearance of undue influence."
