Sponsor
John Neely Kennedy
Senator · R-LA
Official title: Require the Bureau of the Census, in measuring poverty, to incorporate the distributional analysis of household income used by the Congressional Budget Office, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 2, 2026 by John Neely Kennedy · Last progress February 2, 2026
Senator · R-LA
Requires the Census Bureau to adopt a CBO-based poverty/income measurement, backcast historical series, require agency data sharing, and report data-quality and measurement comparisons to Congress.
The bill creates more comprehensive, standardized income and poverty statistics that can improve policymaking and targeting, but it raises privacy risks, administrative costs, and the potential for altered poverty portrayals that could affect program eligibility and public perceptions.
Policymakers, federal/state agencies, and researchers will get standardized, reconciled historical and future income, transfer, and inequality statistics, improving evidence for policy decisions and evaluation.
Low-income families and benefit recipients will be counted more comprehensively because many in‑kind and non‑wage benefits (SNAP, school meals, WIC, housing vouchers, LIHEAP, refundable credits) are explicitly treated as government transfer payments in income measures.
Tax policymakers and revenue analysts will have clearer, reconciled inputs (including explicit definitions of refundable credits and multiple tax types), supporting better tax policy and revenue estimation.
Taxpayers and survey respondents face heightened privacy risks because expanded cross‑agency access (including IRS return information) and broader data linking raise confidentiality and misuse concerns.
State, local, and federal agencies — and ultimately taxpayers — will face increased administrative and analytical burdens and costs to reconcile diverse data sources and to locate/provide requested data within tight timelines.
Low‑income households may appear 'richer' on paper because in‑kind and means‑tested benefits are included in income measures, which could alter perceived needs, eligibility analyses, and public perceptions of poverty.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Census Bureau to adopt and apply a new poverty/income measurement method based on a specific Congressional Budget Office (CBO) approach, defines key income terms, mandates data-sharing from federal, state, and local agencies, and requires reports to Congress on data quality and measurement impacts. The Director of the Census must implement the methodology within one year, produce both forward-looking and historical recalculations, and follow confidentiality protections with criminal penalties for unlawful disclosures.