Census Bureau seeks removal of gender-identity questions from its pulse survey and drops SOGI expansion plans

The Census Bureau asked OMB on February 14, 2025 for permission to delete gender-identity questions from the successor to the Household Pulse Survey, citing EO 14168; the relaunched Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey (HTOPS), fielded beginning April 2025, omits gender-identity measures. Former Census director Robert Santos reported the Bureau had stopped work on SOGI data products, and plans to test/add sexual orientation and gender identity questions to the American Community Survey (targeted for 2027) were abandoned. Removals ultimately touched at least four Census Bureau collections. (See also section 12.)