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 Legislation always has had an important influence on the Census Bureau’s programs for the collection of data and its presentation of those data for each component geographic entity. Throughout the 1980s, for instance, Title 13 of the United States Code, its amendments, and a number of court decisions shaped the Census Bureau’s priorities, plans, operations, and data presentations for the 1990 census. Public Law 94-171, passed by the Congress in 1975 and embodied in Title 13, requires that the Census Bureau release small-area population data within one year after Census Day for purposes of legislative redistricting. Meeting the intent of this legislation influenced the Census Bureau to increase the number of areas for which it tabulated data by census block for the 1980 census and to assign block numbers to the entire Nation for the 1990 census. It also made it possible to provide decennial census data tabulated by voting district (election precinct) in both the 1980 and the 1990 censuses.

The needs of the Congress and other Federal agencies have a major influence on the Census Bureau’s data collection activities. Federal law often requires the use of Census Bureau data in specific programs, projects, studies, investigations, analyses, and reports. To ensure meeting the data needs of the affected agencies, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), at the request of the Census Bureau, organized the Federal Agency Council (FAC) in 1974. From the FAC, which was active in the precensus planning periods for both the 1980 and the 1990 decennial censuses, the Census Bureau obtained information about the types of geographic entities that Federal agencies needed for carrying out their programs. In preparation for the next decennial census of population and housing, the OMB and the Census Bureau are conducting a survey of the Federal agency 2000 census data content requirements. Preliminary results on geographic requirements are summarized in and. 2-10Geographic Overview