Government operations and workforce

Executive Order 13986: Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census

President: Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Required apportionment to use the total resident population determined by the census without excluding people based on immigration status.

Status: Revoked.

Is Executive Order 13986 still in effect? No. Executive Order 14148, signed January 20, 2025, expressly revoked EO 13986 in section 2(b). Commerce had already delivered the 2020 apportionment counts on April 26, 2021. Revocation of this presidential instruction did not itself repeal the census statutes or establish that earlier revoked directives automatically returned. EO 14148, section 2(b).

A stylized U.S. map filled with homes and people connects to a government building.
Census representation, illustrated symbolically; the map and figures are not census data or an apportionment calculation. EO Explained · site-generated editorial illustration · not documentary evidence.

What does Executive Order 13986 do?

The Commerce Secretary was directed to provide the census apportionment tabulation using total persons for the President to transmit to Congress.

Administration position: The order’s findings and policy rationale were the Biden administration’s positions. This guide distinguishes them from implementation records and judicial rulings.

Sections 3 and 4 gave the Commerce Secretary three linked responsibilities: report the whole resident population of each state for House apportionment, use whole-population tabulations for state redistricting reports, and ensure that information supplied to the President and states was accurate and lawful. Immigration status was not to exclude a usual resident from those tabulations. These were instructions about the population base and data quality, not a grant of immigration status or an order drawing district boundaries.

Section 5 expressly revoked EO 13880 and the July 21, 2020 presidential memorandum that had sought to exclude people without lawful immigration status from the apportionment base. The order supplied no new numerical delivery deadline. Existing statutory reporting steps and later actual delivery dates are separate questions.

Signed order, operative sections.

SignedJanuary 20, 2021
Lead officialsCommerce Secretary and Census Bureau
Express timingImmediate implementation for 2020 apportionment

Before and after

Before the order

A 2020 presidential memorandum had sought to exclude some undocumented residents from the apportionment base, generating litigation that did not produce a merits ruling.

After the order

The Census Bureau supplied total-population figures and the President transmitted 2020 apportionment results; EO 14148 later revoked this order after its core task was complete.

For practical use, the official apportionment release and redistricting release are distinct resources. The first concerns the distribution of House seats among states; the latter supplies local-area population counts for drawing districts. Neither publication is an individual immigration-status determination. Apportionment record; Redistricting data release.

Who had to do what

Original directions and timing, distinct from later implementation
Agency or officialDirectionTiming
Commerce Secretary, through the Census BureauReport total population by state to the President, counting usual residents without regard to immigration status.When preparing the report under 13 U.S.C. 141(b); section 3 sets no new numerical deadline.
Commerce SecretaryUse whole-resident-population tabulations in reports to state governors and the authorities responsible for legislative apportionment or districting.When providing reports under 13 U.S.C. 141(c); section 3 sets no new numerical deadline.
Commerce SecretaryTake necessary lawful steps to ensure the population information supplied to the President and states is accurate and complies with applicable law.As information is prepared and supplied; no separate deadline in section 4.

Original signed duties and timing.

What happened next

Biden signed EO 13986, including express revocation of EO 13880 and the July 21, 2020 memorandum. Signed order.

The order was published at 86 FR 7015. Federal Register publication.

Commerce delivered the population counts for apportioning House seats to President Biden. This delivery date was an implementation event, not a new deadline written in EO 13986. Census delivery record.

Census released detailed Public Law 94-171 redistricting statistics for states and smaller areas, down to the block level. Census redistricting release.

EO 14148 section 2(b) expressly revoked EO 13986. Signed revocation.