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# History

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### Legislation

### Also in this Section:

                          - Legislation 1989 - Present
                          - Legislation 1974 - 1983
                          - Legislation 1942 - 1954
                          - Legislation 1902 - 1941
                          - Legislation 1830 - 1899
                          - Legislation 1789 - 1820
                          - House Committee on the Census (1901-1946)
                          - Senate Committees on the Census (1878-1921)

## Legislation 1902 - 1941

                        - An Act to Provide for a Permanent Census Office (March 6, 1902)  Download PDF   [684KB PDF]                           - Makes the temporary census office a permanent bureau within the Department of the Interior.  Authorized a census of manufactures to be conducted in 1905 and every five years thereafter, an annual survey of cotton production, and other economic censuses.
                        - Thirteenth Census Act (July 2, 1909) (P.L. 61-2)  Download PDF  [1.15MB PDF]                           - Authorizing legislation for the 1910 and subsequent censuses.  Restricted inquiries to questions having to do with population, agriculture, manufactures, mines, and quarries.
                        - The Act Providing for the Fourteenth Census (March 3, 1919) (P.L. 65-325)  Download PDF  [1.15MB PDF]                           - Authorizing legislation for the 1920 census of population, agriculture, manufactures, forestry, forest products, and mines and quarries.
                        -  The Act Providing for the Fifteenth Census and for the Apportionment of Representatives in Congress (June 18, 1929) (P.L. 71-12)  Download PDF   [840KB PDF]                           - Authorizing legislation for the 1930 census and corresponding reapportionment of the House of Representatives.  The census and reapportionment are to be automatic under the 1929 law unless a subsequent census or reapportionment statute is enacted into law.
                        - An Act to Provide for a National Census of Housing (August 11, 1939) (P.L. 76-385)  Download PDF   [51.7KB PDF]                           - Authorizes a national census to provide "information concerning the number, characteristics (including utilities and equipment), and geographical distribution of dwelling structures" to be taken in conjunction with the 1940 decennial census.
                        - Secretarial Order 111 (May 1, 1941)  Download PDF   [88KB PDF]                           - Transfers the authority to collect foreign trade statistics from the Division of Foreign Trade Statistics of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to the Bureau of the Census.
                        - An Act to Provide for Apportioning Representatives in Congress (November 15, 1941) (P.L. 77-291)  Download PDF   [188KB PDF]                           - Requires that House seats be reapportioned using the equal proportions method.

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