Cite as: 505 U. S. 788 (1992)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
In setting forth guidelines for possible adjustment of the census results,13 the Secretary stated:
"The resulting counts must be of sufficient quality and level of detail to be usable for Congressional reapportionment and legislative redistricting, and for all other purposes and at all levels for which census counts are published. . . . "[T]here can be, for the population at all geographic levels at any one point in time, only one set of official government population figures." 55 Fed. Reg. 9840- 9841 (1990).
To ensure uniformity, the Secretary's count must establish the final census figures.14
13 The Court asserts that the possibility of census adjustments prior to the President's report to Congress supports its interpretation of the statute. See ante, at 797-798. On the contrary, the evidence the Court cites undermines its argument. The President's statement accompanying the transmittal of the 1990 census and apportionment figures to Congress explains, "The Department of Commerce is considering whether to correct these counts and will publish corrected counts, if any, not later than July 15, 1991." H. R. Doc. No. 102-18, p. 1 (1991). The statement underscores that it is the Secretary, not the President who determines the final census figures. That the Secretary will "publish" the corrected results also demonstrates that the Court is mistaken in likening the Secretary's report to a "tentative recommendation." Ante, at 798.
The possibility that the Secretary may modify the census figures, of course, cannot support the Court's view that the President's intervention deprives the Secretary's action of finality. The possibility of correction would mean, at most, that appellees' challenge was not ripe until the Secretary's eventual announcement that he would not adjust the census. See 56 Fed. Reg. 33582 (1991). Similarly, even if it were the President's report to Congress that signaled the end of a census-adjustment process, that would be relevant only in determining when a challenge is ripe, not whether the Secretary's report is "final agency action."
14 Even in the Court's view, the Secretary's report of census information to recipients other than the President would certainly constitute "final agency action." The Court's decision thus appears to amount to a pleading requirement. To avoid the bar to APA review that the Court imposes
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