A bipartisan group of lawmakers has attempted to strike a deal that would require the Census Bureau to start collecting personal information on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.

Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and 76 other members of Congress sent a letter to the House Appropriations commerce, justice and science subcommittee requesting the panel include language in its fiscal 2017 funding bill that would force the Census Bureau to produce statistics on LGBT members through the decennial census and the annual American Community Survey.

"The committee believes that the availability of such data on the size, location and circumstances of the LGBT population would be useful to policymakers and researchers. Therefore, the committee urges the bureau to study the feasibility of expanding data collection on the LGBT population in its future federal population surveys and to report to the committee within 180 days on its plans," the group wrote in the letter to subcommittee Chairman John Culberson, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Mike Honda, D-Calif.

Despite the 2013 move to include the marital status of same-sex couples in the American Community Survey, neither of the two surveys ask individuals about their sexual orientation or gender identity. The lawmakers said by including these types of questions in future surveys, lawmakers will be able to more appropriately fund states and other localities based on an area's demographics.