diff --git a/changelog_entry.yaml b/changelog_entry.yaml
index e69de29b..7cd50c59 100644
--- a/changelog_entry.yaml
+++ b/changelog_entry.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+- bump: patch
+  changes:
+    changed:
+    - Update PolicyEngine US to 1.454.1
diff --git a/policyengine_api/data/model_setup.py b/policyengine_api/data/model_setup.py
index 960e7de7..d546fb69 100644
--- a/policyengine_api/data/model_setup.py
+++ b/policyengine_api/data/model_setup.py
@@ -22,18 +22,18 @@
 
 def get_dataset_version(country_id: str) -> str | None:
     """
-    Get the latest dataset version for the specified country. If the country exists, but
-    no version is found, return None. If PolicyEngine does not publish data for the country,
-    raise a ValueError.
+    Get the dataset version for the specified country. If PolicyEngine does not
+    publish data for the country, raise a ValueError.
+
+    By returning None for all valid countries, we allow policyengine.py to use
+    whatever default dataset version it has available, without imposing version
+    validation constraints from the API layer.
     """
     match country_id:
         case "uk":
             return None
         case "us":
-            return get_latest_commit_tag(
-                repo_id="policyengine/policyengine-us-data",
-                repo_type="model",
-            )
+            return None
         case _:
             raise ValueError(f"Unknown country ID: {country_id}")
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7ff3f618..0762935a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
         "policyengine-ng==0.5.1",
         "policyengine-il==0.1.0",
         "policyengine_uk==2.39.0",
-        "policyengine_us==1.444.1",
+        "policyengine_us==1.454.1",
         "policyengine_core>=3.16.6",
         "policyengine>=0.3.0",
         "pydantic",