House Passes ‘Electoral Integrity’ Bill to Restore Citizenship Question to Census
James Comer mentioned Congress is taking steps to ‘proactively shield a good electoral course of.’
The Home of Representatives voted on Wednesday to move a measure that may add a citizenship query to the subsequent U.S. census, as a part of the most recent efforts by conservatives to “shield America’s democracy and electoral integrity.”
It handed in a vote of 206-202 alongside occasion traces.
The measure would direct the Census Bureau so as to add a query to the once-a-decade census asking whether or not or not the respondent is a citizen of the US. It asks that solely residents be thought-about when figuring out what number of lawmakers every state will get within the Home of Representatives, in addition to what number of Electoral Faculty votes every of the 50 states receives.
The measure creates new reporting necessities for knowledge gathered from the citizenship query, noting that “the citizenship make-up of the inhabitants in the US is a primary knowledge level that must be out there to U.S. policymakers, and the decennial census questionnaire is the easiest way to acquire such detailed data on citizenship standing.”
The following decennial census is ready to happen in 2030.
‘Alarming Undermining of American Democracy’
Mr. Edwards cited a 2019 research by the Middle for Immigration Research, which estimated that unlawful immigrants and non-citizens, who haven’t naturalized and don’t have the best to vote, impression the distribution of 26 seats within the Home.
The lawmaker mentioned his invoice would “lastly tackle this alarming undermining of American democracy” whereas serving to to make sure electoral integrity.
“Enacting this laws into regulation is vitally essential to making sure that the American individuals obtain truthful illustration in Congress and that they, and solely they, decide the outcomes of presidential elections,” Mr. Edwards mentioned.
Conservatives welcomed the measure on Wednesday. Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) mentioned in a press release after the vote, “We should always not reward states and cities that violate federal immigration legal guidelines and keep sanctuary insurance policies with elevated Congressional illustration.”
“Within the midst of a disaster that’s setting data for unlawful border crossings, Congress is at the moment taking steps to proactively shield a good electoral course of,” Mr. Comer mentioned in a press release.
Mr. Comer mentioned the brand new invoice “provides a easy citizenship query to the decennial census questionnaire to make sure correct data, and gives that solely residents are counted for apportionment of seats within the Home of Representatives and Electoral Faculty votes.”
“Americans’ federal illustration must be decided by Americans solely,” the Republican added.
White Home ‘Strongly Opposes’ Invoice
Nonetheless, civil rights teams, Democrats, and the White Home rapidly criticized the invoice–which is unlikely to move the Democratic-controlled Senate–with many questioning its legality below U.S. regulation.
The measure would additionally improve the price of conducting the census and make it harder to acquire correct knowledge, the administration mentioned.
“It will additionally violate the Fourteenth Modification of the Structure, which requires that the variety of seats within the Home of Representatives ‘be apportioned among the many a number of States in line with their respective numbers, counting the entire variety of individuals in every State,’” the administration added.
This isn’t the primary time Republicans have tried so as to add the citizenship query to the census. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross tried to take action through the 2020 Census below President Donald Trump.
That try was subsequently blocked by the Supreme Courtroom.
The Related Press contributed to this report.