A Fair and Accurate Census Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this bill. The intention of this bill is clear: It is to prevent a future Republican President from adding a citizenship question to the United States Census.

And yet the question of citizenship was first offered by President Thomas Jefferson in 1800; and from its introduction in the Census of 1820 through 1950, that question was included on every Census.

Now, when you think about the language of the Constitution itself, it gives Congress the authority to call a Census to enumerate the population. And for what was the purpose? The main purpose, of course, was for apportionment, for representation of the citizens of the United States.

The reality, though, is it has become far more than that, and that seems to be permissible within certain limits of the Constitution itself.

Since 1950, there have been additional Federal surveys that have included some form of the question of citizenship, not necessarily included in the Census itself.

But in the recent case cited by Chairwoman Maloney just moments ago, where she said that they threw it out and said you can't ask that question, it was not because of the question. In fact, the Supreme Court specifically said in Department of Commerce v. New York that Congress has the right to ask that question, and the Department of Commerce has the authority to include the question of citizenship. The decision states, ``The enumeration clause permits Congress, and by extension the Secretary, to inquire about citizenship on the questionnaire.''

That rationale does not work from the chairwoman. I realize a lot of my colleagues don't realize and understand and appreciate what is happening on our southern border. From October of last year through the end of July, Border Patrol has reported nearly 2 million encounters along our southern border, that does not include who entered and have gotten away.

Nearly a quarter of the encounters feature a person who had at least one prior encounter in the past 12 months. We, as policymakers, if we are going to get policy and data, which was just alluded to by Mr. Connolly, we should have some of the most important data, and that is who is in this country illegally and who is a citizen and who is not.

Whether someone is a citizen is an important datapoint that should be recorded on the Census and on other Federal surveys. It is well past time that Congress direct the Census Bureau to ask this question like it did for over 100 years.

This bill is, instead, an attempt to cynically block the inclusion of the citizenship question on the Census and seeks to insulate career staff at the Census Bureau from any accountability. This is not--this is not a good bill.

This bill does not help us get to where we need to get in terms of understanding what is going on in this country so we can make policy that is good.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, this bill does not address Congressional apportionment. It is about making the Census fair and accurate.

Nevertheless, our Census count has never been limited based on citizenship and there is no doubt that doing so would violate the Constitution. The 14th Amendment says seats in Congress are based on the whole number of persons in each State. Persons, not citizens.

Last Congress, I chaired a hearing with four former Census directors who served under both Democrats and Republicans. All four agreed that excluding undocumented immigrants from the apportionment count violated the Constitution. That is also the position taken by previous administrations, including under Republican Presidents.

In fact, my committee recently uncovered a draft internal legal memo from the Trump administration about the citizenship question. That memo admitted that using citizenship data to exclude immigrants from the apportionment counts would violate, ``over 200 years of precedent.'' That damning language was removed from the final memo used to push the citizenship question.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis).

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairwoman for her outstanding leadership of this committee. It has been a pleasure to serve with you and under you and know that your interests go far beyond anything that I have heard this evening.

As a matter of fact, the Census is very important for far more reasons than just apportionment or just for looking at one issue or looking at immigration. I guess I have been involved in Census-taking for about 40 years, and every 10 years we go through this angst in my community, whether or not we are going to get a fair and accurate count, whether or not the people who are there are going to be counted so that resources which come as a result will flow back to the area.

Well, that has not happened. And even after the expressions of the last round, it was determined that there were undercounts, that there were people missed. And so everything that we can do to try and make sure that the Census taken is fair, accurate, and comprehensive, we need to do that.

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