Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 7109 has three components. Number one, it requires the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question on the decennial census questionnaire. Number two, the bill directs that this information be used to ensure fair representation by requiring only citizens be included in the apportionment base. Number three, it has a severability clause. Currently, the Census Bureau estimates the noncitizen population using data collected annually in the American Community Survey. We are going to call that ACS as I go, just to help you out. That data is not necessarily accurate. Further, there are no reports that asking a citizenship question on the ACS every year suppresses illegal, alien, or other noncitizen participation on the ACS questionnaire. The constitutionally iterated rationale for a decennial census is to apportion electoral districts for Congress. In Commerce v. New York, the Supreme Court noted that a host of various questions over the years that are tangential to apportionment had been included in the decennial censuses, ``race, sex, age, health, education, occupation, housing, and military service,'' and ``radio ownership, age at first marriage, and native tongue,'' et cetera. The citizenship question is no stranger to the Census questionnaire.…”