On the recordJune 19, 2019
I appreciate the opportunity to take up amendment No. 9. What it does is, it addresses the circumstances of the underlying bill and strikes lines 14 through 18. Lines 14 through 18, the effect of that language is that it prohibits the U.S. Census from asking the question as to whether a respondent to the Census is a citizen of the United States. There are people who have political reasons to want to prohibit asking that question, but this great Nation of the United States of America has an obligation to know what percentage of the people within the United States, all of whom will be counted in this Census--the qualifier to be counted in the Census of the United States is be a Homo sapien, and that is all. So we have several categories: We have categories of U.S. citizens who need to be counted; we have categories of lawful permanent residents who need to be counted; we have categories of visa holders who will be counted; and we have illegal aliens who also will be counted. I wanted our Commerce Secretary to go further and to count each of these categories separately and ask the question: If you are a citizen, say so; if you are a noncitizen, but you are lawfully present in America, tell us by what legal authority you are; and if you are unlawfully present, give us that answer, too, so we can look at the whole cross section of the 30 million Americans that we are and understand the configuration of our people.…
