On the recordMarch 8, 2024
this amendment is exactly the sort of poison pill rider we all worked to keep out of this important bipartisan package. The census must be conducted in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical way to get the most accurate data possible, data that is used in countless programs that all of our communities rely on. This amendment adds detrimental new requirements that would inject politics into the census and have a chilling effect on the Census Bureau's constitutional responsibility to count the number of people in the United States, and, let's be clear, this amendment is probably unconstitutional. The Constitution requires apportionment by counting ``the whole number of persons in each State.'' The phrase ``whole number of persons'' is quite clear. So in addition to just being plain wrong, this amendment is fundamentally inconsistent with the clear language in our Constitution. I urge my colleagues to vote no. Vote on Motion to Concur with Amendment No. 1634 The question is on agreeing to the Hagerty motion to concur with amendment No. 1634.
