(RepublicanPress.org) – The first census in the United States occurred in 1970, which counted the population overall and noted certain information about the people who live in different counties. The last census was taken in 2020, which asked how many people were living in the home, the type of home, contact information, and each person’s race.
On May 8, the House passed the Equal Representation Act (HR 7109) by a vote of 206 to 202, along party lines. If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the measure will add a check box to the next census asking if each member of the household is a US citizen.
The bill also requires the Department of Commerce to tally the numbers of citizens and noncitizens per state and make that information public. The measure also states that census numbers determining how many people require representation per state in Congress only include citizens.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) applauded the bill’s passage by the House, stating the Biden administration has caused the “worst border crisis in American history” and HR 7109 was one step to “proactively protect a fair electoral process.” Comer said the proposed law ensures that only US citizens are represented in the House and by the Electoral College.
The lawmaker who introduced the bill, Representative Chuck Edwards (R-NC), said during the bill’s debate that “only citizens should be counted for apportionment purposes.” He reasoned that the noncitizen population was skewing the numbers in certain areas of the country because the demographic was not evenly distributed. Former President Donald Trump already tried to get the question added to the 2020 census, but the Supreme Court stopped him.
Representative Nanette Barragan (D-CA) said if the measure becomes law, the requirement would rob “tens of millions of immigrants” of their “right to representation.” She added that “its accuracy would be destroyed.”
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