Senate blocks census US-citizenship question. So much for our American Representative Democracy system. What a travesty!
AP | Nov. 5, 2009
Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year’s census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen. The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state.
Critics said Vitter’s plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it’s long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens. A separate survey already collects the data.
The plan fell after a 60-39 procedural vote made it ineligible for attachment to a bill funding the census.
It is unfortunate that the U.S. Senate has blocked a Republican attempt to require next year’s census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen. This proposal was designed to exclude immigrants from the population totals used to figure the number of representatives allowed for each state.
Consequently, people who are not U.S. citizens — and who cannot vote — will be counted. This, in effect, will make the number of voters in each state appear to be larger than it actually is, since non-U.S. citizens cannot vote. This, in turn, means that there are more U.S. Representatives from each state than there should be.