House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said Friday that his committee will take up a bill to add a citizenship question to the 2030 census.
The legislation would also limit the population count used for doling out seats in the U.S. House only to citizens.
Mr. Comer said his committee will debate the legislation Tuesday, as part of a broader package of bills altering government operations. Other measures include new reporting on union members doing union business on taxpayers’ dime, sunsetting spending that isn’t officially authorized by Congress and expanding the use of a mandatory probationary period for new federal hires.
“The House Oversight Committee is dedicated to ensuring that Americans’ voices are not diluted and that they can be employed in the federal workforce without undue burdens and other hindrances,” Mr. Comer said.
The citizenship measure would be a massive change, shifting some seats from immigrant-heavy states.
A report by the Congressional Research Service estimated that if only citizens had been counted for apportioning seats after the 2000 census, it would have subtracted six seats from California and one seat each from Florida, Texas and New York. Those nine seats would have been spread one each among nine states.
If only citizens were counted for apportioning seats after the 2010 census, California would have lost four seats and Texas, Florida and New York one apiece. Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Virginia would have each gained one seat.
The census used to ask a question about citizenship up until the 1950 census. It was dropped in 1960 but added back in for 1970 — though only on what was known as the “long form,” a longer set of questions that went to only about 1 in 6 homes.
The long form was eventually replaced with the American Community Survey, which is conducted on a rolling basis of a small number of homes.
President Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the main 2020 census, but it was blocked by the courts. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the final key decision, ruling that while a citizenship question would be legal, Mr. Trump cut too many procedural corners in trying to force the question into the 2020 count.
Democrats and immigrant rights groups are vehemently opposed to asking a citizenship question, arguing it would scare immigrants — including those here legally, and even those who have attained citizenship — from participating.
During a hearing earlier this month, John Yang, president of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said asking the question could be a threat to democracy. And Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Pennsylvania Democrat, said it’s a problem in the current environment when the administration is “actively engaged in hostility toward immigrants.”
But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said those claims were tough to square with the country’s long history of asking the question.
“We’ve done it for most of our history, everyone thinks we’re doing it, everyone thinks we should do it — except for Democrats in Congress,” he said during the hearing.
The bill would face a stiff climb if it reached the Senate, where Democrats have enough votes to mount a filibuster.
Given the political stakes involved — such as a shift in seats away from blue states — a filibuster would be almost guaranteed.
Republicans argue the 2020 census was “weaponized” by the Biden administration against Republicans.
Mr. Trump has called the 2020 count “rigged.”
Democrats say there’s no evidence to support those claims and pointed to a Government Accountability Office report that found the 2020 numbers were in line with previous iterations.
“The census was not rigged,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
