Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) introduced a bill to initiate a snap census that counts only American citizens.
The brief bill, dubbed the “Correct the Count Act,” directs the secretary of Commerce to immediately conduct a census that will “count in any tabulation of population only individuals who are citizens of the United States.”
The legislation introduced on Tuesday comes as redistricting battles emerge across the country.
Republicans in Texas are moving to redraw congressional maps that would give their party a stronger change of netting more seats. Republicans argue that congressional apportionment to states based on population figures from the Census give Democrats an advantage because the census counts all people, not just American citizens.
It also comes as Trump this week said he was directing the Department of Commerce to begin work on a new census that does not count migrants in the U.S. illegally.
“The American right to vote is being tainted by criminal aliens who inflate the populations of blue states,” Fine said in a statement to The Hill.
“President Trump recognizes this, and I recognize this. That is why I introduced the Correct the Count Act to initiate a snap census of Americans only, just as the President called for. Between the Great Deportation and economic refugees fleeing blue states, the 2020 Census is no longer valid. Time to Correct the Count!”
Similar bills have gained support from Republicans in the past.
The House last year passed a bill along party lines to include citizenship on the census and to use only citizens when apportioning congressional seats and Electoral College votes, but those provisions would have only kicked in starting in the 2030 census.
A Commerce Department spokesperson previously told The Hill in wake of Trump’s social media post about the census that the Census Bureau will “immediately adopt modern technology tools for use in the Census to better understand our robust Census data.”
“We will accurately analyze the data to reflect the number of legal residents in the United States,” the spokesperson said.
Source: The Hill - News
