WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats Thursday blocked a GOP attempt to require next year’s census forms to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens.
The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding non-citizens 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 citizenship data.
Census data is also used to distribute billions of dollars in federal aid.
If Vitter were successful — and if non-citizens were excluded from the census count for congressional apportionment — states with fewer immigrants, including Vitter’s home state of Louisiana — would fare significantly better in the upcoming allocation of House seats.
States such as California and Texas would fare worse than they would under the current way of allocating seats, which under the Constitution is based on the “whole number of persons” residing in a state.
The GOP proposal would have blocked Census Bureau funds if it doesn’t add the citizenship question to the more than 600 million forms. More than 400 million have already been printed.
“As we’ve said, the proposal is just not doable and we would have had to delay the census,” Census Bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner said Thursday. “The 2010 census remains on track and on schedule, and we’re moving forward to ensure we have an accurate count in 2010.”
