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The House of Representatives passes a bill to count only citizens for seat distribution and electoral votes in census

The 'Equal Representation Act' includes a provision requiring respondents to indicate whether they and their household members are U.S. citizens.

Agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza vigilan un grupo de inmigrantes

(Cordon Press)

Published by
Israel Duro

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives approved a motion for the proportional distribution of seats in each state in this institution and electoral votes are based on people who have US citizenship, excluding those without the right to vote such as green card holders or undocumented immigrants. The bicameral initiative, led by Representative Chip Roy and Senator Mike Lee, advanced with the support of 206 conservative legislators despite opposition from the 202 Democrats present.

A rule to prevent Democrats from turning "noncitizens into voters"

H.R. 7109, known as the Equal Representation Act, is a bill for "require a citizenship question on the decennial census, to require reporting on certain census statistics, and to modify apportionment of Representatives to be based on United States citizens instead of all persons."

This GOP initiative reflects concerns about the impact of irregular immigrants across the southern border on state populations, which proportionally determines the number of representatives in the Lower House. There is also fear that mass regularization of immigrants could "turn noncitizens into voters," as Speaker Mike Johnson claimed.

Citizenship verification in the Census

The bill, which now must be voted on in the Senate, includes a new subsection in section 141 of Title 13 of the U.S. Code that requires the Census to verify whether each respondent and the members of their household have U.S. citizenship.

(g)(1) In conducting the 2030 decennial census and each decennial census thereafter, the Secretary shall include in any questionnaire distributed or otherwise used for the purpose of determining the total population by States a checkbox or other similar option for the respondent to indicate, for the respondent and for each of the members of the household of the respondent, whether that individual is a citizen of the United States.
(2) Not later than 120 days after completion of a decennial census of the population under subsection (a), the Secretary shall make publicly available the number of individuals per State, disaggregated by citizens of the United States and noncitizens, as tabulated in accordance with this section.

"Exclusion of noncitizens"

Additionally, the bill establishes the "exclusion of noncitizens from number of persons used to determine appointment of representatives and number of electoral votes":

(a)  Exclusion.—Section 22(a) of the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for apportionment of Representatives in Congress”, approved June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a(a)), is amended by inserting after “not taxed” the following: “and individuals who are not citizens of the United States.
(b) Effective Date.—The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to the apportionment of Representatives carried out pursuant to the decennial census conducted during 2030 and any succeeding decennial census.
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