MENG, HIRONO STOP GOP ATTEMPT TO ADD CITIZENSHIP QUESTION TO U.S. CENSUS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) and U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) announced today that they stopped House Republicans from adding a citizenship question to the next United States Census.

In 2018, then-President Trump pushed to add a question on the 2020 U.S. Census which would have asked respondents about their citizenship status. Meng and Hirono fought against the plan, and after the Supreme Court blocked it from moving forward, the Trump administration abandoned its crusade. But this past January, House Republicans revisited the effort, attaching a measure to a key funding bill that would have required the question to be on the 2030 census.

Meng and Hirono led a letter to congressional leaders urging them to remove it, and the legislation was passed and signed into law without the citizenship question being included. Meng and Hirono had argued that a citizenship question would have caused an undercount of immigrant communities out of fear that the information they provide will be used against them. As a result, it would have jeopardized the Census Bureau’s ability to accurately count every person in the U.S.

The lawmakers’ letter, which was signed by 48 other Senators and House members, was sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Through the multiple House GOP-led delays in funding our government, I and my Democratic colleagues remained clear-eyed,” said Meng. “We couldn’t let their dysfunction touch the Census Bureau and the important work it does to ensure every person is counted in our democracy. An accurate census count is critical to determining congressional representation and the distribution of billions of dollars in federal resources for schools, infrastructure projects, and social services. I am grateful to House and Senate leaders for understanding our concerns and the importance of protecting the census from political interference. We will continue to fight against any future attempts to add a citizenship question and disrupt the census.”

“A complete, accurate census is critical to our country, our communities, and our democracy, which is why we have continued to fight back against Republicans’ repeated unconstitutional attempts to interfere with the census,” said Hirono. “House Republicans’ attempt to exclude undocumented individuals from the apportionment process was a blatantly unconstitutional attack on vulnerable and underrepresented communities. I appreciate the partnership of Rep. Meng and so many of our colleagues who came together to successfully block Republicans from weaponizing the census to advance their political agenda.”

The citizenship question provision had been in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act of 2024 (H.R. 5893) which funds the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and other science-related programs for the 2024 fiscal year. Meng and Hirono voted to approve the bill, along with five other spending bills. All of these bills were packaged together.

Meng is a senior member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies which oversees the CJS Appropriations Act.

The census is conducted by the federal government’s U.S. Census Bureau every 10 years. It seeks to count all people residing in the U.S., and the results determine the number of Members of Congress representing each state and the amount of federal money that is provided to communities.