Commerce, Justice, Science, Appropriations

Floor Speech

COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE APPROPRIATIONS -- (Senate - October 15, 2009)

Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I stand to urge all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to support having a vote on Vitter amendment No. 2466 to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill.

Unfortunately, the majority leader and others have been working quite hard to block that vote. I believe this issue demands attention, demands focus, demands reasonable debate, and a vote.

What is this issue? This is the revised version of my amendment to that appropriations bill:

None of the funds provided in this Act or any other act for any fiscal year may be used for collection of census data that does not include a question regarding United States Citizenship.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record my amendment.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
(Purpose: To provide that none of the funds provided to the Census may be used for collection of census data that does not include a question regarding status of United States Citizenship)

On page 110, line 7, strike ``activities.'' and insert ``activities: Provided further; That none of the funds provided in this Act or any other act for any fiscal year may be used for collection of census data that does not include a question regarding United States Citizenship.''

Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, the point is very simple. A big decennial census is coming up next year. Under the current plans of the Census Bureau, we are going to count everybody in the country--and that is fine--but we are not going to distinguish, we are not going to know the difference between citizens and noncitizens. I think that is not fine, I think that is crazy, and I think it will lead to some dangerous results.

First of all, the whole purpose of a census is to give us maximum information, maximum tools we can use in a whole host of policy debates and Federal programs. Certainly, it is useful to know both the overall number of persons in the country but also the subcategories of citizens and noncitizens. That is particularly relevant because the immigration debate is important, and we need to get our hands around that issue.

Secondly, and even more important, it is important because I believe when we use the census for congressional redistricting for determining how many U.S. House seats each State gets, we should count citizens, but we should not count in that context noncitizens, including illegal aliens.

I think it is crazy, nutty, and I think the average American certainly agrees that we would determine how many U.S. House Members every State gets to represent it in the Congress and count noncitizens, including illegal aliens. I do not think the Founding Fathers set up a democracy--in many ways one of the most important democratic institutions in history in the U.S. Congress--to represent noncitizens. Why are we not adding in the entire population of France or Belgium or Brazil? For obvious reasons, because this is a democracy to represent citizens of the United States.

Of course, we can only avoid that in terms of congressional reapportionment if we know the subcategories of the count, citizens versus noncitizens. I urge all of my colleagues to support having a vote on this Vitter amendment to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill and then, of course, when we get to a vote--and we will--hopefully, on this bill but sometime in the near future--I assure you, we will--to support in a bipartisan way this amendment.

Let me make two final points. First of all, I have made every reasonable attempt to get this vote. I had two other amendments on the list for votes on this bill that were important to me and I think are important substantively. I have told, through our representatives, the majority leader and his office that I will forgo votes on those two other amendments. We need a vote on this crucial amendment.

Secondly, I remind particular Senators from eight States that their States will lose representation in the U.S. House if we count noncitizens versus if we were to do congressional reapportionment only counting citizens.

I believe everybody should be focused on this issue. I believe everybody should support my commonsense position. But surely the Senators from
those eight States would want to vote for their States' self-interest. Those States are Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, North Carolina, and, of course, my State of Louisiana.

Again, I particularly appeal through the Chair to the Senators from those eight States--Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Louisiana. Obviously, for the very interests of your State, please support getting a vote on the Vitter amendment. Please support the Vitter amendment. Your State's representation in the U.S. House hangs in the balance. Of course, that means please do not vote for cloture on the CJS bill until we can have such a vote.

I yield the floor.

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