With a divided Congress, efforts to protect the census from political interference may be put on hold following the Trump administration’s efforts to skew the 2020 census results. A bill that would have established a commission to investigate the Trump administration’s actions and make recommendations to prevent future interference has stalled in the Senate.
The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in September, would have established a commission to investigate the Trump administration’s efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census and to make recommendations to prevent future political interference with the census. However, the bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate, and it is unlikely to pass before the end of the current Congress.
The Trump administration’s efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census were widely seen as an attempt to skew the results in favor of Republicans. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the question could not be included on the census, but the damage had already been done, and many experts believe that the controversy surrounding the question led to an undercount of the population.
The census is used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives and to distribute federal funding, and an undercount could have a significant impact on both.
Critics argue that the failure of Congress to take action on the bill is a missed opportunity to address the issue and to protect the integrity of the census. “The census is a fundamental building block of our democracy, and we need to take steps to protect it from political interference,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who introduced the bill in the House.
With the end of the current Congress approaching, it is unclear whether the bill will be taken up again in the new Congress. With a divided Congress, it is unlikely that any significant legislation on the census will be passed in the near future.
