New Census Priorities on House Oversight Committee

New Census Priorities on House Oversight Committee

While the new chairman of the House Oversight & Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD-07), has scheduled�Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross�to discuss concerns with the 2020 Census at a�hearing�on March 14, the�newly-announced�chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing the Census Bureau is discussing his own concerns.

Speaking to�Bethesda Beat, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), chairman of the�Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, discussed his subcommittee’s jurisdiction over the U.S. Census Bureau:

“I�m actively exploring hearings on the citizenship question and the census,” said Raskin, referring to the Trump administration�s controversial plan to ask about citizenship status during the forthcoming 2020 census.

A federal judge recently�blocked the Census Bureau from posing the question, but Raskin added, “The problem is that they�re trying to appeal to the Supreme Court. We would like to put the nail in the coffin for the ill-fated citizenship question, and�demonstrate how the question was not in any way generated by the Department of Justice�s voting rights section, but rather was a clear political plant by the White House.”