Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI-07) introduced the Make It Count Act (H.R. 7167), legislation that would add a citizenship and immigration status question to the decennial census, require congressional apportionment to be based only on a count of U.S. citizens, and only allow states to carry out a single congressional redistricting in the decade following a decennial census and apportionment.
H.R. 7167 would amend Title 13 to require “the 2030 decennial census and each decennial census thereafter” to “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) “a citizen of the United States”;
- (B) “a national of the United States but not a citizen of the United States”;
- (C) “an alien lawfully residing in the United States”; or
- (D) “an alien unlawfully residing in the United States.”
Within 120 days after completing a decennial headcount, the Commerce Secretary would need to “make publicly available the number of persons per State, disaggregated by each of the 4 categories described in subparagraphs (A) through (D)… as tabulated in accordance with this section.”
The Make It Count Act would also amend 2 U.S.C. 2a(a) (the statute governing apportionment in the U.S. House of Representatives) by inserting after “not taxed” the following: “and individuals who are not citizens of the United States”, an amendment that would “apply with respect to the apportionment of Representatives carried out pursuant to the decennial census conducted during 2030 and any succeeding decennial census.”
It would also add the following text at the end of 2 U.S.C. 2c: “A State which has been redistricted in the manner provided by law after an apportionment under section 22(a) of the Act entitled ‘An Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for an apportionment of Representatives in Congress’, approved June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), may not be redistricted again until after the next apportionment of Representatives under such section, unless a court requires the State to conduct such subsequent redistricting to comply with the Constitution or to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973 et seq.).”
Currently, the Make It Count Act (H.R. 7167) has no cosponsors. It has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on the Judiciary for further consideration.
