House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

The United States Constitution requires the federal government to accurately record our country’s population every ten years. Population data from the Census is used to apportion Congressional seats and Electoral College votes, draw state and local legislative districts, and allocate billions of dollars in federal funding.

The Census is not perfect. Immigrant and minority populations have historically been some of the hardest to count precisely in the decennial census, with the 2010 Census failing to count more than 1.5 million. The policy and wording used in the Census greatly affects this count.

I am urging the Trump Administration and the United State Census Bureau to address two issues which will ensure a more accurate and fair Census count: to not include a Citizenship Question; and to change the policy of recording the residence of incarcerated persons from the location of correction facilities to their last know home address in time for the 2020 decennial Census.

It is crucial that the Census Bureau take every measure possible to accurately count every person, in the correct location, in order to ensure fair representation in Congress and in the allocation of federal funds. The citizenship question is so detrimental to our democracy that Pennsylvania joined a coalition of 17 other Attorneys General, six cities and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors in filing a lawsuit to block the Trump Administration from demanding this information as part of the 2020 Census.

Together we can work to fix these glaring inaccuracies and be the voice for populations which are already undercounted and targeted.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact my Harrisburg office at 717-705-1925.