The top House Democrat who oversees census funding said today he'll oppose any federal dollars needed to reprint the questionnaire with the Trump administration's citizenship question.
"I have no intention of allowing this flagrant waste of money," Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science panel, said in a statement.
Earlier this year, the Government Publishing Office awarded a $115 million contract to a Chicago-based company to print the census. Serrano said that printing has already begun and "amending the form could potentially cost hundreds of millions of additional taxpayer dollars."
Critics say the citizenship question will dissuade undocumented immigrants from responding and skew the distribution of federal resources. Serrano said those non-responses could also cost "untold millions of dollars" in federal resources next year.
The Trump administration is still pushing for the question even through the Supreme Court blocked its inclusion last month, ruling that the administration's reasoning for the question is inadequate.
A $383 billion spending package passed by the House last month looks to block the citizenship question completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment