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Census citizen question about protecting small state interests
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A U.S. Senate move Thursday to block a citizenship question from next year's census will make maintaining congressional representation harder for states like Mississippi, Louisiana and others with slower population growth.
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The defeated legislation, offered by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., was aimed at keeping non-citizens from being counted as part of a state's population for apportionment efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Vitter's effort would not have changed the way House seats are allocated to states, but would have denied Census Bureau funds if the question were not added. Opponents said the measure would be expensive as more than 400 million forms for next year's census have already been printed.
Another opponent contention was that the question would have discouraged immigrants from responding to the form.
That's correct, and that's the point here. It is simply not fair for smaller states like Mississippi and Louisiana to lose representation in the U.S. House to larger states like California that have growing populations of non-citizens, many of whom may be here illegally.
Mississippi lost one of its five seats in the 435-member House of Representatives after the 2000 census. Louisiana is in a position to lose one of its seven seats after next year.
Like many things in life, the census question comes down to a matter of how big a piece of the funding pie each state is getting.
Billions in federal dollars are in large part based on how many people are in a given state. Those dollars, which are precious for states like Mississippi, are jeopardized when congressional representation and votes are lost to other states.
This is not an anti-immigrant sentiment, as many serve an important role in the U.S. economy by doing jobs that Americans just will not do. Rather, the census question is a pro-small state attempt to protect congressional representation that leads to dollars that are so vital to the city, county and community economies in those areas.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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