Cortez Masto Joins Bipartisan Demand for Census Bureau to Rescind Proposed Rule That Violates Constitution

Las Vegas, Nev. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined Senators Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), and a bipartisan group of 23 Senators in urging the U.S. Census Bureau to rescind a proposed rule that would exclude certain non-citizens from census counts and eliminate questions on race and ethnicity. In their letter, the Senators warn that the exclusion of non-citizens violates the Constitution, which expressly says that the census must count the “whole number of persons in each state.” 

The Senators note that both proposed methods to exclude non-citizens would cause undercounts and errors in the census counts: “We write to urge that you rescind your proposed rule that would exclude certain non-citizens from decennial census counts and omit questions about race and ethnicity from the decennial census. The proposed rule violates the clear meaning of the Constitution, which requires that the Census Bureau count the ‘whole number of persons in each state.’ The proposed rule would also cause communities across the country to be counted inaccurately, jeopardizing their fair representation in Congress and access to billions of federal dollars for education, health care, and public safety services.”

The letter also describes how the Bureau’s proposal to eliminate race and ethnicity questions would undermine the enforcement of civil and voting rights laws and would degrade the quality of all census data. The compliance of civil and voting rights laws rely on demographic data, and only the decennial census provides accurate and precise data. Additionally, eliminating the collection of race and ethnicity data from the decennial census undermines other federal survey data. Businesses and local governments that depend on this data have said that they would be harmed by this proposed rule.

“In its attempt to undermine the data used for the enforcement of civil and voting rights laws, the Bureau will degrade the accuracy of all other federal survey data, particularly for small and rural geographic areas. The Bureau writes in its own regulatory filing that the proposed rule ‘deteriorates the accuracy’ of ‘fertility/mortality rates, cancer rates, poverty rates, unemployment rates, [and] labor force participation’ because the Bureau relies on accurate decennial census information to adjust and design other survey estimates,” the Senators continued. “The Bureau also admits in its filing that the proposal would hamper the usability of data for state and local governments who rely on precise and accurate population estimates for small geographic areas. Businesses and local governments that depend on reliable and complete federal data have warned that the Census Bureau’s proposal would increase costs as data is degraded.”

Read the full letter here. Additional signatories include Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

In 2022, Senator Cortez Masto urged the Biden Administration to deliver real solutions to address the decades long problem of undercounting minority communities across the country. She has also pushed for oversight of multiple Departments under the Trump Administration – including at the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, General Services Administration, and Federal Housing Finance Agency.

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