House Oversight Hearing with Wilbur Ross Focusing on Census Citizenship Issue: NPR

US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, is expected to face a tough question Thursday from lawmakers on why he has approved the inclusion of an issue of citizenship in the upcoming 2020 census.

Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, has agreed to voluntarily appear before the Capitol Hill House of Representatives' Monitoring and Reform Committee to witness preparations for the national enumeration.

"We have had a lot of very serious questions for Secretary Ross since we invited him to testify several months ago, and we will finally have the opportunity to ask him these questions – under oath – when our hearing, "said commission chair Elijah, representative Cummings (D-Md.), in a written statement before Thursday's hearing.

Ross's testimony comes as the 2020 census is entangled in a nearly one-year legal battle over the controversial issue of US citizenship status. This question asks, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?"

Two federal judges ruled that Ross's decision to add it to the census forms was illegal and blocked the plans of the administration regarding the matter.

The Supreme Court is ready to hold a hearing on the issue on April 23and the judges' decision on the fate of the issue should be announced by June.

The Chief Republican of the Oversight Committee, Ohio representative Jim Jordan, has expressed concern over the timing of the Ross hearing.

"Such a hearing is designed to interfere with the ongoing trial in the Supreme Court," Jordan wrote in an editorial with Rep. Mark Meadows (RC), published Wednesday on the Fox News website.

Cummings, however, pointed out that the committee was discharging its investigative power to determine why Ross had insisted on a citizenship question in the census.

The Commerce Department's Public Affairs Office did not respond to NPR's multiple requests for comment regarding the hearing.

Last year, Ross had told legislators that the Justice Department "initiated" the application because the agency wanted the answers to help enforce the law's provisions on the law. voting rights relating to discrimination of racial and linguistic minorities.

However, in his opinion on New York-based citizenship prosecutions, US District Judge Jesse Furman concluded that the reasoning was a "fictional justification". The judge cited internal documents showing that Ross had lobbied Commerce Department staff to ask the Justice Department to submit a formal request for a question.

In September, Furman ordered Ross's filing for prosecution, noting that "his intent and credibility are directly at stake in these cases."

But Trump administration attorneys at the Justice Department fought hard to prevent Ross from sitting for an examination under oath. The Department of Justice appealed Furman's decision regarding Ross's testimony in the Supreme Court, which temporarily prevented Ross from asking questions.

The administration also tried to delay Ross's testimony before the Oversight Committee after he agreed to appear in January, according to a recent letter sent to Ross by Cummings.

Committee representative Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) Stated that he hoped that Ross' testimony "would reveal something that the courts could use" in prosecutions relating to the citizenship issue. But he keeps his expectations low.

"I would not be surprised if he was trying to find a way to not answer those questions with his lawyers," said Gomez.