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The Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, agreed to testify at a House Watch Committee hearing in March on the issue of citizenship. he had approved adding to the 2020 census.
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Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, agreed to testify at a House Watch Committee hearing in March on the issue of citizenship. he had approved adding to the census of 2020.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, agreed to appear again before the legislature to testify about the controversial decision he had made last year over the past year. 39, add a question on citizenship at the 2020 census.
Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, is scheduled to appear at the March 14 Capitol Hill hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, the chair of the committee. Representative Elijah Cummings, D-Md., announced Tuesday.
"Committee members expect Secretary Ross to provide complete and truthful answers to a wide range of topics, including questions regarding preparations under way for the census, the addition 'a question about citizenship and other topics,' said Cummings in a written statement. "The committee also expects all our pending requests for documents to be fully met before the hearing."
The announcement comes a week after a federal judge in New York ruled that Ross "violated the confidence of the public "by abusing its authority over the census to add a question on the status of US citizenship based on the" dummy justification "of a better application of the Voting Rights Act.
The Trump administration appealed the decision rendered by the two main actions in New York, while continuing to fight in front of other district courts, similar actions taken by dozens of people. States, cities and other groups who also want the issue to be removed from the forms for the upcoming count.
Complainants fear that the current political climate, using the 2020 census to ask "is this person a US citizen?" will reduce household participation with non-citizens, including unauthorized immigrants. This may compromise the accuracy of the population counts used to determine how congressional seats and electoral college votes, as well as federal funding, are distributed among states over the next decade.
"Voluntarily and without subpoena"
NPR contacts the Commerce Department's Office of Public Affairs for comments on the hearing and will update it accordingly.
Plaintiffs' lawyers are expected to closely monitor Ross's next testimony in search of statements that may be used against the administration as part of this legal battle that may reach the Supreme Court.
According to the statement of Cummings Ross agreed to testify "voluntarily and without summons" after "several weeks of discussions". Cummings staff first contacted the Commerce Department about the December 20 hearing, according to the committee's press service.
However, in the courts, the administration fought hard to prevent Ross from being required to be sworn in as part of the citizenship lawsuit. In September, US District Judge Jesse Furman ordered the administration to put Ross at the disposal of the plaintiffs' lawyers for questioning. Furman pointed out that "Ross' s intention and credibility are directly involved"
The Department of Justice ultimately appealed this order to the Supreme Court, alleging that it was not necessary. was not necessary to allow the plaintiffs "to investigate the secretary's mental processes" to resolve the cases. . After temporarily blocking Ross's testimony, the judges have recently canceled their intention to take a stand on the case.
"Menti in the Face" [19659008] Some Democratic Democrats in Congress were anxious to ask Ross a question again about the question of citizenship.
Last year, Ross told Capitol Hill that the Department of Justice had "initiated" the request for question. But as Furman concluded in his opinion, internal emails, memos and other documents published in the trial show that Ross's testimony was "materially inaccurate".
Shortly after his confirmation as Secretary of Commerce, Ross began to lobby for a citizenship issue. to be added to the 2020 census, and its staff asked the Department of Justice to ask the question.
In October, Representative Grace Meng, DN.Y., a member of the House Subcommittee on Credits that funds the census, called
"Has the President or anyone from the White House discussed with you or with any of your team on adding the citizenship question? "Meng asked Ross during the hearing.
"I'm not aware of that," Ross said.
The administration's lawyers revealed months later in a record that Ross had discussed the issue with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Commerce Department spokesman Kevin Manning tried to downplay the exchange between Ross and Meng, saying that he "was answering a question about a CDN campaign email, not a direct question on the question of citizenship ".
Meng did not accept this explanation, tweeting in October : "Unacceptable that @SecretaryRoss lied to me at the face of a congressional hearing on the question".
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