and i to conclude our remarks objection.he mr. hagerty: thank you. mr. president, last week the house of representatives passed the equal representation act. this commonsense bill would require that onl citizens are counted for the purposes of districts and electoral votes. this makes sense. in order for every american's vote to have equal weightgal vo in apportioning voting wer. on the other hand, the current method of counting dmreel aliens dilutes the vote to some americans. it also serves as a perverse incentive for open borders and sanctuary cities b resettling illegal aliens increase relative power of the states and voters who do so

co theory turned out to be a fact democrats now kne. migrants here illegally are or determining n the census and electoral college votes and congressional commerce secretary ramon dough confirmed this when i asked her in a committee hearing it is impossible to dispu this increases the policy of districts and states that res resettle illegal aliens. some call for more illegal immigration to increase their weis year a video surface new york representative who said whensk ilillegal alien, she said i nee more people for restricting. she said the quiet part out dit where james madison high school is located. you may last fall, last

winter james madison high school was the school where students were told to go home and by zoom so their school could be used t housed illegal aliens. what congressman cla means is americans are fleeing blue city states in mass and congressional seats are based on population. so losing population you have to losegr seats. that's where the illegal aliens come in. this congresswoman's statement helps explain why president biden and democrats arellowing record-breaking illegal immigration. it's to preserve their political power. since president biden took office alone, over ten million illega a entered our country. that could amount to more than a dozen congressional seats. this bill is simple, mr. president. it would simply require that the

census bureau include a citizenship question to provide a basic understandif populatio purpose of the census. and it would allow for delineation between citizens and noncitizens for apportionment purposes. citizens for purposes of congressional and college apportionment. it would count only citizens for power.ining cen that way the power of each americans' vote't depend on how many illegal aliens are in their area. the equal representation actens the one-person, s equal. one-vote principle and end the perverse incentive under which illegal immigrationpower. mr. i ask unanimous consent that as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22 the senate proceed to the immediate consideration calendar number

386, h.r. 7109. i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motn to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: mr. president, reserving the right to object. a couple of points. the first point is actually the main point,hi we had the toughest bipartisan bill on border security in generations on this floor, when donald trump found out how tough it wa to be, he told senate republicans tit, and that's what they did. and so spare the crocodile tears about the situation at th

that, and donald trump explicitly said don't pass is blame me. blame me. number two, my good friend, senator who feels very passionately about this, his e constitution. the constitution provides that allso united states are counted. all persons. it says about their citizenship status. and so if you've got a problem the way the census is conducted, you have to constitution of the united states. not the law, not thetutory laws of the united states. but the constitution of the united states. and i haveount of the number of times that republicans have tried and failed to a census. and we have to see this for what it is, anttempt to reduce the count in immigrant communities.

unless that sounds like sort of a flourish, a little bit too much, let me remeaned you it was only few years ago that the supreme court ruled against adding this question. they ruled it. and why? it's because the real reason that they wanted to add it was, and i quote, from a conservative effort who thought it would -- here's the quote. quote, be advantageous to republicans and non-hispanic whites. be advantageous to republicans andispac whites. they wanted to ask people the skip question not - citizenship question not in a longer census ofonnae, but the first question out of the gate, to scare peoplero interacting with the federal government because someone knocks on your door from the federal government and the first question isre a citizen? you will decline to participate if you have friends or family or cousinseighbors who may

have mixed citizenship status. andre's the other quote. that it would clearly be a or democrats. this was never about enforcing the law. it is axt to scare people, particularly immigrants, out of taking the census, out of being counted at l. to undercount people in favor of one political party and don't t i am not a lawyer, but i remember this --said they had n reason to ask that question. in other words, they were asking this question in order to gain partisan advantage. so for thoseasons, i respectfully object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator fromtennessee. mr. hagerty: mr. president,

first i'd like to remark that the border security bill would ilgal aliens into this country. that w be the fix. that of -- the bill that he referenced would not addressed the border security at ent, my democrat -- my democratic colleague is objectingegistion that would actually restore the person, one vote principle. and it would end the perverse incentive in which illegal imgration increases voting power. it is -- congress can direct that a question be included in the census. it was included for most of history until barack obama's administration took it out in c

conducted in that congress shall by law. second, on the question of what population is counted for appoio hou seats and electoral votes, the constitution says that you count thens in the u.s. it doesn't mean literally everyone in the u. w don't count people here on vacation, we don't count people on temporary stays, why would we count people here brokei. illegally. it means citizens of the american political dy, a body that votes on permanent representation and hasce to ourl system. it may be unconstitutional to i 14th amendment, undermines the principle of one person, one vote. the constitutional artillery for the in -- argument is

indefensible, it supports the notionllegal aliens means more politicer