Speech #960293016

Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of this amendment. which has the intent of preventing the counting of illegal aliens in the census for the purpose of congressional redistricting by prohibiting the expenditure of money under this bill by the Office of the President for the submitting of reapportionment data to the Congress. The counting of illegal aliens in the census is an issue that has long been of concern to me. As we know. census figures are used by the Federal Government for the distribution of $50 billion in Federal moneys each year. and affect planning at all levels of government. When these figures for certain cities and States are inflated by the counting of illegal aliens who have flocked to those areas. these cities and States stand to reap an extra and unfair advantage when Federal money is divvied up. By the same token. those States which do not have substantial illegal alien populations. such as my own State of Vermont. are discriminated against. Moreover. and more to the point in terms of this amendment. States with high numbers of illegal immigrants also stand to benefit when congressional redistricting takes place because their population counts are exaggerated. This padding of the counts raises serious constitutional questions. While the argument can be made that States experiencing an influx of illegal aliens require some additional Federal assistance to deal with the problem. I am convinced that no sound argument can be presented for increased congressional representation for those States on this account. Accordingly. I have introduced legislation. H.R. 6577. which would require the Secretary of Commerce. in each decennial census. to specify the number of aliens in each State. and provide that illegal aliens not be counted for the purposes of the apportionment of Representatives in Congress. This bill is now pending before the Post Office and Civil Service. and Judiciary Committees. and although it was unfortunate that the committees did not see fit to favorably consider this measure prior to census day this year. I am encouraged that we have at least focused attention on this important issue. In addition. as the gentleman from Pennsylvania knows. because he is a party to the suit. the Federation for American Immigration Reform. otherwise known as FAIR. has taken the Department of Commerce to court over ths illegal alien issue. I am also a coplaintiff. as are a number of our colleagues here in the House. Further. a number of States have filed briefs as friends of the court. including Vermont.