Anderson@Large

More Census Nonsense

The Senate will soon vote on Sen. David Vitter’s amendment to not count illegal immigrants living in the United States for purposes of apportioning Congressional seats.

While I share Vitter’s concern about illegal immigration, I am worried the background noise may discourage African Americans from returning their census form. Southern states, where 55 percent of black folks live, already have the highest non-response rate.

Congressman Lacy Clay, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives, urges senators to reject Vitter’s amendment:

I view Sen. Vitter’s amendment as a political ploy because he knows that because of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Louisiana has lost population and not been able, for whatever reason, to get people back.

Now check out Utah Sen. Bob Bennett.

BTW, don’t try to make sense of this nonsense. It’s a GOP thing, you wouldn’t understand.

Census and Nonsense

To everything there is a season, but it’s always silly season in the nation’s capitol.

Few are sillier than Sen. David Vitter who’s largely known for having a consensual relationship with a prostitute.

Vitter wants to amend the FY 2010 Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill and require the Census Bureau to add a question to the census form to ask about a respondent’s citizenship status. Vitter wants to exclude illegal immigrants from the head count for purposes of apportionment of Congressional seats.

It’s apparently of little consequence to the, er, Gentleman from Louisiana that, by law, questions for the census cannot be changed within two years of the count. I guess Vitter was busy with the D.C. Madam and didn’t get the memo.

Let me be clear: I absolutely oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants. But Vitter’s amendment does nothing to address the problem. It would merely make it that much harder to count the hard to count.

So, I support the coalition of civil rights and advocacy organizations that is opposed to Vitter’s amendment. They are holding a press conference today to express their concern the proposed amendment would “undermine efforts for an accurate Census 2010, and discourage census participation in minority communities.”

The bottom line: It is in African Americans’ interest that illegals are counted. Like it or not, they live in our communities. The 2010 Census will impact $400 billion in formula-driven federal funding for public schools, transportation, etc., as well as state and local redistricting.