Bill Text: IL HR0837 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges the U.S. Census Bureau to not reinstate the citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-05-10 - Added Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Fred Crespo [HR0837 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2017-HR0837-Introduced.html
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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The United States Department of Justice has | ||||||
| 3 | requested that the U.S. Census Bureau reinstate a question on
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| 4 | citizenship to the 2020 census, claiming that the data is | ||||||
| 5 | critical to the Department's
enforcement of Section 2 of the | ||||||
| 6 | Voting Rights Act and the important protections it provides | ||||||
| 7 | against racial
discrimination in voting; and
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| 8 | WHEREAS, The Department of Justice stated that it needs a | ||||||
| 9 | reliable calculation of the citizen voting
age population in | ||||||
| 10 | localities where voting rights are alleged or suspected; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, Experts agree that since the same question is | ||||||
| 12 | included in the American Community
Survey it is adequate to | ||||||
| 13 | fulfill the Department of Justice's stated purpose of enforcing | ||||||
| 14 | the Voting
Rights Act; and
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| 15 | WHEREAS, Reinstating this question could lead to | ||||||
| 16 | comprehensive inaccuracies,
including how congressional | ||||||
| 17 | districts are drawn and how government funds are distributed; | ||||||
| 18 | and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, U.S. senators have asked the current presidential | ||||||
| 20 | administration to reject the request since it
could depress or | ||||||
| 21 | hinder census turnout due to fear that the government could use | ||||||
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| 1 | the
information against the participants and since the question | ||||||
| 2 | has not been asked since 1950; and
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| 3 | WHEREAS, Reinstating this question may have the unintended | ||||||
| 4 | effect of increasing the Census
Bureau's costs and budget to | ||||||
| 5 | conduct the census, as the Bureau must send out enumerators to | ||||||
| 6 | interview the occupants of any
address that did not respond; | ||||||
| 7 | therefore, be it
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| 8 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 9 | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 10 | strongly urge the U.S. Census Bureau to not reinstate the | ||||||
| 11 | citizenship question to
the 2020 census; and be it further
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| 12 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 13 | delivered to U.S. Census Bureau Director Ron Jarmin.
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