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Floor Speech

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Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, last week, the House of Representatives passed the Equal Representation Act. This commonsense bill would require that only U.S. citizens are counted for the purposes of allotting congressional districts and electoral votes. This makes sense. In order for every American's vote to have equal weight, only legal voters should be counted in apportioning voting power.

On the other hand, the current method of counting illegal aliens in allocating Americans' voting power dilutes the votes of some Americans. It also serves as a perverse incentive for open borders and sanctuary cities because resettling illegal aliens increases the relative political power of the States and the voters that do so.

What was once called a conspiracy theory turned out to be an objective fact that Democrats now acknowledge. Migrants here illegally are being counted in the census, and they are counted for determining electoral college votes and congressional seats. Commerce Secretary Raimondo confirmed this yesterday when I asked her in a committee hearing.

It is impossible to dispute that this policy increases the voting power of districts and States that resettle more illegal aliens. In fact, some Democrats have taken it a step further, calling for more illegal immigration to increase their power. Just this year, video surfaced of a U.S. Representative from New York--her name is Yvette Clarke--who said, when asked about illegal immigration, ``I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.'' Yes, that is what she said. She said it quite out loud. She represents the same district where James Madison High School is located. You may recall that last fall, last winter, James Madison High School was the school where the students were told to go home and study by Zoom so their school could be used to house illegal aliens. What Congresswoman Clarke means is that Americans are fleeing blue cities and States en masse because of failing government--and congressional seats are allocated based on population--so if you are losing population, you either have to backfill it or lose congressional seats. That is where the illegal aliens come in.

This Congresswoman's statement helps explain why President Biden and Democrats are allowing recordbreaking illegal immigration. It is to preserve their political power. Since President Biden took office alone, over 10 million illegal aliens have entered our country. That could amount to more than a dozen congressional seats.

This bill is simple. It would simply require that the Census Bureau include a citizenship question to provide a basic understanding of the U.S. population, which is the purpose of the census, and it would allow for delineation between citizens and noncitizens for apportionment purposes. My bill would count only citizens for purposes of congressional and electoral college apportionment. In other words, it would count only citizens for determining citizens' voting power. That way, the power of each American's vote doesn't depend on how many illegal aliens are in their area.

The Equal Representation Act will ensure that the weight of every American's vote is equal, it will restore the one person, one vote principle, and it will certainly end the perverse incentive under which illegal immigration increases political power.

386, H.R. 7109. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, first, I would like to remark that the border security bill that my esteemed colleague references would simply increase the processing of illegal aliens into this country. If this language were incorporated in it, we would stop the incentive for illegal migration. That would be the fix. That was not in the bill. The bill that he referenced would not have addressed the border security at all.

My Democratic colleague is objecting to legislation that would actually restore the one-person, one-vote principle, and it would end the perverse incentive under which illegal immigration increases political power.

It is indisputable that Congress can direct that a citizenship question be included in the census. It was included in the census for most of our history up until Barack Obama's administration took it out in 2010.

And the Constitution says that the census shall be conducted ``in such Manner as [Congress] shall by Law direct.''

Congress does, indeed, have the authority to do this; in fact, we have had the citizenship question until 2010.

Second, on the question of what population is counted for apportioning House seats and electoral votes, the Constitution says that you count the number of persons in the United States.

It doesn't mean literally everyone in the United States. We don't count people here on vacation; we don't count people here on temporary stays. Why would we count people who are here and who have broken in illegally? It means citizens who are members of the American political body--a body that votes on representation--and who have permanent allegiance to our constitutional system.

In fact, it may be unconstitutional to count illegal aliens under the 14th Amendment because that dilutes some citizens' votes and undermines the principle of one person, one vote.

The constitutional argument is simply a dodge for the indefensible position that opposition to this bill means support for the notion that more illegal aliens should mean more political power for the States and the communities that attract.

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