One Citizen, One Seat Act

Key Points

• Van Duyne introduced a bill called the One Citizen, One Seat Act that would change the 2020 Census results. It requires the government to recount the population of every state using only U.S. citizens, leaving out anyone who is not a citizen.
• If this becomes law, the Secretary of Commerce would have 60 days to send these new population numbers to every state. These numbers are used to decide how many representatives each state gets in Congress and how much federal tax money is sent back to local communities.
• States would be required to use these new citizen-only numbers for everything they do. If a state continues to use the original 2020 Census counts that included non-citizens, the federal government would block them from receiving any federal grant money.
• This would be a significant shift in how the U.S. has counted people for over 200 years. Currently, the Census counts every person living in the country to determine political representation and funding, regardless of their citizenship status.