Make It Count Act
New Bill Proposes Using Only U.S. Citizens to Decide How Many Seats States Get in Congress
Legislative Progress
Key Points
- This bill would add a new question to the 2030 Census asking every household to identify the citizenship status of each person living there. Respondents would have to check a box indicating if someone is a U.S. citizen, a legal resident, or an undocumented immigrant.
- The proposal changes how the government decides how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives. Currently, seats are based on the total number of people living in a state, but this bill would change the rules to only count U.S. citizens for this purpose.
- Because the number of House seats also determines how many Electoral College votes a state has, this change would likely shift political power and influence between different states during presidential elections.
- The bill also limits how often states can redraw their Congressional district maps. It would prohibit states from redrawing these lines more than once every ten years unless a court specifically orders a change to follow the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act.
- If passed, the government would be required to publicly report the number of citizens and noncitizens living in each state within 120 days of finishing the census count.
Impact Analysis
Personal Impact
This bill would require the census to ask whether each person in a household is an undocumented immigrant, which could discourage undocumented people from responding to the census at all. More importantly, by excluding noncitizens from apportionment counts, communities with large undocumented populations would lose political representation in Congress and the Electoral College, reducing their ability to advocate for resources and services.
State Impacts
Milestones
Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in House
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
News
'Equal Representation' Should Mean Equal Representation for American Citizens | National Review
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Make It Count Act
Data Sources
Sponsor
Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.