Chairman Pfluger, Edwards Introduce COUNT Act to End Democrats' Census Rigging Scheme
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger (TX-11) and Congressman Chuck Edwards (NC-11), introduced the Citizen Only Updated National Tally (COUNT) Act to codify and expand a key Executive Order issued during President Trump’s first term to eliminate fraud and inaccuracies in the U.S. Census Bureau, as first reported by The Blaze.
The U.S. Census Bureau failed to correct the disastrous 2020 census, which oversaw the overcounting of the population of eight states and the undercounting of the population of six states. This was a betrayal of the constitutional principle that representation should reflect actual citizenship, not inflated numbers that include non-citizens and statistical manipulation.
The COUNT Act would:
Mandate the creation of a block level citizenship database, directing all relevant federal and state entities to provide the Census Bureau with the information necessary to determine the number of actual citizens living in a given state.
Create an inter-agency taskforce, headed by the Director of the Census Bureau, to lead the data collection effort.
Add a critical citizenship question for future censuses.
End the use of differential privacy, ensuring that bureaucrats at the Census Bureau can no longer manipulate and skew data in order to alter the population of a given area or conceal the number of illegal immigrants living within a particular state.
"The political power of American citizens is weakened when millions of illegal aliens count alongside those with a legal right to vote in our elections for the purposes of Congressional representation. That's why we're introducing the COUNT Act to permanently codify the Executive Order President Trump signed into law during his first term, creating a citizenship database that ensures only American citizens and lawful residents determine congressional representation and federal funding. We cannot allow Democrats to weaponize our census," said RSC Chairman August Pfluger (TX-11).
“Only American citizens should have an impact on American elections. Under our current system, the Census does not differentiate between citizens and noncitizens, meaning areas with large undocumented populations receive unfair representation in Congress,”said Rep. Chuck Edwards (NC-11). “In both the 118th and 119th Congress, I’ve led the Equal Representation Act, which puts an end to this flawed system by adding a citizenship question to the Census. Now, I'm proud to bolster this effort by co-leading the COUNT Act alongside Republican Study Committee Chairman, Congressman August Pfluger. This bill codifies President Trump's Executive Order 13880 and adds a citizenship question to the Census, thereby preventing the inclusion of noncitizen influence in congressional representation and the Electoral College."