Census

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “no” when the so-called “Equal Representation Act” (H.R. 7109) is expected to be brought to the floor later this afternoon. The proposed legislation would impede the U.S Census Bureau from performing its constitutionally mandated responsibility to count the number of persons in the United States each ten years in the Census. The bill also ignores the Constitution.

Virginia Kase Solomón will be the next president and CEO of Common Cause. Currently CEO of the League of Women Voters, she will start her new role in February and will be the first Hispanic person to lead the democratic watchdog. She succeeds Karen Hobert Flynn, who died this spring after three decades with the organization.

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Census Act (H.R. 8326) to ensure that future censuses are not subjected to the unprecedented level of malfeasance and politicization that plagued the 2020 Census count. The letter emphasizes the critical importance of conducting a transparent and accurate count of everyone in the United States each decade as our Constitution requires, because that count shapes the nation’s government, public policy, and budgets for a full decade.

John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly why Rhode Island had such a large overcount. There were significant outreach efforts and the state has a large summer home population, but the same applied to other states, he said. “We’re essentially the lucky beneficiary of a statistical anomaly,” Marion said. “And as a result, we’ll have more representation in Congress for 10 years.”