, Columnists
U.S. Census Is Not About Citizenship
Government and business depend on a complete and accurate count of who lives in the country.
Count them all.
Photographer: Rolf Schulten/ullstein bild via Getty ImagesAs former secretaries of Commerce, with direct oversight of the U.S. Census Bureau, we have grave concerns about the proposed addition of a citizenship question to the decennial census in 2020. If included, this question will put in jeopardy the accuracy of the data that the census collects, and increase costs.
The census should not be a partisan issue. Mandated under the U.S. Constitution, the census requires the actual enumeration of all persons in the United States, not simply all citizens. In fact, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld this system of counting everyone in 2016.