Vitter amendment shut down by U.S. Senate

The U.S. Senate voted to end discussion on  Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Sen. Robert Bennett’s (R-UT) amendment that would have denied funding for the Census Bureau unless questions were added to the 2010 census on citizenship and immigration status. The Senate voted 60-39 on Nov. 5 to stop discussing the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce Department spending bill, which contained the Vitter-Bennett Proposal.

Sen. Vitter was upset over the decision to end discussion on the proposal, claiming the census cannot collect accurate information without knowing who are U.S. citizens and who are not.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights argued Vitter and Bennett’s amendment would have violated the 14th Amendment, which says the apportionment of members of the HOuse of Representatives is based on the full count of persons in each state.

According to Census News Briefs, the Service Employees International Union, part of the “Don’t Wreck the Census” campaign, called Vitter and Bennett’s amendment, “a misguided attempt to undercut 2010 enumeration efforts and mar this critical process with hateful, anti-immigrant politics.”

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund issued at statement praising the Senate for ending the discussion.

”This amendment was aimed at excluding undocumented immigrants, and perhaps all non-citizens from being counted in Census 2010 for the purposes of apportioning Congressional seats,” the statement said. “By invoking cloture, the Senate recognized that these proponents were trying to use appropriations legislation to thwart the clear language of our Constitution, which mandates a count of all of the nation’s residents for apportionment purposes.”

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Esther Cepeda wrote how the proposed amendment was simply about fear of immigrants not participating in the census, making it impossible for the government to find them.

Cepeda went on to say that while fear drove the amendment, she claims the reason Hispanics are undercounted is because of lack of awareness of the census.

Read the civilrights.org article here.