November 5, 2009

Vitter Expresses Disappointment over Senate’s Failure to Consider his Census Amendment

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator David Vitter today expressed his disappointment over the Senate’s rejection of his amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science spending bill that would call for the inclusion of a question about citizenship on the next U.S. Census.
           “I am disappointed that my colleagues in the Senate chose to block this common sense amendment that could prevent Louisiana and several other states from losing a congressional seat following the 2010 census,” said Vitter. “The census is important – but so is gathering accurate data. And we can’t do that unless we know whether or not we are counting actual U.S. citizens. My amendment would have helped us do just that – it’s a shame that so many of my colleagues chose to ignore that.”
          Vitter’s amendment would have prevented funding from being used to collect census data that does not include questions regarding United States citizenship.