House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena testimony and documents related to citizenship question

Source: Washington Post



The House Committee on Oversight and Reform voted Tuesday to compel the Trump administration to provide more information on its decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

The 23 to 14 vote authorizes committee chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md) to issue subpoenas for a deposition of principal deputy assistant attorney general John Gore and for documents from the Departments of Commerce and Justice, related to the decision. One Republican, Justin Amash (R-MI), voted with the Democrats.

It comes three weeks before the Supreme Court is set to consider whether the question will be allowed on the forms every household in the U.S. will be required to fill out next year. Two federal judges have struck it down, saying Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s actions in adding the question were in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The committee met last month with Gore on the matter but said he refused to answer over 150 questions, citing ongoing litigation.

Cummings slammed that rationale on Tuesday, saying, “The administration may not withhold information from Congress because of separate litigation. That is not a valid legal argument. The Supreme Court has rejected this claim repeatedly. It is not the law, and it would lead to absurd results.” Cummings said many of documents the government has already turned over are already public, are heavily redacted, or are missing altogether.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/house-oversight-committee-votes-to-subpoena-testimony-and-documents-related-to-citizenship-question-on-2020-census/2019/04/02/c2885c1a-5571-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html