Biden EO Will Officially End Trump’s Bid To Weaponize Census Data To Boost GOP Power – By Tierney Sneed and Kate Riga (Talking Points Memo) / January 20 2021
Soon after he is sworn into office, President-elect Joe Biden will reverse President Trump’s most aggressive moves to hijack the 2020 census, according to a preview of executive orders Biden will sign laid out by his advisors Tuesday evening.
Among the orders that Biden will sign Wednesday is a census executive order that will rescind”Trump’s plan, announced in July, to exclude certain immigrants from the census population counts used for congressional apportionment. The order will also undo a 2019 Trump order directing the Census Bureau to produce data on noncitizens, with the aim of facilitating a redistricting overhaul that would have also diminished immigrant political power.
Trump’s approach to the census data “violates the constitution and the Census Act and is inconsistent with our nation’s history and our commitment to representative democracy,” Susan Rice, Biden’s incoming domestic policy chief, told reporters on a call Tuesday.
“President Biden will ensure that the Census Bureau has time to complete an accurate population count for each state,” she said. “He will then present to Congress an apportionment that is fair and accurate so that federal resources are efficiently and fairly distributed over the next decade.”
