POLITICS NOVEMBER 14, 2018 / 6:05 AM / UPDATED 33 MINUTES AGO

House Democrat to probe census citizenship question

Susan Cornwell
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lawmaker expected to head the powerful House Oversight Committee in the new U.S. Congress says one of his first priorities will be investigating why President Donald Trump’s administration decided to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census questionnaire.

Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings told Reuters he had not yet prioritized all the issues his committee would examine when his party takes over leadership of the House of Representatives in January.

“There are certain things that mandate that we look at immediately. One of them is the census, because that’s right around the corner,” Cummings told Reuters on Tuesday evening outside the House.

Last month, Cummings called for an official probe into why the Commerce Department added the question, which critics have said could depress the response to the census from immigrants, who often live in Democratic-leaning areas. If undercounted, areas with high immigrant populations could lose seats in the U.S. House.

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