Equal Representation Act

The Equal Representation Act would change how the decennial census is used for congressional reapportionment. Currently, the census counts all persons living in the United States regardless of citizenship status, and this total is used to determine how many House representatives each state receives. If enacted, this bill would require the President's statement to Congress after the census to exclude noncitizens from the population count used for reapportionment purposes.

The bill also requires the census questionnaire to include a question asking respondents to indicate their citizenship status in one of four categories: U.S. citizen, U.S. national but not a citizen, non-U.S. national lawfully residing in the United States, or non-U.S. national unlawfully residing in the United States. The Department of Commerce would be required to publicly release the number of persons in each state broken down by these four citizenship categories.

This bill has passed committee review and is eligible for a floor vote in the House. If enacted, it could potentially shift congressional representation among states depending on their noncitizen populations, as states with higher numbers of noncitizens could see their House representation reduced.