Equal Representation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

Those are a lot of words from the opposition to this bill to say that citizenship does not matter. That is basically their argument: We don't care if you are a citizen.

In fact, they encourage you to not be a citizen. Sanctuary cities and States invite everyone from the world to flood their cities, and they need it. They have said as much in interviews that their population is fleeing their horrible policies in States like California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and elsewhere, and they are going to places that have more freedom and less government.

So what do they do?

They import new people who don't know better, and, yes, the conditions are better there than the places they are fleeing, but as my colleague, Mr. Graves, was pointing out, California has six to seven Members. That is more than many of our States. Yes, Texas has Representatives because they, too, have a large illegal population, and the Biden administration is doing everything possible to prevent them from stopping this invasion of our country.

It is willfully and purposefully, and I will add skillfully, undermining the value of U.S. citizenship to flood this country with noncitizens.

I want to tell some great news to my colleagues: Foreign nationals do have representation in the United States at embassies or consulates. Their representative is not here in the United States Congress. I represent United States citizens, and so do my colleagues.

Nonetheless, noncitizens do not vote, and they should not vote, but don't let that stop them. They are working to change that too so that they can vote. We found that noncitizens are voting, and they found loopholes to do that with the Motor Voter Act.

We have to defend the value and right of U.S. citizens. The only way to do that is to do the very purpose of the Census, which is to apportion Representatives.

Now, we get a lot of other ancillary benefits from the Census, but the constitutional purpose of it is to know who is here.

Now, they want to know everything else about you, Mr. Speaker, how many hyphens you have in your ethnicity, national origin, what you believe about your religion, how much you make, and every other way they can invade your privacy, but they don't give a rip whether or not you are a United States citizen.

The American people deserve to be fairly and equally represented, and the only way that is going to be done is if we know who is a citizen, and the apportionment is based on United States citizens.

This amendment needs to be passed.

For assurance, for the previous three Congresses, I have introduced a constitutional amendment. In this Congress that is H.J. Res. 37. I assume Mr. Raskin will run down and cosponsor it immediately because he knows that he could amend the Constitution and defend the principle that is at stake here.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of our colleagues to sponsor this bill and to vote ``yes'' on this bill and get it passed.

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