S. 2693 – Reading Mode

109th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. 2693

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 2, 2006

Mr. Burns introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To prevent congressional reapportionment distortions.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Fair and Accurate Representation Act of 2006.

Prevention of congressional reapportionment distortions

(a)

Findings

Congress finds that—

(1)

in recent years, millions of aliens have entered the United States in violation of immigration laws and are now residing illegally in the United States and are subject to deportation;

(2)

the established policy of the Bureau of the Census is to make a concerted effort to count the foreign born population within the United States without making a separate computation for illegal aliens; and

(3)

by including the millions of illegal aliens in the reapportionment base for the House of Representatives, many States will lose congressional representation which such States would not have otherwise lost, thereby violating the constitutional principle of one man, one vote.

(b)

Adjustments to prevent distortions

Section 141 of title 13, United States Code, is amended—

(1)

by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (h); and

(2)

by inserting after subsection (f) the following:

(g)

The Secretary shall make such adjustments in total population figures as may be necessary, using such methods and procedures as the Secretary determines feasible and appropriate, in order that aliens who are in the United States in violation of the immigration laws of the United States are not counted in tabulating population under subsection (b) for the purposes of apportionment of Representatives in Congress among the several States. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to supersede section 195 of this title.

(c)

Conforming amendment

Section 22(a) of the Act entitled An Act To provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for apportionment of Representatives in Congress, of June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a(a)), is amended by striking as ascertained under the seventeenth and each subsequent decennial census of the population and inserting as ascertained and reported under section 141 of title 13, United States Code, for each decennial census of population.