A judge ruled Thursday night that 2020 Census counting can continue through October 31.
The ruling was issued by California district judge Lucy H. Koh against the Trump administration, which sought to stop counting after Sept. 30, a month before its previously scheduled completion.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Secretary of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wilbur Ross to discuss the importance of completing the 2020 Census.
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The House Oversight Committee has sued Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the Trump Administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, Politico reports.
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A day after the U.S. House passed a resolution authorizing its committees to take the Trump administration to court and pursue criminal contempt cases to enforce their subpoenas, the House Oversight Committee took the next step. The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted in favor of holding Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress because of the Trump administration’s refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoena for information about why a U.S. citizenship question was added to the 2020 census. Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, a vocal supporter of impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump, voted with Democrats. Trump claimed executive privilege Wednesday in refusing to hand over documents to Democratic lawmakers investigating the census question. “I think it’s ridiculous that we would have a census without asking” about citizenship, Trump told reporters at the White House. The House panel’s chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, delayed the contempt vote until later in the day to give the committee’s 42 members time to consider Trump’s executive privilege claim. But he questioned why Trump was asserting executive privilege just before the contempt vote when the subpoenas for information were issued two months ago. ‘Blanket…
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by Evie Fordham Republican Michigan Rep. Justin Amash joined with Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress Wednesday. Amash was the lone Republican to vote to hold them in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas related to the contentious citizenship question that the Trump administration wants to add to the 2020 census, reported CBS News. The Department of Justice sent a letter announcing its plans to invoke executive privilege Wednesday morning, so the committee chair, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, delayed the vote until the afternoon according to CBS Morning. The Supreme Court is considering the question of whether the government may add the citizenship question to the census form. The Trump administration blasted accusations that senior government officials used deception to hide the origins of the citizenship question. Wednesday’s vote was Amash’s latest break with his party. Amash resigned Monday from the House Freedom Caucus even though he was one of its founding members. Amash cited his efforts to not be “a further distraction for the group,” presumably after he said on May 18 that President Donald Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct”…
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A U.S. House of Representatives committee is set to consider Tuesday whether to issue subpoenas to Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross seeking documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the country’s 2020 census. Ross said last year he made the decision based on a request from the Justice Department to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But states and rights groups have challenged the move, arguing it would discourage immigrants from participating, and thus result in undercounting how many people live in certain parts of the country. The census is meant to include every person in the United States at the time, no matter their citizenship or immigration status. An accurate count is important, with the results used for a number of purposes such as determining how many congressional representatives are apportioned to each state, how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending is allocated, and how local jurisdictions make decisions such as where to build a new road or school. The House Oversight Committee is discussing a resolution from Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, to subpoena from Barr and Ross documents and communications about the request to…
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by Kevin Daley A federal judge in New York barred the Trump administration from including a citizenship question on the 2020 census questionnaire. The decision appears to have significant implications for a related matter the Supreme Court will consider in February. “The attempts by the Trump administration to mandate a question about citizenship were not rooted in a desire to strengthen the census process and would only undermine our immigrant communities,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Inciting fear in our residents is not only immoral, but also ill-conceived.” The Constitution mandates a census every 10 years to apportion seats in the House of Representatives among the states. Population is also used as a basis for rewarding federal aid. A citizenship question was included in the census until 1960. A coalition of Democratic cities, states, and interest groups challenged the addition of a citizenship question to the census questionnaire in April 2018, warning it would discourage minority participation. An incomplete survey of minority populations, the plaintiffs feared, would result in diminished federal funds and congressional representation for urban areas. The plaintiffs charged that the addition of the citizenship question violated the Constitution and the Administrative…
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by Tim Pearce Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is using resources in his department to ensure that California firefighters are armed with enough water to fight wildfires scorching the state. Ross ordered the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies to prioritize water use for fighting fires over previously arranged agreements. Ross also ensured that, consistent with the Endangered Species Act (ESA), marine habitats housing vulnerable plants and animals would not be unduly drained. “The California wildfires are a direct threat to life and property and all measures available must be taken to protect both,” Ross said in a statement. “Public safety is the first priority. Consistent with the emergency consultation provisions under the ESA, Federal agencies may use any water as necessary to protect life and property in the affected areas.” The Mendocino Complex Fire burning in Northern California has devoured more than 300,000 acres and is significantly larger than any other fire ever recorded to burn in California, USA Today reported. President Donald Trump blamed bad environmental laws for diverting water from fighting fires to other, less pressing needs on Aug. 5. California disputed the claim, saying the state and its emergency personnel have “no shortage of water supplies” to fight fires without depleting…
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US and Chinese companies signed nearly 20 deals worth a total $9 billion on Wednesday at the start of President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang oversaw a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People but they did not immediately give details about…
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By Robert Romano OMG! Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross held stake in a company that ships natural gas, and actually found natural gas producers who wanted to ship it. One of them was Russia. Stop the presses! Actually, in this case, they probably should have stopped the presses. The breathless reporting by NBC News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to disclose to Congress his financial stake in Navigator Holdings Ltd., a British company that ships natural gas and liquid petrochemicals, which did business with Russia — is utterly false and completely indefensible. Nothing was hidden from Congress. So says Ross, in an exclusive interview with CNBC, saying, “That’s totally wrong. It was disclosed on the form 278 which is the financial disclosure form, in my case, three times,” Ross said. The form with his interest in Navigator, listed openly on the Office of Government Ethics website, was filed by Ross on Dec. 19, 2016, before Ross was ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate in Feb. 2017. That’s bad enough. But the allegation that a company that ships natural gas around the world, including from Russia — the number two producer of natural gas in the entire world second only…
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