House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings announced Monday that his panel would vote Wednesday on whether to refer a contempt vote to the full House for Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the citizenship question on the 2020 census. In a statement, Cummings called Barr and Ross “complicit” in trying to hide the motivation behind the question’s addition.
"The Trump Administration has demonstrated repeatedly that it is willing to disregard the Constitution, defy decades of clear precedent, and invent frivolous new arguments to delay and obstruct Congress' oversight authority, and Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross are complicit in this cover-up," Cummings said.
The Oversight panel has subpoenaed information related to the creation of the citizenship question the Trump administration is attempting to add to the 2020 census that experts say will discourage participation and lead to an undercount of immigrants. Recently discovered documents suggest the question was an explicit attempt to increase the power of white voters, thereby befitting Republicans at the ballot box. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the question in the coming weeks.