Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued the following statement after a Department of Commerce Inspectors General’s report found that former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross misled Congress regarding the origins and purpose of the Trump Administration’s campaign to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census:
“The independent Inspector General has confirmed what the Oversight Committee found in our extensive investigation: that Secretary Ross misled Congress and the American people about the true motivations behind the Trump Administration’s illegal efforts to add a citizenship question to the census. Lying to Congress is unacceptable, and the IG did the right thing by referring Secretary Ross’s conduct to the Justice Department.
“It is appalling that the Trump Administration subjected an undertaking as important as the decennial census to brazen political manipulation. The previous Administration’s efforts to skew the census for political gain put millions of Americans at risk of losing federal resources and representation, and I am proud of the fight we won on behalf of all Americans to fend off this partisan attack.
“Going forward, I’ll be continuing the Committee’s investigation to determine the full scope of the Trump Administration’s political interference with the census and identify ways to enhance the independence of the Census Bureau and protect future censuses from manipulation."
