We're Better Than This by Elijah Cummings

Author:Elijah Cummings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2020-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Chasing Truth

Following the Cohen hearings and the groundwork they laid, the Oversight Committee set out on a series of nonstop investigations of the Trump administration’s relentless and reckless disregard for precedent, decency, or law.

A shorthand version of our calendar of hearings read: Blocked access to documents from the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services; failure to address the opioid crisis; lack of transparency in the administration; the 2020 Census and the attempt to add a vote-suppressing citizenship question; climate change inaction/denial and rollbacks; immigration policy of child separation; veterans and active-duty military suicides; confronting white supremacy; health care for veterans; violations of the Hatch Act (in particular Kellyanne Conway); embargo of documents from the FBI, GSA, and Office of Personnel Management; the administration’s attack on the Affordable Care Act; immigration again on kids in cages and inhumane treatment at the border; lessons after Hurricane Maria; immigration yet again on Homeland Security under Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan; vaping and the nicotine epidemic; skyrocketing drug prices; deportation of critically ill children and families; Syria policy; and even the extravagant cost of the administration’s self-promoting Fourth of July parade.

We were out of breath trying to keep up. We all felt the immense, unabated urgency and pressure. The American public had entrusted us to be the check on this president that had been absent for two years. With the next election only two years away, we knew we had a limited window to achieve meaningful progress. We had to set priorities—even in a tidal wave of disasters, some more disastrous than others.

In March 2019, the committee began a series of hearings on the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census and the attempt by the Commerce Department to add a question about citizenship. It might seem to be innocent, maybe even sensible, to have a question on citizenship—Is this person a citizen of the United States?—when you’re counting up population and other related data. Unless the reason behind the question was not innocent. Unless it was a smoke screen for another motive.

The supposed rationale for the question was based on a letter signed in late 2017 by Arthur Gary, career lawyer at the Justice Department, to Commerce Department officials stating: “The Department of Justice is committed to robust and even-handed enforcement of the Nation’s civil rights laws and fair elections for all Americans. In furtherance of that commitment, I write on behalf of the Department to formally request that the Census Bureau reinstate on the 2020 Census questionnaire a question regarding citizenship, formerly included in the so-called ‘long form’ census. This data is critical to the Department’s enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting.” There was nothing innocent about it. It was the opposite of innocent.

The scheme—and it turned out to be a scheme—to add a question about citizenship was nothing but an attempt to undermine the Voting Rights Act. Instead of assuring people’s right to vote, it would intimidate people into not being counted, scare them into not voting, thereby limiting their power, rights, and benefits.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.