EXCERPT:
KEILAR: "You have long been critical of the Trump administration for adding a question on U.S. citizenship to the 2020 census. They say that this information is going to allow the administration to protect voting rights, if they know how many eligible voters live in a community they can identify potential voter suppression. What’s your response to that?"
JAYAPAL: "It’s a naked political ploy to depress participation in the census. And it’s really outrageous to me. I was hoping that Wilbur Ross would have a much more nuanced view and be able to come out and say, 'You know, the most important thing is that we do a very good census.' The Constitution says that you need to enumerate people for the census. And that leads, Brianna, as you very well know, to how federal dollars get allocated, it leads to how congressional districts are apportioned and it leads to how many Electoral College votes different states have. So this is a very, very important tool for us to determine all kinds of things, and to put a citizenship question in there will absolutely depress turnout, will absolutely depress participation. And is overturning, since 1960 we haven’t had a census — a citizenship question as a central part of the census. So I'm very concerned about it."