Senate Proceeding 10-14-09 on Oct 14th, 2009 :: 0:15:50 to 0:30:10
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0:15:32 to 0:15:53( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: supplying aisproportionate -- a disproportionate number of combat assets for that purpose i thank the chair the i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk

0:15:50 to 0:30:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: David Vitter

0:15:54 to 0:16:15( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: will call the roll. mr. vitter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. mr. vitter: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to end the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection, so mr. vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise to talk about my pending amendment to the commerce-justice-state appropriations bill, amendment

0:16:16 to 0:16:37( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: number 2644. mr. president, apatiently -- apparently this has created some interest and some oppition. it apparently is one of the major if not "the" reason the majority leader felt the need to file cloture on the commerce-justice-state bill

0:16:38 to 0:17:00( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: rather than simply come to agreement regarding pending amendments and votes. it sa saddens me that he, through that agreement which was all worked out, basically, out the window and decided to file cloture and bar votes on awful

0:17:01 to 0:17:21( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: those amendments, including my amendment number 2644. i think we should have a reasonable debate on my amendment and then a straightforward vote on my amendment, because it's an important topic directly related to that bill. who does the amendment do? mr. president, my amendment is about the next census

0:17:22 to 0:17:45( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: simply says that no funds in that appropriation bill can be spent on the next census unless we ask about citizenship. i believe that's a basic requirement for the next census to give us adequate tools to deal with a whole host of issues, including illegal

0:17:46 to 0:18:06( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: immigration, including properly handling congressional reapportionment. and again, mr. president, i find it very sad and, quite frank, telling that the majority leader -- quite frankly, telling that the majority leader is going to such lengths to avoid having a vote on that simple concept, that simple ide why should we ask a question

0:18:07 to 0:18:28( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: about well, a couple of reasons. first of all, mr. president, the census is supposed to give us in congress important information, detailed information, the tools we need regarding how to handle a host of federal programs and federal issues. now, major issue we need to deal with

0:18:29 to 0:18:49( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: in this country and in this congress is immigration, including illegal immigration. seems like basic information we would want to folks covered in the census are citizens and how many are noncitizens. that's basic information that

0:18:50 to 0:19:12( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: would help us in a whole host of ways with regard to federal programs and with regard to dealing with the immigration issue. mr. president, there's another even more important, in my opinion, reason we should collect this information and that's because one of the most important things any census i used for is reapportioning the u.s. house of representatives,

0:19:13 to 0:19:33( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: determing how many house seats each state in the union gets in terms of representation. as it stands now, mr. president, the plan is to do the census, to not distinguish in any way between citizens and noncitizens and, therefore, to have

0:19:34 to 0:19:55( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: noncitizens counted in congressional real estate portionment. i think thi i think this is crazy and goes against the real idea of a representative democcy, people being elected by voters to represent citizens in the united states congress. i don't think the founding fathers set up our democracy to

0:19:56 to 0:20:16( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: have noncitizens represented in the united states congress. so as it stands now, without asking that simple, basic, ndamental question, noncitizens will be counted in congressional reapportionment. that means states with a particularly lar number of

0:20:17 to 0:20:38( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: noncitizens, including illegal aliens, will be rewarded for that, will get more representation, more say, more clout i the u.s. house of representatives. states who don have that issue will be hurt, they'll get less say, less clout, less members of the u.s. house of representatives.

0:20:39 to 0:21:00( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: i think that is wrong. i also have a very specific interest in fighting against that because louisiana is one of eight states that would specifically be hurt. there are at least eight states who will have less representation in the u.s. house

0:21:01 to 0:21:25( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: of representatives if we count all -- all people in congressional reapportionment, including noncitizens versus if we just count citizens. i think it's important toay what those eight states are, and i specifically reached out to the senators representing those eight specific states to make it

0:21:28 to 0:21:48( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: clear to them that their states lose out in terms of that equation. and those states are indiana, iowa, maine, michigan, pennsylvania, mississippi, north carolina, and louisiana. again, those eight states would have less representation, less say, less clout in the u.s.

0:21:49 to 0:22:11( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: house of representatives if all people, including noncitizens are dmowntd congressional reapportionment versus if only citizens are counted. once again: indiana, iowa, maine, michigan, pennsylvania, mississippi, north carolina, and louisiana. i particularly implore my colleagues, democrats and

0:22:12 to 0:22:33( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: republicans, to be aware of that, to support the vitter amendment and so that we get to a vote on the vitter amendment number 2644 to vote against cloture on the entire bill. now, unfortunately, there are several senators from those states who voted for cloture yesterday.

0:22:34 to 0:22:54( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: i hope they would reconsider. i hope they would see that they, if they vote for cloture again, they would be preventing us getting to this issue, they would be preventing us getting to a reasonable and full debate and vote on this issue. so i'd implore all the senators

0:22:55 to 0:23:15( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: from i understand, including senator bayh who voted for cloture previously; from iowa, including the senators will who voted for cloture previously; the two senators from michigan; the two senators from pennsylvania; the democratic senator democratic senator from louisiana.

0:23:16 to 0:23:36( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: please, don't vote for cloture againntil we can get a reasonable vote on this amendment. let me specifically address, mr. president, some of the arguments that have been made against this amendment because i think they're completely erroneous. one argument is that this will

0:23:37 to 0:23:57( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: intimidate folks and discourage noncitizens from filling out the census form. i think it's important to note, number one, that this citizenship question is asked in the long form, and the long form gets millions of responses and the census has never noted any

0:23:58 to 0:24:19( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: difficulty in getting folks to fill out the long form. this question is also asked in the american community survey, which the census bureau does. again, same citizenship question asked here. we get plenty of the census bureau has never noted a big problem in terms of

0:24:20 to 0:24:41( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: getting those responses. to make this perfectly clear, i am perfectly willing to revise my amendment so that we only focus on citizenship, not immigration status, and i'll be happy it only mentions and only focuses on citizenship versus immigration status. the other argument that the

0:24:42 to 0:25:03( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: census bureau itself has apparently made is that this would be cumbersome and cost money at ts stage in the census. now, mr. president, quite frankly, i find this pretty ironic coming from a bureaucracy which is spending $13 billion on

0:25:04 to 0:25:24( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: this new census, up $4.5 billion from the last census. so here's a bureaucracy where the cost of the new census versus the last census has tripled $13 billion, but asking this one question, which they already ask

0:25:25 to 0:25:46( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: in the long form, which they already ask in the american community survey, is a huge problem and will cost too much money. that's simply silly on its face, mr. president. it's important to do this right, and certainly asking a basic question like citizenship is central to doing it right. so

0:25:47 to 0:26:09( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: i'd urge all of my colleagues to demand a vote on this important issue and to vote against cloture on the bill until we get that vote. and then, mr. president, when we get that vote, i'd ue all of my colleagues to support t vitter amendment number 2644. it is very simple and straightforward.

0:26:10 to 0:26:30( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: it will say, ask the citizenship question. let us know how many folks in the overall count are citizens and how many are noncitizens. that's absolutely essential, number one, so we can use the census information as a full tool in many of the programs and policies we debate and implement here in congress.

0:26:31 to 0:26:52( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: and, number two, it's particularly important for congressional reapportionment. i don't believe noncitizens should be counted in congressional reapportionment. i don't have particularly large noncitizen populations should have more s and more clout because of that in congress and

0:26:53 to 0:27:13( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: states who don't, like louisiana, should be penalized. i don't believe those eight states in particular -- louisiana, indiana, iowa, maine, michigan, pennsylvania, mississippi, north carolina -- should be penalized by including noncitizens in congressional reapportionmt.

0:27:14 to 0:27:34( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: and i certainly don't believe senators representing those eight states should vote either for cloture, cutting off a vote on my amendment, or should vote against my again, i would particularly urge all senators from those eight states to stand up for their states, to vote

0:27:35 to 0:27:55( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: of their states, to vote for their states getting full and proper representation, to vote against their states being penalized in terms of the census and in terms of congressional reapportionment. again, mr. president, a simple issue but a very basic and fundamental issue.

0:27:56 to 0:28:17( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: the census is an important tool. it only happens once every ten years. we need to get it right for a whole host of reasons, particularly with congressional reapportionment in mind. i dare say, if any members of this body go bachome to their state and have a discussion in a

0:28:18 to 0:28:39( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: diner, have a town hall meeting, just ask a representative group of citizens, "did you know that noncitizens, inclu aliens, are not only counted in the census but we don't discriminate, we don't know the numbers of noncitizens versus citizens

0:28:40 to 0:29:01( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: did i know that all of those noncitizens are factored in to determing how many each state gets?" so that states with very large noncitizen populations, including large numbers of illegal aliens, are rewarded for that. they get more clout and say and vote in the u.s. house of

0:29:02 to 0:29:22( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: representatives and other states states, particularly the eight states i mentioned, are penalized because of that? i dare say the average citizen would be disunne stunned about that, and would say, hardly with any exception, that's not right. we should know those numbers and we shouldn't count noncitizens terms of house representation.

0:29:23 to 0:29:43( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: and i certainly think citizens and voters in indiana, in iowa, in maine, in michigan, pennsylvania, mississippi, north carolina and louisiana would certainty sale, wait minute, we're being penalized because noncitizens are being worked in to the formula

0:29:44 to 0:30:05( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: for representation in congress? that's crazy. s iit is crazy, mr. president. it doesn't meet the smell test. it doesn't meet the commonsense test of themerican people, and we should took the make sure that the next census is done right, starting by having a vote on the vitter amendment number

0:30:06 to 0:30:11( Edit History Discussion )

David Vitter: 2644 and by passing that