[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 116 (Thursday, July 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, let me thank my friend from 
Missouri for what he and Senator Stabenow are trying to do on mental 
health. I know some States were included and other States were not, so 
I support that aspect of what he was talking about.


                              2020 Census

  Madam President, later today, President Trump will give a news 
conference in the Rose Garden about his attempts to create an Executive 
order to add citizenship questions to the 2020 census. That is 
outrageous. It is outrageous substantively, and it is outrageous 
because this President has so little respect for the rule of law. He 
thinks he can just issue Executive orders and go around the Congress, 
go around established law, and try to bully the courts. I believe he 
will be thwarted by the courts, and this will be a real test of John 
Roberts and the Supreme Court, whether they stand for the rule of law 
or are always looking for an excuse to move the country rightward. We 
will see.
  Today, the Trump administration has provided no legitimate legal 
rationale for adding this question to the census. Just yesterday, the 
New York Times reported that Justice Department lawyers ``resigned from 
the lawsuit out of ethical concerns and a belief that the suit was 
unwinnable.''
  Well, we all know what is going on. The Trump administration doesn't 
have a legitimate legal rationale. The true motivation was even clear 
before the papers of that deceased designer of this question came to 
light. The true rationale is blatantly political and self-serving. 
President Trump wants to include the citizenship question to intimidate 
minorities--particularly Latinos--from answering the census so that it 
undercuts those communities and Republicans can redraw congressional 
districts to their advantage.
  The Census Bureau itself determined weeks ago that including such a 
question would result in a significant undercount. That alone is enough 
for disqualification. That is not what the Constitution says--
manipulate the census so you don't get an accurate count. The President 
knows this. Yet he continues to pursue a cynical idea--typical of the 
President--cynical and against minorities, with no respect for the rule 
of law, mores, and values that made this country great. Day by day, he 
destroys them. Day by day.
  The President's action is nothing more than a naked political power 
grab, which is one of the few things he is good at as President. It 
shows once again just how little respect the President has for our 
democracy. It is also one prong in the Trump administration's 
multifaceted attack on communities of color. They are doing another one 
today in addition to this, which I will speak about in a minute.
  Let's not forget that the census is a constitutional mandate. It has 
been conducted impartially by Democratic and Republican administrations 
alike since 1790. It should be beyond the reach of partisan politics. 
But this President has such disdain for constitutional law norms and 
the rule of law that he will try anything to set the rules to his 
advantage, even if it means circumventing Congress and circumventing 
the courts. This is what dictators do in banana republics. They try to 
change the rules to consolidate political power no matter what their 
constitutions and rule of law say. The President is moving us in that 
direction, and our Republican colleagues are supine. They say nothing. 
Many of them know what he is doing is wrong, and knees clatter because 
they are too afraid to tell the President he is wrong.
  The American people should be outraged about this. Republican 
Senators should be outraged about this, but, like so many other 
instances in which the President subverts our Democratic norms, the 
silence from Republicans in Congress has been deafening and degrading 
to the very fabric of this wonderful democracy that the President day 
by day tries--usually unsuccessfully, thank God--to undo.