Hagerty Applauds House Passage of His Bill to End Counting of Illegal Aliens in Allocating Electoral College Votes and Congressional Seats, Urges Swift Senate Passage

House companion legislation to the Hagerty-authored bill was introduced by Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11)

WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Rules Committee, today applauded passage of the House version of the Hagerty-authored Equal Representation Act in the House of Representatives, legislation to ensure that only legal citizens are factored into the count for allotting congressional districts and the Electoral College votes that determine presidential elections. The current method of counting illegal aliens for purposes of representation dilutes the votes of Americans in areas with relatively few illegal aliens and serves as a perverse incentive for open borders and sanctuary cities to boost the relative political power of the states and voters that embrace these policies.

Earlier this year, video emerged of a Democrat House member from New York calling for more illegal immigration to her district for “redistricting purposes”, meaning that, because of population loss, she sought to fill her district with illegal aliens to keep from losing her seat.

“The House of Representatives rightly voted today to protect the power of Americans’ votes in our elections,” said Senator Hagerty. “It is unconscionable that illegal aliens and non-citizens are counted toward congressional district apportionment and our electoral map, which encourages illegal immigration and destroys equal representation by making some citizens’ votes more powerful than others, particularly in Democrat-run sanctuary cities. By voting unanimously to block this bill in the Senate earlier this year, Senate Democrats made chillingly clear that they will vote for anything that preserves their own power—even using illegal immigration to compromise Americans’ voting rights. We don’t count people here in the U.S. on temporary assignment or on vacation to allocate voting power—why would Democrats argue to count illegal aliens to allocate our congressional districts and the electoral vote? I thank Representative Edwards for his leadership in the House to get this important legislation across the finish line. The Senate must quickly follow suit and send this legislation to the President’s desk.”

Background:

• In January 2024, Hagerty led 20 of his Senate Republican colleagues in introducing the Equal Representation Act.
• In March 2024, every single Senate Democrat voted against Hagerty’s legislation as an amendment to appropriations bills, which put them on the record siding with illegal aliens over American citizens.
• The Equal Representation Act:
  • Requires that the Census Bureau include a citizenship question on any future census to provide a greater understanding of the U.S. population and delineate between citizens and non-citizens for apportionment purposes;
  • Prohibits non-citizens from being counted for purposes of congressional district and Electoral College apportionment; and
  • Requires that the Census Bureau publicly report on certain demographic data.