House Committee Approves Resolution To Hold Commerce Secretary & Attorney General In Contempt

By a vote of 24-15, the House Oversight Committee approved a resolution recommending Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Attorney General William Barr be held in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in regard to the committee's investigation into a question about citizenship on the 2020 census.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) joined Democrats in voting in favor of the resolution.

The committee is seeking internal documents between the Justice Department and the Trump administration regarding how the citizenship question came to be and why.

Democrats assert the question was added in order to intimidate immigrants into not filing the census form. 

The census is used to determine how many federal lawmakers are allocated to each state. Should immigrants pass on filling out the form it would most probably benefit Republicans.