Sponsor
Tom Barrett
Representative · R-MI
Representative · R-MI
Official title: To require a citizenship question on the decennial census, to require reporting on certain census statistics, to modify apportionment of Representatives to be based on United States citizens instead of all persons, to prohibit States from carrying out more than one Congressional redistricting after a decennial census and apportionment, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 21, 2026 by Tom Barrett · Last progress January 21, 2026
The bill shifts census reporting and apportionment toward a citizen‑based framework that benefits states with more citizens and supplies citizenship‑level data for planning and enforcement, but it risks undercounts, privacy and safety harms for immigrant communities, reduced representation and political influence for noncitizen‑heavy areas, and greater legal and administrative burdens.
States with higher citizen populations will receive apportionment based on citizens rather than total residents, potentially increasing their House seats and Electoral College weight and aligning representation with voter eligibility.
State governments and policymakers (and researchers) will get citizenship‑disaggregated counts shortly after the census, improving planning, resource allocation, and program design that rely on citizen/noncitizen population breakdowns.
States that lawfully complete post‑apportionment congressional maps avoid frequent midcycle redistricting, providing more stable representation for voters and preserving State/local authority over non‑congressional election administration while retaining court authority to order remedial maps when constitutional violations occur.
Noncitizen and mixed‑status households may avoid responding or misreport citizenship, producing undercounts that could reduce federal funding and distort apportionment and resource allocation for states and localities.
Collecting and publicly releasing citizenship‑disaggregated counts and asking about unlawful presence raises privacy and civil‑liberties risks, stigmatizes immigrant communities, and could expose respondents to perceived or actual legal danger or misuse by enforcement actors.
States with large noncitizen resident populations risk losing House seats and Electoral College votes once apportionment is based on citizens, reducing their federal representation after the 2030 census.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Adds a citizenship checkbox to future decennial censuses, excludes noncitizens from apportionment counts beginning with the 2030 apportionment, and limits additional congressional redistricting between apportionments.
Requires the Census Bureau to add a citizenship-status checkbox to the decennial census (first applied for 2030 and thereafter) and to publish state-level counts by four citizenship/residency categories. Changes the apportionment base so noncitizens are excluded from the population counts used to allocate U.S. House seats and Electoral College votes starting with the 2030 apportionment. Also bars states from conducting another congressional redistricting after a lawful post-apportionment redistricting until the next apportionment, except when a court orders a new map to remedy constitutional violations or enforce the Voting Rights Act.