GOP reps question Biden admin on alleged ‘political interference’ in census, citing departure from estimates

Republicans cite departures from census estimates in letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo

More than a dozen House Republicans Friday are questioning Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on whether there “was any political interference” in the final census numbers used to decide how many House members each state will get for the coming decade. 

The letter, first obtained by Fox News, is led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

The Republican House members cited gaps between the number of House seats some right-leaning states were projected to gain — or some left-leaning states were projected to lose — and the final results announced this week.

They told Raimondo, overseeing the Census Bureau, that they “have questions about the methodology and the role the Biden White House may have played in releasing these numbers.”

Letter to Commerce Re-Apportionment Count 4302021 PDF

“The apportionment population results released by the Census Bureau are strikingly different from the population evaluation estimates released just months ago on December 22, 2020,” the GOP members wrote. “Remarkably, the differences benefit traditionally blue states – which gained population compared to the estimates – over red states which tended to lose population compared to the estimates.”

They added: “For example, New York was estimated to have a population of 19,336,776, but was attributed an apportionment population much greater than that of 20,215,751, a difference of nearly 900,000 individuals. Likewise, states such as New Jersey and Illinois experienced large population increases of hundreds of thousands of individuals compared to the December estimates, while states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas experienced large decreases from the December estimates.”

By Tyler Olson

Read Full Article on FOXNews.com