A pair of top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are calling for an investigation into the Department of Commerce's decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census forms.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Department of Commerce Inspector General Peg Gustafson, Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene CummingsBlack GOP candidate accuses Behar of wearing black face in heated interview Overnight Health Care: US won't join global coronavirus vaccine initiative | Federal panel lays out initial priorities for COVID-19 vaccine distribution | NIH panel: 'Insufficient data' to show treatment touted by Trump works House Oversight Democrats to subpoena AbbVie in drug pricing probe MORE (Md.) and Gerry Connolly Gerald (Gerry) Edward ConnollyJudge issues nationwide injunction against Postal Service changes House panel advances bill to ban Postal Service leaders from holding political positions Shakespeare Theatre Company goes virtual for 'Will on the Hill...or Won't They?' MORE (Va.) called into question the department's assertion that it added the question at the request of Department of Justice, citing three documents that indicated otherwise.

"In sworn testimony before multiple Committees of Congress in both the House and Senate, Secretary Ross and other Department officials repeatedly claimed that they decided to add the citizenship question 'solely' in response to the request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 12, 2017," they wrote, referring to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Wilbur Louis RossTrump admin asks Supreme Court to fast-track excluding people in U.S. illegally from census Trump 'very happy' to allow TikTok to operate in US if security concerns resolved TikTok, WeChat to be banned Sunday from US app stores MORE.

ADVERTISEMENT

"However, documents made public as part of ongoing litigation in New York v. United States Commerce Department demonstrate that the request in fact was initiated by the Commerce Department and coordinated with then-White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon Stephen (Steve) Kevin BannonJuan Williams: Swamp creature at the White House Engineers say privately funded border wall is poorly constructed and set to fail: report Bannon and Maxwell cases display DOJ press strategy chutzpah MORE long before the December 2017 request from DOJ," the lawmakers added.

Cummings and Connolly noted that they have sought documents from both departments and the Census Bureau, which they said they have not received. They alleged that Ross has refused "to comply with our oversight requests," citing "ongoing litigation."

The lawmakers also blasted their GOP counterparts on the Oversight Committee for opting not to back their requests for the information.

"Congress and Inspectors General have an obligation to conduct independent oversight of Executive Branch agencies. We should avoid interfering with ongoing litigation, but we also should not allow the existence of litigation to prevent us from doing our own jobs," the Democratic lawmakers wrote.

"Therefore, we request that your office investigate the Department of Commerce’s process in adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census, whether Secretary Ross and the Department of Commerce meaningfully considered concerns expressed by experts at the Census Bureau, and the extent to which Secretary Ross and other Commerce officials were involved in this decision."



The Department of Commerce first said that the citizenship question would be placed on the census in March, an announcement that was met with sharp criticism from Democrats who argued the Trump administration move was discriminatory.