Over the weekend, former President Donald Trump took the extraordinary and unprecedented step of suggesting that provisions of the United States Constitution should be “terminated”, as part of his ongoing attempts to overturn the 2020 election, writing, “do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
In response, I called upon all my colleagues from both parties to join me in denouncing President Trump’s attack on our Constitution. Much to my relief, much of the response from lawmakers and Americans from across the political spectrum has been a complete repudiation of this abandonment of American legal and constitutional precedent, as well as our broader commitment to the rule of law. I’m glad that the vast majority of American share my recognition that our Constitution is a document consecrated in the blood of generations of Americans who gave their last full measure of devotion to build and sustain a nation committed to the freedom of its people. Those American heroes made their sacrifice recognizing that our nation is more important than the ambitions of any one party or individual. Next month, I’ll be taking my oath of office for the fourth time, swearing to defend the Constitution with my colleagues from both parties, just as Donald Trump did when he took office. The former president’s recent comments serve as another reminder that our commitment to the Constitution and the nation it created must be rooted in principle, and not self-interest.
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Congressman Krishnamoorthi discusses former President Donald Trump’s attack on the United States Constitution with Yasmin Vossoughian over the weekend (click the image above to watch the full interview).
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On Thursday, the House passed the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies the rights of same-sex and interracial couples to marry found in the Supreme Court decisions of both Obergefell v. Hodges and Loving v. Virginia. As a Vice Chair of the House LBGTQ+ Equality Caucus, I was proud to help enshrine marriage equality in law as part of our broader work toward becoming a more inclusive nation. This legislation is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he will sign this historic and monumental achievement for human rights into law.
This week, the House also passed the bipartisan annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the bipartisan Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA), two key pieces of legislation that will strengthen America’s national security. As a proud member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I understand firsthand how important these bills are for keeping our nation safe, and I’m glad that several pieces of legislation I authored to strengthen our defense and intelligence capabilities were included in the package. The provisions I spearheaded will improve the oversight of military aid sent to Ukraine, combat the Chinese Communist Party’s investments in international port infrastructure, provide supplies necessary to address the global food crisis exacerbated by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and better prepare workers to support our intelligence community. The NDAA and IAA now head to the Senate, where I hope to see swift passage of these crucial American defense bills.
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On Monday, I wrote a letter to U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos continuing my investigation into the Census Bureau’s undercounting of Illinois over the last decade in its annual American Community Survey (ACS) data, as well as the 2020 Decennial Census, which led to our state receiving less federal funding than it should have. When the 2020 Census results revealed that the ACS had been undercounting Illinois’ population for years by drastically overreporting the decline in its population, I opened my investigation and began discussions with the Census Bureau staff on correcting the annual population count issues. In May, with the release of another Census Bureau study designed to verify the accuracy of the 2020 Census, the Post-Enumeration Survey (PES), we learned that the failures of the previous Census Bureau results had been far more flawed than anyone had realized. Rather than losing population over the previous decade, our state’s population actually grew to more than 13 million, the highest level in our state’s history. My letter on Monday builds on the questions I raised with the Census Bureau in the spring as I’ve begun to press the agency to better audit its previous undercounting and incorporating the methodology of the PES study into future population estimates to ensure Illinoisans are properly counted and receive our fair share of the $1.5 trillion in federal funding which will be allocated to states based on Census Bureau population data. In my latest letter, I have asked Census Director Santos to lay out the Bureau’s course of action for implementing its new approach before December 19th. You can read my full letter to the Census Director by clicking here.
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The best way to stay up to date on these issues beyond our newsletter is through my social media accounts, which I update multiple times each day. You can follow my Twitter here, my Facebook page here, and my Instagram here. Thank you for staying engaged in our community.
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P.S. I always enjoy hearing from constituents, so feel free to comment and share my social media posts! Here are the links: Twitter here, Facebook page here, and Instagram here. |
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