US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform said Monday it will consider whether Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross showed contempt for Congress in a controversy regarding the 2020 census.
“I am writing to inform you that the committee is scheduling a vote to hold you in contempt of Congress,” committee chairman Representative Elijah Cummings said in letters addressed to Barr and Ross.
Cummings said the vote was a result of their “failure to comply with a bipartisan subpoena issued more than two months ago for documents relating to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.”
A committee spokeswoman said the vote is scheduled for next week.
The House Oversight Committee said in a statement that Barr and Ross have until Thursday to produce withheld documents to avoid the vote.
The Department of Commerce refuted the committee’s grounds for the vote, saying “it is abundantly clear that the committee’s intent is not to find facts, but to desperately and improperly influence the Supreme Court with mere insinuations and conspiracy theories.”
At the center of the fight between the Democrat-led House of Representatives and the executive branch is whether to add a citizenship question in next year’s census.
The executive branch, led by the White House, supports adding the question while the Democratic Party says adding the question would benefit the Republican party politically.
The threat to hold Barr in contempt is in addition to another contempt charge against him over his position on the Mueller report. The full House is expected to vote next week on the previous contempt charge.
