Senate Democrats complained Wednesday that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross won’t be attending an upcoming hearing on the department’s fiscal 2020 funding request and suggested he is ducking hard questions about his earlier testimony regarding a plan to add a citizenship question on the U.S. census.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, who is the top Democrat on the panel, in a statement Wednesday suggested Ross has something to hide by declining the invitation to testify.
Leahy said Ross rejected an invitation from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to an annual hearing that will review the Commerce Department’s budget.
Leahy planned to question Ross about a “why he misled” the committee during his last appearance about who made the initial request to include a citizenship question on the next census.
Ross, a former investment banker, told the panel last year that the Justice Department requested the census include a citizenship question.
“That was false, it was Secretary Ross who first pressured a reluctant Justice Department,” Leahy said.
“My message to him: You’re not an investment banker anymore,” Leahy said. “You serve the American people, & part of your job is to be accountable to Congress & the public. What do you have to hide?”
A spokesperson for Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has not yet responded to a request for comment about Ross and his decision not to appear.
The Trump administration’s desire to include a citizenship question has run into legal challenges by several states. The Supreme Court now plans a hearing on the matter next month.
