美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Administration's Delay In Census Printing Sets Up Count's 'Biggest Risk'

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump¹ says he wants to delay the upcoming 2020 census². Now, the Supreme³ Court has already ruled on this. It is keeping a citizenship⁴ question off the census for now; that's a question the president wanted. He, yesterday, said he has his own view.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You go through all this detail, and you're not allowed to ask whether or not somebody is a citizen? So you can ask other things, but you can't ask whether or not somebody's a citizen? So we are trying to do that. We're looking at that very strongly.

INSKEEP: The uncertainty⁵ is now affecting the scheduled printing of paper census forms because the time to do that has arrived. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has been tracking all of these developments. He's in New York.

Good morning.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE⁶: Good morning.

INSKEEP: OK. Yesterday was supposed to be the day the printing began. Did it?

WANG: All signs point to no. I have not gotten an official response from the Census Bureau or from the printing contractor⁷ R.R. Donnelley. But if you were to take a look at the website that's tracking the 2020 census materials and whether they've been approved, they have not been approved for printing.

And it appears that this is all over this citizenship question. Is this person a citizen of United States? President Trump wants to get that question onto the census forms even though, for now, the Supreme Court's keeping it off.

INSKEEP: You said for now. Didn't the court give a little bit of room to the administration here?

WANG: That's right. Technically⁸, the decision - the ball is back in the court of the Commerce Department, which oversees⁹ the Census Bureau, if you will. And so the Trump administration can try to make another case in court to give another reason for adding the citizenship question now that the Supreme Court has said the original reason the Trump administration at least said on paper seems to have been contrived¹⁰ - this reason that adding a citizenship question would have helped better enforce the Voting Rights Act.

And President Trump was asked yesterday at the White House why he thinks asking a citizenship question is so important on the census. And what's interesting - he didn't mention the Voting Rights Act. Let's listen to what President Trump said.

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TRUMP: I think it's very important to find out if somebody's a citizen, as opposed to an illegal. I think that there's a big difference to me between being a citizen of the United States and being an illegal.

INSKEEP: I feel compelled to just pause for a moment, Hansi, and make a couple of points of fact and language. First, referring to a human being as an illegal is something that a lot of people will find offensive, but it's what the president said, so we're telling you. Second, there are other kinds of people in America besides United States citizens and people here illegally. In fact, there are millions of them, so we note that as a point of fact. Go on.

WANG: We should also be clear that the citizenship question, if it is included on the 2020 census, would not be asking about immigration status. And noncitizens living in the U.S., whether they're green card holders¹¹ or unauthorized immigrants, would just check off a box that says, no, not a U.S. citizen.

INSKEEP: Why would that be so controversial to ask what the president describes as a simple question?

WANG: The Census Bureau has long known that asking about citizenship - those types of questions would be a very sensitive question, something that would make it hard for the Census Bureau and the government to meet a constitutional mandate¹² - once a decade, count every person living in the U.S. You don't see the term citizen when we're talking about the census in the Constitution.

And also, adding a citizenship question, Census Bureau researchers have found out, is not the best way to collect citizenship data. Actually, the best way the Census Bureau researchers have found is to compile existing government records, which would be more accurate and less expensive than asking a citizenship question.

INSKEEP: And, of course, the political bottom line here is that the census not only determines who gets more government aid or less, but also determines who has more or fewer representatives in the House. So there's a lot at stake if you can tweak the numbers in ways that affect that.

WANG: That's right. And the concern here is whether or not households with noncitizens will participate in the census next year.

INSKEEP: Hansi, thanks.

WANG: You're welcome.

INSKEEP: NPR's Hansi Lo Wang.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

4 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

5 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

8 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

9 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

10 contrived   

adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的

参考例句：

• There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
• The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。

11 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

12 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。