‘Will This Rule Make Our World & Our Country Safer?’: Grace Meng Asks Raimondo About Firearm Bill

4 months ago

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) questioned Secretary Of Commerce Gina Raimondo about the census and regulating firearm export licenses.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Secretary Raimondo, for your tremendous work and for

00:06being here today.

00:07I wanted to go back to the citizenship question that was mentioned earlier.

00:13As you know well, and you alluded to, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states

00:19that representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their

00:23respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.

00:28I know that you and the public servants who lead the Census Bureau take this mandate from

00:32the Constitution seriously.

00:35Is there any agency in the federal government that keeps track of non-citizens?

00:38You have stumped me, Congresswoman.

00:43I assume, like the U.S.?

00:46Yeah, I mean, not certainly in my permit, no, remit, no.

00:53Why is the practice of counting every person living in each state needed to produce an

00:58accurate and full census?

01:02Because as you well know, and every governor knows, and I know this from being governor,

01:06the census is just about getting information, right?

01:10So how much housing is required in a particular state?

01:14How much, you know, how many people are going to be in the schools?

01:18And that's why I bristle at any, you know, political interference, frankly, from either

01:24side as it relates to the census.

01:27It's like, just the facts, ma'am.

01:29So we have experts collect, as you say, follow the Constitution, every person.

01:36Undercounting, undercounting is a problem because it's an inaccurate picture of what's

01:43going on in every state and what kind of public safety services are needed, what kind

01:49of educational services are needed.

01:52If people are afraid, if people are afraid because of their immigration status to talk

01:59to the census counter, we're not going to get an accurate number.

02:02And that inaccuracy prevents us from doing the best job we can at running government

02:08at the state level and the federal level.

02:11And if we were to violate what the Constitution has charged the Census Bureau to do, would

02:17that potentially affect the amount of federal funding that a state could receive?

02:23Absolutely, yes.

02:26Thank you.

02:27I wanted to also thank you for your department's recent action on regulating licenses for firearms

02:33experts.

02:34I know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are extremely concerned, as we

02:41are, about the threats posed by transnational criminal networks and adversarial governments.

02:47So I must say that I'm confused by their opposition to their proposed change.

02:53I want to ask if this rule will keep American guns out of the hands of drug traffickers.

03:01We hope it will.

03:02That's certainly its intention.

03:04And that's how we're going to enforce it.

03:05I'll say I was recently in Costa Rica, a region of great instability.

03:11And the president there was, you know, they are a democracy.

03:14They're trying to develop their economy.

03:18And that's good for the United States, to have an ally with a thriving democracy in

03:21that region.

03:22Contrast that with, say, Ecuador.

03:24So we're doing this, again, not for political reasons, but for our own foreign policy.

03:32It's not in our interest for drug traffickers, terrorists, murderers, you know, people interested

03:38in fomenting instability and destroying democracy, to have guns.

03:43And will this rule decrease the number of American guns in the hands of foreign terrorists

03:50and transnational criminal organizations?

03:53Yes, we believe that it will.

03:56And will this rule make our world and our country safer?

04:00Yes, we believe it will.

04:03And finally, how will the funding that the Department of Commerce has requested for fiscal

04:08year 2025 enable the Bureau of Industry and Security to continue its work of protecting

04:15our national security, especially as it relates to gun violence?

04:21We are asking for additional funds for more analysts, more technologists, more data sets,

04:30more technology, and more enforcement agents.

04:36So you know, we can have the best policy in the world, but if we don't have enough people

04:41to enforce it, we're not going to be effective.

04:45Thank you.

04:46I yield back.

‘Will This Rule Make Our World & Our Country Safer?’: Grace Meng Asks Raimondo About Firearm Bill

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