An amendment championed by Kentucky’s junior U.S. Senator would change the way deployed military personnel are counted in the Census.
Rand Paul’s amendment would require the Census to count all deployed servicemen and women at the base or port where they lived before deployment. Currently, those individuals are counted as part of the U.S. overseas population.
Senator Paul, a Republican from Bowling Green, told WKU Public Radio the change would make a big difference to communities around Fort Campbell.
“A lot of things are decided based on how big your community. So if we don’t count the soldiers, and, let’s say Hopkinsville had 49,000 people, but if we did count the soldiers and Hopkinsville had 59,000 people, it would make a big difference in how the government treats the city of Hopkinsville.”
Paul’s amendment, known as the Service Members and Communities Count Act, was added to the National Defense Authorization Act Thursday. Two years ago, the same amendment was attached to legislation but was ultimately removed before the bill was signed into law.
Paul says he’s hopeful the amendment will become law this time around.
“(The Act) will probably pass overwhelmingly. The only question is whether the amendment will be left in during conference committee. But I would say the chances are pretty high, and we’re going to try to keep pushing to keep it in there.”
Paul also voted in favor of another amendment that would have required the Army to maintain a minimum of 32 brigade combat teams in the regular and reserve components. That amendment was defeated, with only 23 Senators voting in favor, and 73 opposed.
