The legislation, known as the "Equal Representation Act," was led by Rep. Chuck Edwards, (R-N.C.), who spoke on the floor Wednesday regarding the need to ensure only American citizens are counted when apportioning congressional seats and Electoral College votes.

It passed in a vote of 206-202 along party lines.

The measure would direct the Census Bureau to add a question to the once-a-decade census asking whether or not the respondent is a citizen of the United States. It asks that only citizens be considered when determining how many lawmakers each state gets in the House of Representatives, as well as how many Electoral College votes each of the 50 states receives.

The measure creates new reporting requirements for data gathered from the citizenship question, noting that "the citizenship makeup of the population in the United States is a basic data point that should be available to U.S. policymakers, and the decennial census questionnaire is the best way to obtain such detailed information on citizenship status."

The next decennial census is set to take place in 2030.

"Though commonsense dictates that only citizens should be counted for apportionment purposes, illegal aliens have nonetheless recently been counted toward the final tallies that determine how many House seats each state is allocated and the number of electoral votes it will wield in presidential elections," Mr. Edwards said in remarks on the floor on Wednesday.

"And since the illegal alien population is not evenly distributed throughout the nation, American citizens in some states are losing representation in Congress to illegal aliens in other states, " he added.