By Michael O'Brien - 12/21/10 02:33 PM ET

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) blamed illegal immigrants for his state losing a congressional seat in the Census Bureau's reapportionment.

Vitter said Louisiana lost a seat because other states were welcoming of illegal immigrants, who were in turn counted in population totals used to determine the number of seats in Congress each state is allowed in the next 10 years.

"Last year, I tried to prevent this from happening with my amendment to require a citizenship question on the census and to prevent the counting of illegal immigrants for the purpose of apportionment,â€