Did anyone else receive one of these? According to their web site, US Code Title 13, sections Section 141 and Section 193 your response is required by law.
In reality, those sections outline that The Secretary (who is presumably defined elsewhere) can take surveys as a part of their census process. It is Section 221 that requires you to respond:
Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided…
That’s just a crock.
Oh, sure, census information is useful and all that. It’s just the principal of it. I guess I’ll have to ask the nice lady who came to my door for some evidence that she is an authorized officer or employee of the Deparment of Commerce, or a bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of The Secretary.
Heck, I’d pay the $100 if it weren’t for Title 18, Section 3571 (allegedly Section 3559 as well, but that seems to deal with imprisonment and not monetary fines). With it on the books, the “not greater than $100” fine becomes “not greater than $5000” fine. That really blows.
Comments
718 responses to “American Community Survey”
File under : Those on our side
Anything written by John W. Whitehead, Rutherford Institute
The best written argument for not responding to the ACS was written by Kevin Hayden, How to Legally Refuse to Participate in the Census Survey, featured on truthistreason.net.
Then there is the CATO Congressional Testimony, testimony of Dr. Edward L. Hudgens before the Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on the Census, US House of Representatives, dated July 20, 2000, featured on cato.org/testimony/ct-eh072000.html
HLSDA, a legal defense group which protects homeschooling is watching the CB.
World Net Daily
Many blogs and websites.
File under : who supports the CB
The list is EXTENSIVE with HUGE lobbying abilities.
COSSA – a lobby group which represents the social, economic and behavioral scientists all over the country
Your state’s library system
Your state’s department of labor, dept of social services
AARP
AFSCME (American federation of state, county and municipal employees
American sociological assosiation
Arab American institute foundation
Asian American justice center
Association of population centers
Association of public data users
City of Los Angeles
City of NY
Coalition of Human needs
Council for community and economic research
Council of professional associations on federal statistics
International council of shopping centers
Japanese American citizens league
Leadership conference on civil rights
Mexican American legal defense and education fund
NAACP
National association of counties
National association of latino elected and appointed officials education fund
National conference of state legislators
National low income housing coalition
National science foundation
Organization of Chinese Americans
Population reference bureau
LaRaza
Southeast michigan census council
UN
UPS
US conference of mayors
Walmart
Westal statistical group
Add in many more marketing groups, child advocacy groups, elderly research groups and geologists.
What do these groups all want – DATA. Your data. To intrude on your life to get your data. As much as they can. Their jobs depend upon it. Deprive them of their addiction.
Over the past 50 years, the CB has constructed more and more invasive surveys, which have been responsible for states no longer providing for citizens and citizen taxes going from 5% of income to 25%.
Protect your info. protect your privacy and tell your elected officials that they will be replaced because they didn’t protect you.
When the CB petitioned the congressional subcommittee to add the “mandatory” to the ACS, it was done with the stipulation that no one would be fined, only threatened with the fines. No one has been fined because that would give standing in court to file a suit and the CB doesn’t want that, ever!
Understand that those in congress don’t care what you think. Ron Paul has introduced legislation to stop this and it has gone no where. The CB fights back. It has its “rapid response team” which goes out to stamp out any negative stories about its surveys. It convinces the press and congress to see the value in collecting this data, which it doles out so the press can publish stories using the data. The CB even has classes for the press in using the data. As for congress, the data is a pandering goldmine. Your congressman will be told that since there are no fines there is really no problem and the survey give info on voters. Only a VERY Constitutional principled representative will fight this. Know any? I can count on one hand the number who want the survey stopped.
You want this to stop – GIVE OUT NO DATA! No names, no ages, no genders, nothing. You are not required to answer anything. It is not in the Constitution. The ACS is not used for the census, so the enumeration question is used to extend the mandate of the census to the ACS. Since it is not an official census, no one needs to answer that question either.
Where in the Constitution does congress or the CB have the authority to ask any questions on a survey or anything on the decennial census beyond the enumeration question? It doesn’t have it. The CB uses the excuse that it has always asked questions, so it will continue.
These surveys are a product of decades of progressive thinking. The more one knows about the population, the more the gov can develop programs to shove down out throats. This is nanny state thinking. It is run by a bunch of social, economic and behavioral scientists who think they can understand the data they collect. MORONS! None of them can completely comprehend what the data means because of all the choices one can make in constructing a lifestyle. If their work had been any good, our economy wouldn’t have gone off a cliff.
The fight is going to be individual by individual saying NO to this intrusion, followed by having a new congress cut the CB funding for all the surveys leaving the CB with only the census. The CB is nothing more than a money pit.
Progress has been made since I started fighting this. There are many people reporting on this. More and more people have been effected by this. There will be more outrage over the ACS this year because it overlaps the 2010 census. The CB in its infinite wisdom failed to for see the anger from doing both at the same time. Spreading the word to others is important. The CB’s ultimate goal for the ACS is to have every residence get the survey once or twice in 10 years.
Remember, the ACS was created because of the backlash from the 2000 census long form. Congress received so many complaints that the CB director feared that the public would boycott the next census. That is why everyone received a short form census for the 2010.
Thank you for the postings above. Yesterday I was wondering if Mr., Dr., Congressman Ron Paul is still working on stopping this ACS? or has it been abandoned? since they- the elite, can get away from not doing it so they don’t care. They always have the advantage of being the insiders and are better off than the rest of us. That’s not right. Who would dare to make numerous phone calls and to come to their dwelling places to demand the personal info?
I haven’t heard from the reps lately but I admit it’s on my mind everyday, and that’s not healthy! In case the State or the City conducts this survey I won’t respond either. Maybe I’ll check out the book 1984 which I’d heard a long time ago but never read it.
Have a nice day, everyone.
KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFO PRIVATE PEOPLE…STOP ACS NOW!
Only a very naive person would fill out the American Community Survey (ACS) with all the risk associated with the need to protect personal security. Let’s see if I have this right…I am required by law to give up my private information to ACS which imposes fines from $100 (possibly up to $5,000 in fines/penalties) and even threatens me with imprisonment should I dare deny them of this information and yet, THEY DO NOT EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT MY PERSONAL INFORMATION. Every act that creates something like the American Community Survey also contains provisions by which it is ABSOLVED of all responsibility for failure to protect this information. History shows, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. For additional reading on this topic,
google: lizmichael+census
Is the American Community Survey or ACS a survey or an Interrogation?
For info on this topic, google: checkpointusa+census+census
FREE legal services anyone?
Why is it to date, it appears no one has been fined for not responding to or completing the American Community Survey (ACS) since it is required by law to do so? Are you being harassed by the Census Bureau or do you feel your civil rights have been violated? If so, the below web site seems to provide FREE legal services to people whose constitutional and human rights have been threatened or violated.
For more info on FREE LEGAL SERVICES, google:
censusthis+wordpress+2010+05+29+being+harassed-by-the-senseless=bureau
People please…Talk to everyone you know about this senseless census survey (ACS) and ask them to contact their congressional leaders to support and help pass bill H.R. 3131 into law. Get this message out to facebook and all other social media groups you know of including youtube and even call into C-SPAN as often as you can, asking questions and having discussions on this topic discussed on air. The mainstream media will not give any air time on helping this bill to be brought to the public’s attention so it is up to all of us, “WE THE PEOPLE” to help make it happen. Once the bill is passed into law it would then make participation in the ACS voluntary to being mandatory as it is now. To my knowledge, you would still have to answer questions like those found on the long form Census you receive every 10 years BUT not anything remotely close to what is being asked of you on the ACS questionnaire.
Oh by the way, I just got my second ACS survey in the mail today. It’s been about a month since I received my last survey. To my knowledge the survey form’s OMB # 0607-0810 (referenced to paperwork project on back of survey and see front bottom of survey for OMB data) has expired back in 5-31-08. I have tried several weeks to confirm this at the white house dot gov website or google for info at:
whitehouse+gov+omb+rewrite+library+OMBINV.USDA.COMMERCE
but I keep getting “the site is no longer available.” I wonder why that is??? If anyone knows where this particular info can be found and validated being at a government website then please post it here for all to see.
What can you do to make the survey VOLUNTARY to being MANDATORY as it is today?
Call your congressional leaders to support bill H.R. 3131. The bill will make participation in the American Community Survey voluntary.
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard (google phone number) and ask for your senators’ and/or representative’s office. OR call them toll free (google toll free number).
If your Member of Congress does not sit on any committee relevant to this bill, you generally have no opportunity to voice your opinion on the bill while the bill is receiving its most important consideration.
The bill has been introduced to Congress already and has been referred to the following committees:
House Judiciary, Subcommittee on
House Judiciary, Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
House Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on
House Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives
For more info on this topic, google: gov+track+us+congres+bill+hr-3131+committees
Detailed Summary of Bill H.R. 3131:
Prohibits making any criminal penalty apply for refusing or willfully neglecting to answer questions (except with respect to the respondent’s name and contact information, the date of the response, and the number of people living or staying at the address) in connection with the American Community Survey conducted by the Secretary
of Commerce.
See video “Woman Fed Up With Census Workers’ Visits”
google: ketv+video+24931473+detail
See video “The Census is Getting Personal”
google: youtube+watch?v=RsDhkPym01k
See “Census Video Part 2, Clarifications”
google: youtube+watch?v=LFvS5m4_OtA&feature=related
I got my ACS in August. I filled out the basic name, address and # of peeps. And I got my first phone call today. Luckily, I’d been on this site before, so I knew I was not required to provide the rest of the info. I was polite, but firm and then hung up on the guy who called. Now…we just wait.
The CB is run by a bunch of old codgers. This is the wrong political climate to keep with the status quo. Our current administration seems to think that the police can’t ask about someone’s legal status after they have broken the law, but law abiding citizens can be compelled to divulge private health and financial info because a CB rep says so. I DON’T THINK SO!!!! Over time our gov has been developing all sorts of programs to shove at the public to solve what they see is a problem. Who died and made them God? Who decided that they were smart enough to implement and run these programs? I have news for them…..THEY ARE NOT SMART ENOUGH!!!! WHO DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE????? It is high time that privacy matter. It is high time that the gov get out of micromanaging the public with nanny state ideas. The census bureau can STUFF IT!
Tell him you’ll call the tow truck; that will make him to move his car real quick.
Congratulations Fay!!!
Blocking anyone in their driveway is a bad idea. In spite of what the CB training is for the reps, local trespassing laws DO apply to federal workers.
Well, here’s our latest….. I got in my car ready to leave and before I could get out of the driveway, a car pulled in and blocked my path of backing out. Knowing it was one of the cars that had “monitored” our house several days ago, I closed the garage door and decided I was at a stand off with the CB rep that wanted our answers to the American Community Survey. It was a stand off…. every five minutes the door bell would ring, the dogs would bark and I wouldn’t answer the door. This went on for 30 minutes! I told my husband to wait at a neighbors house…. I was willing to wait this person out. But when my husband saw that my way out of the garage was blocked, he’d had enough. He pulled into our driveway, got out of the car and confronted the person trying to get answers to the ACS. He told him that he was on private property and to get off. The worker said that it was a $500 fine if we didn’t fill out the survey. My husband told him to get off our property and he would be calling the police. My husband snatched the information that the worker had in his hand and crumpled it up and told him to get off our property. The worker was very sure of himself and told my husband that he’d be happy to wait for the police to arrive.
We called the police who arrived with a few minutes. My husbands statement was taken and so was the workers statement who CLAIMED my husband assaulted him. Needless to say the two stories didn’t mesh. However the worker said that he was not going to press charges.
We were almost to the end of the cycle……. but I got blocked in.
For those of you that receive this American Community Survey…… hang tough, and do some research and read everything that Cathy has posted! She’s done the work and lived through it!!!