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.
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718 responses to “American Community Survey”
Believe it or not, although there’s nobody coming to my place anymore I’m still thinking about it. I adopted a dog now and feel so much better. Sometimes I had to pass the crossed street where the local acs rep’s house is, my mind said “Oh, this is where you live….” and I cringed.
First time posting but I read the updates from time to time.
I have been going through this harasement for 2 months now since we got our first survey in the mail. Today is the 4th and we got our first visit by a guy named Ron Slattery 314-892-4998 if anyone needs to speak with Mr Ron. A yellow card with a color pamphlet was wedged in the door when I came home to work the rest of the day from home. At the top it says
“This Is Important!” at the top with him then saying “sorry I missed you, Please call me!
Thank You Ron Slattery. Please leave a message with the best time to call you.
Sure Ron, let me call you so you can come harass me some more.
Looking forward to a fun month of visits. I’m sure he will catch me coming or going or catch my wife possibly. She knows the drill and not to say anything to him. I just wish they would give up and save the taxpayer money because Hell will freeze over before I give up such personal information to the government. I plan to leave the notices in the space between the door and the stormdoor.
I have just discovered that the “Integrated census data collection system”, our census system, is designed and managed by Lockheed Martin, the US arms manufacturer. What strange bed fellows.
This makes me think of: “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Dwight Eisenhower
Great tip, Cathy. Just got on Issa’s website, explained our experience & asked him to do what he can to defund ACS and CSSO. These people have turned a mild mannered woman into a zealot 🙂 Kathleen
Anyone wanting an additional place to send a rant letter, send it to Darrell Issa (CA-R). He is chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which controls the budgets.
Yeay! Freedom! Today is March 1, so there should be no more contacts from ACS. It almost feels like – America! Imagine that. I have taken some action to help stop the abuse. Contacted our representative and one senator & told them ACS and COSSA would be good candidates for budget cutting, and why.
We got an email from Heritage Foundation asking where we would cut the budget. I checked their prepared boxes & under “other” added ACS and COSSA & why. Planning to write a letter to the editor of our newspaper, and thinking about contacting our local television station. There is a segment called “Fox on Your Side” & perhaps they would like to do a story on ACS. Still thinking about that one, though.
Also found a website that has a petition to stop ACS. I signed it, and will post the address here if you support such things.
Stay committed to resisting the ACS, all of you folks who have not yet completed the three month gauntlet. When you get there successfully, it will feel wonderful!!! Kathleen
Thanks for the info on COSSO, Cathy.
ACS knows they will lose if they dare to fine (and Rutherford Institue would love to take them on).
It’s bad enough that ACS demands to seize one’s own information (our private property); but demand that we turn over anyone else’s information living in our home. (Also pressing neighbors for info). Sounds like Nazi Germany. And what a waste of money!
COSSA (cossa.org) is the Consortium of Social Science Associations, a DC lobby group which represents numerous social, behavioral and economic scientists. This lobby group is the largest supporter of the CB surveys because they use the data collected for their research. The current president of the group is a former director of the CB, Kenneth Prewitt. This group also lobbies for money, tax money, to conduct their research. They submit questions for the survey and provide justifications to congress for why this info is necessary. They even received stimulus money. Remember those “jobs created or saved”? These people are a driving force behind the nanny state by driving gov policy.
As for the “render unto Caesar”, the Constitution is the ultimate law of our land. No legislator should pass laws which violate it and the Supreme court is given the power to see that when the law violates the Constitution, that that law ceases to be a law. The ACS is a clear violation of the Constitution. Ron Paul and Michell Bachmann are against the CB collecting this info. The rest of the Congress doesn’t care. Until some one is fined, we have no standing in the courts to challenge the law in court.
The more people refuse to comply, the more difficult it is for the CB to justify wasting tax money. Right now the amount the CB gets has been cut. It needs to have even more cuts made to its budget.
I agree that completely ignoring (and not answering any questions) the ACS is best way to lessen their contact attempts and to cut their funding.
Cathy, would you explain again what COSSA stands for and how their are so involved in the questions on the ACS form?
I did a lot of soul searching before refusing to comply. I’ve always been taught to “obey the laws of the land” and “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s…” but sometimes the only way we can bring about change, or to protect what we have is civil disobedience. I do not like the direction this country is taking.
Yes, indeed…. some answers are better than none for them, especially since their funding is going to be cut. The folks at COSSA are all bent out of shape because of the funding issues.