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”
I think my approach will be to ask the census bureau to provide me legal consultation previous to filling out the survey. I will pleade ignorant and unable to understand the legal rammifications of the US code they site and, in addition, unable to afford legal representation. Therefore, I will respectfully request the cost of such legal services to be burdened by the census bureau. Then sit back and see what their response will be.
Going to the historical notes to all the above referenced sections of Title 13 USC, note that the requirements to comply with an order to provide information, and the related penalties, have not been modified in any sense since the introduction of the American Community Survey so as to include compliance with it. The statutes were all written prior to that, and apply only to Constitutional Census data (population head count by district), and such other activities subject to regulation (agriculture, etc.)
That screams administrative fraud and deceit, and the actors, with a presumption of knowledge of the law entitling them to hold office, cannot claim ignorance. This is deliberate and willful.
Regarding privacy and protection of your confidential information…recall the millions of records “compromised” by a breach of security in which information was hacked from Veterans????? No one can guarantee privacy–no one. That is absolute B.S.
I submitted the official census form back when it was sent to me. Months later I received another survey from the “American Community whatever” demanding that I fill out that survey. Since I had already submitted the official census, I saw no need in filling out yet another gov. form. I kept getting threatening letters saying that I MUST fill this form out and send it in, but I just threw these letters in the trash where they belonged. It has been months and I have not had anyone from the gov. come to my home with a search warrant. I hope everyone protects their personal freedom despite the serious sounding threats from these people. You don’t have to fill these forms out!
Per Julia, April 29,11 “He said they shred the forms after receiving them and so he couldn’t look that up. So see, even if you fill it in, they still hound you…., not my fault they shredded it, and they do seem to have the answers I gave.”
I’m glad they shredded it (after they copied the info into their computer) than just toss the whole form into the trash bin…., but what if the clerk mistakenly entered the wrong info coz after a while their eyes got tired; then you got stuck with the wrong info…. and the scientists’ study would be wrong too, as always.
I love that they still harass you even if you correctly fill it out. What a joke the whole process is. I think we are finally getting down to our final days and now have been receiving visits and calls daily. A regional supervisor, or something like that, of the field agent we have been ignoring called five times in just a couple of hours the other night. The funny thing is, as we get closer to the end their survey has gotten shorter and shorter. It went down to, “this will only take seven minutes!” to this will only take “three or four minutes!” So a very detailed, 28-page survey is down to answering a few questions with a field rep? I guess to get anything they can.
Yup, they do call to verify answers. That’s why giving them nothing is the best way to go. Does anyone really want to have the gov employees handeling medical insurance decisions? Only if they are delusional.
I filled out the ACS, mad while I was doing it, even had to call them to find out what color of ink or pencil, because I didn’t want bothered by them because they couldn’t read it. Well guess what, got a call tonight, some of my answers were questionable. The guy read off my husbands name and mine and our address and I said I didn’t know if this was a scam, wouldn’t answer those questions on phone, he proceeded to tell me the yearly amount for our water and sewer bill seemed high, which outraged me. That is what we pay. We are both unemployed, had to take money out of retirement and pay penalties for it, and pay in thousands of dollars because we didn’t withhold enough. Mad enough on survey we were asked all those questions. He said also the question if we had lived at residence for more than 2 months wasn’t filled in right. Which I know I went over them after filling out to make sure I hadn’t left one blank. I told him I think that answer can be found on another question of how long we had lived at residence. He said they shred the forms after receiving them and so he couldn’t look that up. So see, even if you fill it in, they still hound you. He gave me a phone number to verify who he was, which I don’t see listed on their website (which says they take your web browser info while you are on their site)and gave me a case number and said he wouldn’t mark me as refuse to answer but was something I don’t remember now like further investigation? We do live in a very small town. I had contacted Census Bureau last year because my elderly mother thought she had filled in SSN on census. I told her we hadn’t so called Census Bureau and tried to see if they had received her Census Form, was concerned someone had come around and put scam census on her door to get info. CB told me to call back in a month because they hadn’t processed that info yet. Called them a month later and they still couldn’t tell me. One person would tell that info should not have been on there, another said sometimes it is. Mom finally just signed on with LifeLock. After reading info about earlier census having asked for SSN, now I am wondering if it was on her form. Like others on here, we have received this survey before, and I think they did a follow up call on that one too and I gave in cause I was tired of it. So that is probably why I am now getting a call back even though I filled the info in. They obviously have our name, address and phone number and I told him on phone I had filled out it was my husband and I residing here so they know that too. It wasn’t a question of I didn’t answer the questions, it was delving into my answers I had given and I had tried to answer reasonably accurately. I may have to stick to my guns and just say we filled out the form, not my fault they shredded it, and they do seem to have the answers I gave. Shouldn’t have to clarify details.
From our friends at COSSA:
The FY 2011 spending extension passed in congress funded the CB 893.3 mil for the ACS, which is 93 mil less than requested. So the sample size for the ACS will not be increased. The total cost for the 2010 census was 13 bil, which is considered too much for Scott Brown (R-MA) and Tom Coburn (R-OK). They are proposing a reduction in costs for the 2020 census and to use the ACS “as a test-bed for the 2020 census system development” by providing 67 mil for a 3yr research and testing program. (Let’s see…. is that -93mil + 67 mil = for a loss of only 26 mil???? Some cut! Thanks GOP. Why does the CB need 893.3 mil when we’re broke?)
The return rate for the 2010 was about the same as the 2000 short form rate. The total response rate was up due to an increase in the proxy interviews. So neighbors gave out info on neighbors.
Given that for every dollar the gov spends, it borrows 40 cents from other countries, anything the CB spends is too much. The Constitution does not allow for “sampling”, which is what the ACS is. Calling the ACS a “periodic census” doesn’t change the fact that it is not mandated by the Constitution.
Anyone compelled to write letters to DC can target Brown and Coburn as well. Evidently these 2 see the value of the ACS. They took an oath to the Constitution, so why are they supporting using the ACS for anything?
Well, after avoiding the initial onslaught of visits, we were having a BBQ on Sunday and someone answered the door. It was easy enough to fend my personal rep off, although a closing of the door in the face did happen.
Today we get the first Fedex letter. It’s funny that although it still mentions that we are required by law to take the survey, it shys away from that quite a bit not mentioning fines or anything. It now focuses on how they can’t share the info with anyone and all the laws — and fines that they would face — behind that. It’s almost the whole letter, with a little bit on the side about why the survey’s important. Why don’t they just beg (not that what they are doing isn’t begging).
I wonder how much per household it costs them to send out multiple huge surveys, make dozens of calls, have someone make multiple visits and then send out Fedex letters?