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”
Hello. I posted a new youtube video that I did today on these American Community Survey “stalkers”. I must be a special case, because I live in a large city, and they have been coming to my home for 6 weeks now, and are still coming. I have been totally ignoring them, once I knew who and what I was dealing with. They tell all my neighboors to tell me that no matter how long it takes, they will NEVER stop coming by my house. Well, I spent 20 years in the Military, mostly with the Marines, including RECON, so I am an expert at playing games. I will wait them out as long as it takes. I just wanted to warn everyone I can, what these clowns are doing. I actually find it pathetic and embarrassing. Hang in there if you are being stalked. Do NOT let them win.!
Have you told THEM that yet?….
Aug 2, 2012 Rep Carol Maloney (D NY) introduced a resolution supporting the importance of continuing the ACS and the data the CB collects. She had 12 other members of congress joining her.
Michael Honda (D CA), Judy Chu (D CA), Keith Ellison (D MN), John Olver (D MA), Betty McCollum (D MN), Jose Serrano (D NY), Laura Richardson (D CA), Earl Blumenaurer (D OR) Fortney Stark (D CA), John Lewis (D GA), Barney Frank (D MA) and Paul Crijalva (D MN).
Barney Frank is not returning to congress. Maybe the rest of these people shouldn’t be either.
HR 3131 is a House bill. Having the House pass a bill and then having the Senate do nothing means the bill dies. If it did pass the Senate then the POTUS needs to sign the bill. Further, it doesn’t take a bill to stop this. The congressional subcommittee which oversees the CB can stop it anytime it wants to. It could defund the ACS. Nobody in congress voted to establish the ACS. The CB created out of a fear that the public would refuse to fill out the 2000 census because of outrage over the questions on the long form. Congress didn’t stop the questions then and the subcommittee allowed the long form to morph into the ACS because of the pleading from the then CB Director Kenneth Prewitt, who now heads COSSA.
Congress hasn’t passed a budget in 3 years, which it is REQUIRED to do, so a little thing like the ACS means little. We are now witnessing the total dysfunction of all 3 branches of the gov. The supreme court joined the party with its ruling to keep obamacare. DC needs a total flushing. ALL who are elected take an oath to defend the Constitution. ALL who VIOLATE that OATH need to be voted out.
If Sheila Jackson Lee is anything like her congressional cohort, Barbara Lee of Cally, then I would expect as much—less than nothing. Sheila abstained from voting on HR 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, and Barbara Lee voted against it even though it passed by a whopping landslide: 327 to 98 and that is about the only good thing that has happened all year so far in the scatosphere people call “American politics”…which is anything but American.
Cathy claims that 3131 won’t do anything. Well if so, then why should we expect any other bill that passes the house to do anything? According to that then, why even have a congress? Let’s just disband all of them if the few—and I mean damned few—-good and Constitutional Laws they do pass “don’t do anything?”
Jeanette, sorry you have Ms. Lee for a congresswoman. She’s beyond pathetic and a total SOCIALIST. She’s lucky she can track what day of the week it is, so don’t expect too much from her for anything.
I wouldn’t try to get members of congress to do anything about the ACS. Most don’t know it exists and the CB is good at getting those members to see the benefits of collecting personal info for reelection advantages. I would INFORM members of congress that THEY represent US.
The Rutherford Institute and John W. Whitehead have been fighting the ACS for some time. John Whitehead wants the whole survey stopped because the gov and the CB have no constitutional authority to run the survey or to collect personal info on the public.
The ACS is already ” voluntary” because no one will be fined. Passing HR3131 won’t change anything even if the senate passes it, which the senate won’t. The use of the word “mandatory” is for leverage and to frighten the public into filling out the survey. Using the power o the gov to violate the law and the Bill of Rights, I define as TYRANNY and EXTORTION.
People like Groves, Reamer, former CB Director Kenneth Prewitt and countless others are part of a massive complex of individuals and groups who lobby to support the violation of privacy laws to KEEP THEMSELVES EMPLOYED. These groups conspired with the CB to create a way to get around the privacy laws which restrict private entities from collecting private info. So, given that the CB has the authority to compel the public to disclose how many “persons” live at any given residence, then the CB could be used to “compel” those same residences to answer any question the CB wanted to ask. Don’t you just love how the Constitution matters when asking a question but doesn’t matter when the Constitution protects the individual from the tyranny of gov because it is argued that it is for the “good of the collective”? THAT”S SOCIALISM FOLKS!!!!
As for the questions on the ACS like the marriage history or pregnancy questions, etc……. once per year the CB petitions various groups to submit questions for consideration. Social scientist studying various topics submit questions. The CB counts on these groups to help lobby for the continuation of the ACS. Also, these same groups petition for gov money to fund their research projects. So the taxpayer is paying for the ACS twice; once to collect and compile the info and a second time to fund research by the data users. The stimulus package money went for social science “shovel ready jobs”!
Want a fun read? Check out the COSSA (consortium of social science associations) website for the newsletter and other interesting goodies. This is the main lobby group for the ACS. At the end is a list of who is represented by the group.
The Rutherford?….is that in reference to HR 3131 making the ACS voluntary?
I am furious with the ACS, but I am more furious with my so called congressmen. I wrote Shelia Jackson Lee about the problem and she did not have the decency to answer—what a waste of tax payers money. I also wrote to two other congressmen and although they did reply, their answers are so vague that I still do not know if the ACS can do this. I am not going to answer any personal questions. I will send a copy of this to every TV sa=tation and newspaper in my area.The Census Bureau has taken their jobs too seriously. What can they possibly do with information about how many times has a person been pregnant. I have been trying to find out how to make Groves and Reamer go away. Too much power in the hands of oneperson is very dangerous. The Rutherford has ordered them to cease and they still have not.
File under: And the folly continues!
CB Director Groves spoke before the congressional subcommittee which oversees the ACS and the 2020 census. He stated that the ACS is the only source of small area estimates of social and demographic characteristics. There is no private sector substitute.
That’s right, Groves, because the public sector has no authority to bully the public into disclosing private info and neither does the gov.
Andrew Reamer, Senior Research Fellow at the George Washington Univ, stated that the ACS small area census data are essential to the proper functioning of gov, the economy and communities. Its elimination would cause economic disruption and job loss, misapplication of scarce community assets and services and increase waste, fraud and abuse of gov funds. Only the federal gov has the capacity and motivation to provide these data.
If this is what the senior fellow at George Washington Univ has to say then I think that it is high time to change the univ’s name to Karl Marx Univ. Hey Reamer, have you looked outside and seen what the economy and the job situation actually is these days???? The fed gov doesn’t need any stinkin’ data to participate in waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money. I would say that the collection of this data didn’t save the the public from the economic collapse which the gov created in the first place by spending money faster that it could print it. If this is “proper functioning of gov” then what does a non-functioning gov look like?
When people like Groves and Reamer keep spewing this much stupidity, they make the case for the ACS being a total waste of time and money. It needs to be gone! And morons like these 2 should be removed out of positions of power and policy.
Hey, I got another letter in the mail from them and today I received a call from Darryl Issa’s office, WA DC. I spoke to a lady by the name of Addie. She said they received the letter but Mr. Issa hasn’t seen it yet. Our conversation was short and basically she said that the survey is mandatory and the U.S. Census Bureau has a legal right to mail the survey out at random and “It’s up to you what you want to fill out.” She continued on, “The main survey is once every 10 years and the ACS they do continually throughout the year to target different areas to get the information from what you fill out but it is mandatory to do and they will continue to contact you. The congressman did hold a hearing recently through congress to inquire if the survey needed to be mandatory.” She said she would let him know my concerns about the survey. I asked her to give him my letter so that he could read it. She said she would relay my concern…and I asked her again to give him my letter. Finally she agreed and also gave me the website to review the status of this inquiry.
She said that she will send a letter to me in response to my letter.
Just wanting to keep you informed. If you get one of these ACS in the mail, or if you don’t chances are that your friends and family will. Let’s keep what freedoms we have left. Freedom cannot be taken away, only given away…