Sen. Paul Introduces Legislation to Protect Americans from Invasive Survey

Sen. Paul Introduces Legislation to Protect Americans from Invasive Survey – Mar 15, 2013
http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=741

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, Sen. Paul introduced S.530, a bill that would make participation in the American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary. ACS is a separate survey from the decennial Census and unlike the Census, ACS is not required by the Constitution. This survey is sent to over 3 million Americans each year and includes questions about mental disabilities in your home, personal financial information, whether you have a toilet and what time you leave for and return from work each day. Currently, those who choose not to respond to the survey are threatened with a criminal penalty.

“This bill seeks to protect citizens and addresses concerns about the level of personal information collected by the American Community Survey,” Sen. Paul said. “By making this survey voluntary, people would have the opportunity to decide what, if any, information they share with the government.”

American Community Survey – http://www.census.gov/acs/www/methodology/questionnaire_archive/

S.530
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.530

A BILL To make participation in the American Community Survey voluntary, except with respect to certain basic questions, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PARTICIPATION IN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY.

(a) Optional Questions- Section 193 of title 13, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: `The Secretary shall include, in the instructions for completing any survey authorized under this section, a statement indicating that answering any question other than questions that solicit the information described in section 221(c)(2)(A) is optional.’.
(b) Refusal To Participate- Section 221 of title 13, United States Code, is amended–
(1) in subsection (a), by striking `Whoever, being over eighteen years of age,’ and inserting `Except as provided in subsection (c), any person older than 18 years of age who’; and
(2) by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
`(c)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision under this title–
`(A) no person may be compelled to disclose information relative to the person’s religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body; and
`(B) except as provided in paragraph (2), no person may be fined or otherwise compelled to answer questions in connection with the survey, conducted by the Secretary of Commerce, which is commonly referred to as the `American Community Survey’.
`(2) Paragraph (1)(B)–
`(A) shall not apply to any question that elicits–
`(i) the name of the respondent;
`(ii) contact information for the respondent;
`(iii) the date of the response; or
`(iv) the number of people living or staying at the same address; and
`(B) does not waive any penalty imposed for conduct described in subsection (b).’.

TITLE 13—CENSUS
This title was enacted by act Aug. 31, 1954, ch. 1158, 68 Stat. 1012
http://uscode.house.gov/pdf/2011/2011usc13.pdf

H/T – D.Niwa 2013