Dan Webster: “The amendment offered here by myself and Mr. Langford is simple. It prohibits taxpayer funds from being used to conduct…”

“The amendment offered here by myself and Mr. Langford is simple. It prohibits taxpayer funds from being used to conduct the intrusive, unconstitutional American Community Survey. In addition to the constitutionally mandated census, the Department of Commerce Census Bureau conducts a number of other surveys. One of these is the American Community Survey which costs $2.4 billion to administer. Some of the questions which have already been gone over that the American Community Survey contains have been routinely criticized as invasions of privacy. As a citizen who has normal expectations of what is private and what is not private, I share that criticism. For example, the survey requires respondents to detail their emotional condition. The survey wants to know what time respondents left for work and how long it took them to get home. The survey demands to know if respondents have difficulty dressing, or they have need to go shopping. Or have difficulty, as has been said before, concentrating or remembering or making decisions. Failure to comply with this survey and turn over this personal information is punishable by up to a $5,000 fine. Given the intrusive nature of some of these questions, which are mandatory for Americans to answer under penalty of law, it would seem that these questions hardly fit the scope of what was intended or required by the Constitution. What does the Constitution require? Article 1, section 2 calls for enumeration every 10 years.…”