Chaka Fattah: “I supported the gentleman's last amendment. I strongly oppose this amendment. It is impossible for me to conceive that…”

“I supported the gentleman's last amendment. I strongly oppose this amendment. It is impossible for me to conceive that we want to run the greatest country on the face of the Earth without data, without information, without knowledge of what the circumstances of the citizens of the country are--how many daycare slots, where to locate VA hospitals, all of the other information that is generated through this community survey. Now, I note that there is talk about a fine, but we haven't been able to identify anybody who has ever been fined. We do know that our neighbors to the north, when the Canadians moved to a voluntary system in their rural areas, they stopped getting almost any compliance. If the Federal Government is going to plan in terms of Federal highways, in terms of Federal programming, and a whole range of items that flow through formal grants, not through earmarks, but by knowledge of what is happening in communities, these surveys are critical. The idea that we would say we are going to run this great country, we don't want any information, we are going to put on blindfolds and just kind of hope for the best when we are making public policy about education and housing and transportation needs or health care needs, it doesn't make a lot of sense.…”