Ted Poe: “The American Community Survey, first of all, is not the Census. What it is is a survey conducted by the Census Bureau of…”

“The American Community Survey, first of all, is not the Census. What it is is a survey conducted by the Census Bureau of a portion of the American population every year. It has 48 questions, and those questions are intrusive. There is, in my opinion, intimidation by the Community Survey workers to get this information from citizens. A single mother in my district told me one of the workers came by her house and started peeping in the window, knocking on the door, and sat in the street waiting for her to come home from work to get this information from her. The information is intrusive. It violates the right of privacy, in my opinion. It asks questions like: How many times have you been married? Does anyone in your household have a mental problem? What time do you go to work? And: How many toilets do you have? It is 48 very intrusive questions. My amendment is very simple. It prohibits the Federal Government from enforcing a potential fine against a person for failure to fill out this information. Right now, if a person doesn't fill out this information, Community Survey workers tell the citizen that they can be fined $5,000. Do we really want to fine Americans $5,000 for not telling the government how many toilets they have in their home? There are other ways this information can be gathered by the government without being intrusive and without violating the right of privacy.…”