[lbo-talk] yahoos launch war on Census

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Jul 14 11:01:43 PDT 2009


<http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/07/13/bachmann-poe-introduce-bill-to-curb-yearly-census-survey/

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July 13, 2009

Bachmann, Poe introduce bill to curb yearly Census survey @ 4:59 pm by Michael O'Brien

Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ted Poe (R-Texas) have introduced legislation that would curtail the extent of information collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in a yearly survey.

The bill comes after Bachmann came under fire, even by some Republicans, for vowing not to fill out the legally-mandated Census in 2010 over concerns about the nature of some of the information collected by the survey.

The legislation would make responding to the yearly "American Community Survey" voluntary, and dramatically scale down the extent of its questions posed annually to Americans.

The bill would reduce the response to the survey to four questions: Name, contact information, date of response, and number of people living or staying at the same address.

The survey, which is mandatory and administered by the U.S. Census Bureau, is sent to 3 million households every year.

The current Census asks questions about race, ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, and a variety of other issues.

Bachmann said the Census may serve a legitimate purpose at its core, but has instead become excessively personal.

"Throughout the years, additional questions of a more personal nature were added so that the federal government could have more detailed information to make and implement its ever-expanding public policy," she said in a statement. "A lot of Americans — myself included — have real concerns about the ultimate protection of our sensitive personal information."



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