REP. DAVIS ON THE VOTE TO END THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

WASHINGTON, DC (MAY 11, 2012) – CONGRESSMAN DANNY K. DAVIS ON THE REUPBLICAN VOTE TO END THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY (ACS) – A VOTE THAT DEFIES LOGIC

This week the Republican House voted to cut the Annual Community Survey, a vote that doesn't make any sense and completely defies logic. Many people are unaware of the importance of the ACS and the important statistical and economic information that is gathered. The U.S. Census Bureau implemented the ACS after the 2000 Census to replace the decennial census long form and provide annual statistics about the nation's population and housing. Today, the survey guides the geographic distribution of over $400 billion of federal funding and is a vital component of our nation's statistical system.

American industries rely on good data to make targeted, wise investments. The housing industry uses the ACS to analyze the housing industry, local economic development corporations rely on the ACS data to attract industries and create jobs and congressional staff can use the ACS to answer key constituent and policy questions. And while the Republican Members of Congress who offered amendments agreed - they still objected to the use of the ACS...it just doesn't make sense.

The ACS doesn't intrude on the nations' privacy or liberties. Congress has made it a felony offense to make wrongful disclosure of personal information gathered by the census. In addition, we now live in an era of Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook and online dating, where people share the most intimate details of their lives for the world to view, I do not believe a confidential, random survey presents a problem for the vast majority of Americans and this myth is senseless.

Finally, we have been conducting the long form survey since 1790 and it defies logic not to. I would trust the Senate reverses this measure since we all know how important this data is to the US Economy.