[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4188 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4188

To amend title 13, United States Code, to provide that the penalty for 
  refusing or neglecting to answer one or more of the questions on a 
decennial census schedule shall not apply, so long as all of the short-
          form questions on such schedule have been answered.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 5, 2000

 Mr. Collins introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 13, United States Code, to provide that the penalty for 
  refusing or neglecting to answer one or more of the questions on a 
decennial census schedule shall not apply, so long as all of the short-
          form questions on such schedule have been answered.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Common Sense Census Enforcement Act 
of 2000''.

SEC. 2. INAPPLICABILITY OF PENALTY PROVISION.

    (a) In General.--Section 225 of title 13, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e)(1) The penalty under section 221(a) shall not apply, for 
refusing or neglecting to answer one or more of the questions on a 
decennial census schedule, so long as all of the short-form questions 
on such schedule have been answered by the individual involved.
    ``(2) For purposes of this subsection--
            ``(A) the term `decennial census schedule' means a schedule 
        used in connection with a decennial census of population under 
        section 141; and
            ``(B) the term `short-form question' means a question 
        included on the short-form version of the 2000 decennial census 
        schedule.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to the 2000 decennial census and each decennial 
census thereafter, including schedules returned before the date of 
enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>