[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 28, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MANY CENSUS QUESTIONS TOO INTRUSIVE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Madam Speaker, there are too many curiosity 
questions on the Census long form. Right now, on the average, one out 
of every six citizens of the United States that are sent the census 
long form are asked questions that take almost 25 minutes to fill out, 
very personal questions, very intrusive questions.
  What we have been investigating and looking at is should there really 
be a $100 fine if you refuse to answer all of those personal, intimate 
questions. It asks all sorts of information that the government does 
not need to know, such as the number of rooms in your house, when it 
was built, where your water and utilities come from, how much they 
cost, how much you paid for your house, the number of cars, telephones, 
bathrooms you have, how much insurance you carry on the contents of 
your home.
  It asks about your education, the time you leave for work, how you 
get there, your health, your job. This is simply excessive, and I am 
suggesting a couple of things.
  Number one, I suggest that there should not be a $100 fine if you 
fill out the pertinent information. This was put in our United States 
Constitution so every 10 years we could have a new count of the number 
of individuals in the United States so we could reapportion 
congressional districts for the 435 Members of Congress.
  It was not the intent that we expand this to allow an administration, 
a bureaucracy, a Washington group to pursue all kinds of personal 
information that they might want to know sometime about you.
  We are suggesting that if you fill out the forms and that if you fill 
out the number of people and their names, in essence, the questions on 
the short form, there should not be any fine, or any fine that would 
exceed $5 or $10.
  I think with our new technology in this country, with the ability of 
government to know so much about us, knowing what doctors we go to, 
when we go to the doctor, for what reason we are going to the doctor, 
where we buy, what kinds of goods, where we travel, the danger is a 
government that, out of curiosity, would like to know more than they 
really need to know about our individual lives.
  I am saying that we need to totally review the Census form. I hope 
the information that came out yesterday, that a Federal judge in Texas 
has said that there should be no prosecution for any individual that 
does not fill out the rest of the long form and those intrusive 
questions, is correct.
  In the meantime, I think it is time that this body and the United 
States Senate, along with the administration, re-evaluate its 
intrusiveness. It is bad enough that we are taking 41 cents out of 
every dollar the average American makes in local, State, and Federal 
taxes. It is worse when we start getting into their lives, their 
bedrooms, to try to have the kind of information that we think we need 
to know to make that kind of policy decision.
  It is time we slowed down the intrusiveness of the Federal 
government. It is time that Americans started asking their 
Representatives in Congress, in the United States Senate, I include in 
that, and their potential next President their position on this issue.

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