[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 25, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H6783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, the Census Bureau is proving that it is 
another arrogant Federal agency with a power-mad, public-be-damned 
attitude.
  Despite the huge public outcry against the personal, intrusive 
questions on the Census long form, the Bureau wants to keep prying with 
the same or similar personal questions on the form called the American 
Community Survey to be sent to 250 homes each month.
  The lame defense of questions on the long form was that these 
questions had been approved by Congress and that they had been asked 
before.
  Well, Congress never had a vote on the specific questions and no 
Member saw those questions beforehand except possibly a few on the 
Subcommittee on the Census.
  Also, if these nosy, personal questions were asked in the past, it 
was before the Federal Government got as big and out of control as it 
is today and before the age of the Internet.
  I guess with the computer-controlled society we have today, true 
privacy is a thing of the past. But the Congress should offer at least 
a little resistance and not allow the Census Bureau to keep butting its 
nose into areas that should be none of our Federal Big Brother's 
business.

                          ____________________