[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 12, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H1334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PEEKING TOMCRATS SNOOPING THROUGH THE WINDOWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, Linda Roberts from Kingwood, Texas, 
is one of my constituents. She received the American Community Survey 
and filled out only the information required by the Census Bureau and 
mailed it back to the Census Bureau.
  Let me make this clear. The census every ten years counts the 
population with the census forms. But the Census Bureau also sends out 
a longer, larger, more intensive document called the American Community 
Survey to many Americans throughout the 10 years of the census.
  Linda Roberts received this long form, the American Community Survey, 
and she did not fill out the survey. Later, she began to receive weekly 
calls from the Census Bureau telling her to complete the entire survey. 
When she refused to complete the survey, the calls increased from every 
week to multiple times each day. Now, this is a single mother working, 
trying to support her family, and she's being harassed by the Federal 
Government.
  Finally, a Census Bureau employee showed up at her house, ringing her 
doorbell, and peeking through her windows to see if she was inside, 
trying to get her to come to the door to fill out this long survey by 
the Census Bureau.
  The harassment didn't stop. On many occasions, Linda would come home 
from work and there would be a car from the Federal Government parked 
out there in front of her house trying to catch her as she went into 
her home to get her to fill out the American Community Survey. These 
are people from the Federal Government.
  Mrs. Roberts explained that she not only felt uncomfortable providing 
the detailed information to the Federal Government, but she was afraid. 
No kidding.
  Now, where, Madam Speaker, in the Constitution does it give the 
Federal Government the authority to do this? The Constitution does not 
authorize Peeking TomCrats to come from the Federal Government to snoop 
around our homes and get information from citizens.
  Here's what she said:

       Please do something about getting the Census Bureau to stop 
     the harassment phone calls concerning the American Community 
     Survey.

  I've also received calls from other people. George from Baytown, 
Texas, says he refused to fill out the American Community Survey so he 
started getting phone calls from all over the country from different 
area codes. He just regarded them as identity theft phishing scams, and 
so he didn't answer any of those calls.
  Madam Speaker, George and Linda are just two of the many people who 
have contacted my office about the intrusive American Community Survey 
from the Federal Government demanding people fill this out. Once again, 
this is not the census questionnaire; this is the Census Bureau giving 
another questionnaire to the American public and expecting them, by 
law, to fill this out.
  The questions are about 48 questions long. Here are some of the 
questions:
  Do you have a flush toilet in your house?
  What time do you go to work in the morning?
  What time do you come home in the afternoon?
  How much money do you make?
  How much money does your spouse make?
  Do you have a second mortgage on another home?
  Where is that home?
  Here is a good one:
  Because of a physical mental, or emotional condition, does someone in 
the household have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or 
making decisions?
  Now, isn't that lovely. The survey wants us to comment on the mental 
health of people that live in the house. I'm glad my wife didn't get 
this survey and fill it out talking about me.
  Madam Speaker, the government has no business asking these personal 
questions. It infringes on the right of privacy of the American public. 
People are upset about this because they are forced to provide this 
information to Uncle Sam or pay a sanction of a $5,000 fine. Government 
intimidation at its worst.

                              {time}  1210

  Yes, there may be some benefits. The government says we use this 
information so we can help businesses plan whether to put a store on 
this corner or that corner. That's fine, but the Constitution doesn't 
authorize this, in my opinion. So if the businesses want that 
information, let them pay for it. Go to a polling system.
  So I think what we should do, Madam Speaker, is make this form 
voluntary. If people want to fill it out and give the Federal 
Government all this information, great, but they shouldn't be required 
to.
  I've introduced legislation and Rand Paul in the Senate has 
introduced legislation to make the American Community Survey voluntary. 
People shouldn't be required to fill it out.
  What's next? Is the government going to start asking us how many guns 
we've got in our home? what kind of cars we drive, whether they're 
green cars or whether we're driving pickup trucks? Where's it going to 
stop? The American Community Survey should be voluntary. Americans 
should not be required to fill it out, and we need to change the law to 
make it voluntary for the American public because freedom still means 
something in America. Keep the snoopers from Uncle Sam out of our 
lives.
  And that's just the way it is.

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