Support American Community Survey data provides important information that cannot be found elsewhere. The federal government, as well as various businesses, researchers, and local governments, use ACS data for planning and decision-making purposes. ACS data are used by public and business decision-makers to more clearly identify issues and opportunities and more effectively allocate scarce resources to address them. In Fiscal Year 2008, 184 federal domestic assistance programs used ACS-related datasets to help guide the distribution of $416 billion, 29 percent of all federal assistance. The American Community Survey is authorized by 13 U.S.C. § 141 and 13 U.S.C. § 193. Federal courts have held that the long form is constitutional. In 2000, the
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that the
2000 U.S. Decennial Census and its questions did not violate the
Fourth Amendment of the
United States Constitution or any other constitutional provisions that were alleged in the federal lawsuit initiated by the plaintiffs. The federal district court said responses to census questions are not a violation of an American citizen's right to privacy or free speech. The U.S. District Court's decision in
Texas was later affirmed by the higher
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on appeal, and the
Supreme Court of the United States denied the petition for a
writ of certiorari. Several other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have held through the years that the Census and the questions in the Census are authorized by both the Constitution and Congressional statute. In 2002, the
General Accounting Office confirmed that the U.S. Census Bureau has the authority to conduct the survey and "require responses from the public". All individual American Community Survey responses are kept private and are used (along with other ACS responses) to create estimates of demographic characteristics for various geographies. Because of data swapping techniques to ensure confidentiality, it is impossible to figure out how individual people responded based on data from published ACS estimates. Those who decline to complete the survey may receive visits to their homes from Census Bureau personnel. Because it is a mandatory survey, it is governed by federal laws that could impose a fine of as much as $5,000 on those who flagrantly refuse to participate. To date, no person has been prosecuted for refusing to answer the ACS.
Kenneth Prewitt, the former director of the U.S. Census Bureau, said in March 2000 that the
United States Department of Commerce is "not an enforcement agency" and that the parallel
United States Department of Justice in the
presidential cabinet would be responsible for prosecuting violations, adding that "we don't recommend that". The Census Bureau prefers to gain cooperation by convincing respondents of the importance of participation while acknowledging that the mandate improves response rates (and thus accuracy) and lowers the annual cost of survey administration by more than $90 million. In 2014, the
Census Project, a collaboration of pro-census business and industry associations, gathered signatures from 96 national and local organizations urging the
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to reject a proposal to make the American Community Survey voluntary. Signers included the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
National Association of Realtors, and the
U.S. Conference of Mayors. The letter cited results from a congressionally mandated test of a voluntary ACS that found that mail response rates would drop "dramatically," by more than 20 percentage points. The resulting loss in quality and reliability would essentially eliminate data for 41 percent of US counties, small cities, towns and villages, many school districts, neighborhoods, remote areas, and American Indian reservations. ==See also==