Sponsors (5)
The bill strengthens individual choice and transparency about ACS participation but does so at the cost of reduced data completeness and accuracy, which can undermine local planning, federal funding formulas, research, and representation of vulnerable populations.
All residents: the bill makes ACS participation explicitly voluntary and removes the threat of federal fines or penalties, protecting individuals' civil liberties and giving privacy-concerned respondents (including people with disabilities and immigrants) a clearer legal right to refuse.
Survey respondents: the Census Bureau must clearly state on the ACS that participation is voluntary, increasing transparency about the survey's legal status and potentially improving informed decision-making by respondents.
Low- and middle-level governments: state and local governments may receive less-complete small-area ACS estimates, degrading local planning, service delivery, and demographic snapshots used for community decision-making.
Vulnerable communities: reduced ACS data quality could impair federal grant allocation formulas that rely on ACS estimates, risking underfunding of low-income and rural communities that depend on those distributions.
Businesses, researchers, and public-service planners: gaps in detailed ACS microdata will hamper private- and public-sector planning, market analysis, and program evaluation used by small businesses, schools, universities, and hospitals.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes penalties for refusing to answer ACS questions and requires the Census Bureau to state on the ACS that participation is voluntary.
Official title: Provide that participation in the American Community Survey is voluntary.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by James Risch · Last progress January 28, 2025
Makes answering the American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary and requires the Census Bureau to include a clear voluntary-participation statement on the ACS (and successor surveys). It removes criminal/civil penalty authority for refusing to answer any ACS question and directs the Secretary to display a voluntariness notice on the survey form.