Last night the U.S. House passed an amendment to the 2013 Dept of Commerce funding bill that would eliminate the Census' American Community Survey, ACS. We know of ACS as the replacement for the long form; it's survey sent to a limited number of households not every ten years, but annually, to get a picture of U.S. communities for government funding and other purposes.
Those backing the bill suggest the ACS is unconstitutional. A previous amendment argued ACS should be made voluntary, which the Census believes would simply make collecting the data more expensive. In any case, the American Planning Association, and others, are mounting a campaign to ensure the Senate kills this part of the legislation and leaves the ACS be.
- APA blog via @urisa
- see also: The Hill blog
