http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/27/census-bachmann-mpr/-snip-
Yesterday, Census Bureau spokesman Steve Buckner spoke to Minnesota Public Radio and said that many of Bachmann’s concerns were misguided. First, filling out the entire Census is required under federal law.
Second, Bachmann may be hurting her own constituents by not filling out all the necessary information. As Buckner said, the Census information — and the more detailed American Community Survey, which “goes to roughly 3 million addresses every year as part of a continual rolling survey” — is used to determine political representation and direct $300 billion in federal funds to state and local governments.
Finally, it’s a federal crime for any Census worker to violate the confidentiality of the Census form, punishable by a federal prison sentence of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. The information is not even shared with other government agencies, so there’s no chance that it would be “handed over to the FBI and other organizations,” as Bachmann claimed in her Fox News appearance.
Buckner also said that Census officials have been working with Bachmann’s office to clear up the misinformation:
BUCKNER: Well, we certainly are working with the Congresswoman’s office here in DC, and have already had a briefing with her to explain the rules of the Census and why they’re there, and explain some of the Constitutional law. I mean, the Supreme Court has upheld the powers of the data to be collected. But we’re not asking anything on the 2010 Census that I can see that would be intrusive in terms of the basic information.
As Buckner also pointed out, “For the most part, people put more information on a credit card application than they do on the Census form.”
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think that will shut her up?
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