Americans must answer U.S. Census Bureau survey by law, though agency hasn't prosecuted since 1970

Bob Cole, who hosts Austin radio station KOKE-FM's weekday morning show, said on the air Jan. 7, 2014, that he couldn’t believe the U.S. Census Bureau told him he was legally required to participate in a government survey.

"In a few days you will receive an American Community Survey questionnaire in the mail," the bureau said in a letter to Cole, which he said he received in late 2013 or early in the new year. The letter said: "Because you are living in the United States, you are required by law to respond to this survey." Cole gave us a copy of a bureau envelope with this nudge outside: "Your response is required by law."

The ACS, sent annually in recent years to a sampling of more than 3 million U.S. households, collects detailed information on population and housing, helping to update the information gathered in every decennial census, the bureau says online. "Estimates from the ACS contribute to providing an important picture of America, and an accurate response to the ACS questionnaire is important," the agency says. "When used in conjunction with the most recently available decennial census counts, information from the ACS documents how we live as a nation, including our education, housing, jobs, and many other issues."

Cole asked us to verify that Americans are legally bound to fill out the survey. "I can see the validity of some of the questions," he said, others less so. The material he received said the bureau estimates it takes 40 minutes to complete. (See the 2014 questionnaire, which has more than 50 questions for each person in a household, here.)

Bureau cites statutes

The materials received by Cole included an FAQ with this question: "Do I have to answer the questions?"

"Yes," the bureau's reply states. "Your response to this survey is required by law (Title 13, U.S. Code, Sections 141 and 193). Title 13, as changed by Title 18, imposes a penalty for not responding. We estimate this survey will take about 40 minutes to complete."

That verbiage didn’t lead us to any mandate, but a bureau web page singles out Section 221 of Title 13, which says that any adult refusing to answer a bureau survey shall be fined.

Specifically, the section refers to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who oversees the bureau, and says: "a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100."

That’s not entirely so; the fine for refusing to answer a bureau survey can be as much as $5,000, the bureau separately says online, citing Section 3571 of Title 18.

Individuals willfully giving false answers to the government face a fine of up to $500, Section 121 says. But it states that "no person shall be compelled to disclose information related to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body."

Unenforced mandate?

Our search for more information yielded a Jan. 9, 2013, commentary by David Whiting of the Orange County (Calif.) Register quoting a bureau spokeswoman, Jennifer Smits, saying that nobody had been fined for failing to participate to date. By telephone, bureau spokeswoman Stacy Gimbel Vidal told us that remains so; no fines have been levied. The bureau, she said, is "really not in the business of prosecuting people who don’t comply."

On July 18, 2012, Andrew Reamer, a research professor at George Washington University, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that the bureau had not prosecuted someone for not responding to a survey since the 1960 census. Not quite: Bureau spokesman Brian Lavin told us by email that no one has been prosecuted for failing to respond to a survey since the 1970 census.