Announcements

Jennifer Emerling / There Is More Work To Be Done

House Votes to Eliminate American Community Survey

HOUSE VOTES TO ELIMINATE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

On May 9th, the House of Representatives voted, 232-190, to eliminate all funding for the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey in the 2013 Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill (H.R. 5326).

The American Community Survey (ACS) replaced traditional Census “long-form” data collection starting with the 2010 Census. The ACS is the only source of publicly available data on social, economic, and housing characteristics for all communities in the United States. This annual survey is essential to understanding housing conditions in rural communities, as well as developing appropriate policies and local solutions to address housing inadequacies.

It is expected that the Senate will take up their version of this bill (S. 2323) the week of May 14. It does not include the ACS elimination, so a House-Senate conference will later decide on the fate of the ACS.

More details are available from

For more information on this issue, contact Lance George at the Housing Assistance Council, lance@ruralhome.org, (202) 842-8600.


Posted: May 11, 2012
Links updated May 14, 2012