NEWS15 April 2015

Major US businesses unite to preserve Census Bureau survey

US — The Marketing Research Association (MRA) has mobilised 22 influential organisations to appeal against making response to the American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary rather than mandatory.

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The ACS is a Census Bureau survey that is necessary to produce statistically representative samples for nearly all surveys, opinion and market research studies in the US.

The US House of Representatives has voted twice — in 2012 and 2014 — to make response to the ACS voluntary instead of mandatory. In letters to the House and the Senate, business organisations including the US Chamber of Commerce, the Internet Association and the National Restaurant Association joined the MRA in saying:

“The ACS is part of the mandatory decennial census and is used to ensure the continued collection of reliable socioeconomic data that are the basis for critical decision-making in both the private and public sectors. Cutting funding for the ACS, or making response voluntary, would destroy the quality of data that decision-makers in the public and private sectors rely on every day to make vital choices about the allocation of resources, investments and the direction of policy.”

Similar letters were also sent by 20 local and regional chambers of commerce from across the US on April 13.

More information can be found here.