The U.S. House of Representatives voted this evening (232 - 190) to eliminate all funding for the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which as you know replaced the traditional census long form starting with the 2010 Census. The vote essentially was along party lines, with all but 11 Republicans voting in favor and all but four (4) Democrats voting against. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL).
Right before the House considered the Webster amendment, it approved, by voice vote, an amendment sponsored by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) to make response to the ACS voluntary, by prohibiting both the Census Bureau and the Justice Department from using funds to enforce penalties in the Census Act that make survey response mandatory. (The amendment had to be written as a limit on expenditure of funds in order for it to be ruled "in order" on an appropriations bill, FYI.) I suspect the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), did not call for a recorded vote on the Poe amendment because he figured the provision would be stripped in conference.
For more information on this important part of the federal census, look here:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/american_community_survey/
and see this link for a discussion of the difference between the two census collections:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/american_community_survey_and_2010_census/
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