If you’re a data junkIe, chances are you’ve eagerly sucked down the data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau as a result of its mandatory (yep) 10-year American Community Survey. Now 60 Republicans want to make this survey optional. The implications for what this could do to the quality of the data are troubling. It’s a fairly robust source and, as Flowing Data points out, anecdotes only go so far. But mandatory? Tough call.