data drives tremendous dollars. unemployment stats trigger unemployment insurance. the consumer price index determines social security checks. and the census bureau says its ongoing american community survey guides more than $400 billion in federal funding every year. >> so, they're literally tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars that are driven by these data. >> reporter: that survey is mandatory. a bill sponsored by some house republicans would make it voluntary. they argued the data collection is a privacy intrusion by the federal government, but making it optional could degrade the quality of the information. >> if we lose the acs, i don't know how a lot of local governments make decisions. >> reporter: the white house is down playing these data concerns. it tells cnn the unemployment rate is, quote, one of many measures we use to evaluate the health of our economy and jobs market. and on calculating the trade deficit, the white house says it merely wants to get to the bottom of the data swamp and