The Census was good enough for Thomas Jefferson. But apparently not so for today’s House Republicans. Yesterday, they passed, by 232 to 190, a measure to cut the American Community Survey, conducted annually as part of the U.S. Census.

Republicans “attacked the survey as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, according to Michael McAuliff at The Huffington Post . McAuliff notes that none other than left-leaning, government-loving George W. Bush in 2005 expanded the Census survey from every 10 years to an annual survey of 250,000 households, “making the survey more manageable, cheaper and more timely.”

As McAuliff reports: “Rep. Chaka Fattah, who ran the floor debate for Democrats, seemed especially vexed.”

“We've been doing surveys in the long form since 1790 as a nation," Fattah said, referring to the time when Thomas Jefferson oversaw the census. "It's critically important. The idea that we're going to leave the greatest country in the world with less information about the condition of communities and of our families—and that we're going to do that appropriately—defies logic.”

The good news is that the Democratically controlled Senate is too smart to pass such a dumb bill.

But House Republicans weren’t done. David Waldman at Daily Kos sums up  the other stellar moves yesterday by House Republicans (our letter of opposition to this bill that we sent to House members is here .):

The House snuck in a few suspension bills early on, before diving back into the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill. It was another marathon session, and by late last night they debated some 20-plus proposed amendments. Oh, let's see...there was one prohibiting the use of funds for defending court challenges to the Affordable Care Act. And one to prohibit the use of funds to litigate against any of state on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board pertaining to secret ballot union elections. And one to prohibit the use of funds by the Department of Justice to bring any action against any state for implementation of a state law requiring voter identification. And of course, one to prohibit the use of funds to implement a section of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which allows miniature horses to be used as service animals. Gotta have that.

Meanwhile, America’s unemployed workers struggle to find jobs in an economy in which there are more than three jobless workers for every one job , yet these are the issues congressional Republicans are occupying themselves with.

What do you think? Should House Republicans focus on miniature horses and Census surveys?