supporting statement part A 25 Jan

PART A - JUSTIFICATION

Question 1. Necessity of the Information Collection

The Census Bureau requests approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension of the generic clearance for a number of activities it plans to conduct to update its Master Address File (MAF) and maintain the linkage between the MAF and the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) database of address ranges and associated geographic information. The Census Bureau plans to use the MAF for post-Census 2000 evaluations, various pre-2010 census tests, and as a sampling frame for the American Community Survey and our other demographic current surveys. In the past, the Census Bureau has built a new address list for each decennial census. The MAF built during Census 2000 is meant to be kept current thereafter, eliminating the need to build a completely new address list for future censuses and surveys. The TIGER is a geographic system that maps the entire country in Census Blocks with applicable address range of living quarter location information. Linking MAF and TIGER allows us to assign each address to the appropriate Census Block, produce maps as needed and publish results at the appropriate level of geographic detail.

The generic clearance for the past three years has proved to be very beneficial to the Census Bureau. The generic clearance allowed us to focus our limited resources on actual operational planning and development of procedures. This extension will be especially beneficial over the upcoming three years by allowing us to focus on the other work involved in improving new procedures for 2010, and keeping the MAF current.

We will follow the protocol of past generic clearances: We will send a letter to OMB at least two weeks before the planned start of each activity that gives more exact details, examples of forms, and final estimates of respondent burden. We also will file a year-end summary with OMB after the close of each fiscal year giving results of each activity conducted.

The following sections describe the categories of activities to be included under the clearance. The Census Bureau has conducted these activities (or similar ones) previously and the respondent burden remains relatively unchanged from one time to another.

Demographic Area Address Listing (DAAL)

The Demographic Area Address Listing (DAAL) program encompasses the geographic area updates for the Community Address Updating System (CAUS) and the area and group quarters frame listings for many ongoing demographic surveys (the Current Population Survey, the Consumer Expenditures Survey, etc.). The CAUS program was designed to address quality concerns relating to areas with high concentrations of noncity-style addresses, and to provide a rural counterpart to the update of city-style addresses the MAF will receive from the U.S. Postal Services’s Delivery Sequence File. The ongoing demographic surveys, as part of the 2000 Sample Redesign Program, plan to use the MAF as one of several sources of addresses from which to select their samples. In addition to the area and group quarters frame listings, the demographic surveys will also list blocks via the DAAL program for their Frame Assessment for Current Household Surveys (FACHS) evaluations. The DAAL program is a cooperative effort across many divisions at the Census Bureau; it includes automated listing software, systems, and procedures that will allow us to conduct listing operations in a dependent manner based on information contained in the MAF.

The DAAL operations will be conducted on an ongoing basis in potentially any county across the country. Field Representatives (FRs) will canvass selected Census tabulation blocks to improve the address list in areas where substantial address changes have occurred that have not been added to the MAF through regular update operations, and/or in blocks in the area or group quarters frame sample for the demographic surveys. FRs will update existing address information, and when necessary, contact individuals, to collect accurate location and mailing address information. In general, contact will occur only when the FR is adding to the address list, and the individual's address is not posted or visible to the FR. If the occupants of these households are not at home, the FR may attempt to contact a neighbor to determine the best time to find the occupants at home and/or to obtain the correct address information.

DAAL is an ongoing operation. Listing assignments are distributed quarterly with the work conducted throughout the time period. We expect that DAAL listings will be conducted throughout the entire time period of the extension.

Dress Rehearsal Address Canvassing

An Address Canvassing operation will take place as part of the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal. The operation will take place between May 7, 2007 and June 26, 2007. The operation will be a standard address canvassing operation where census listers will canvass specified blocks and conduct brief interviews to verify or update address information against address information on the Census Bureau’s address lists and maps. Listers will enter an address status for every address based on what they found out during the visit. Listers will also visit addresses not listed on our address lists and add them. They will record address information and address statuses on the address lists that reside on the hand held computer (HHC). Sites for the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal will be San Joaquin County, California and Fayetteville and Eastern North Carolina.

Decennial Address Canvassing

An Address Canvassing operation will take place as part of the 2010 Decennial Census. The operation will take place between 13 April 2009 and May 2009. The operation will be a standard address canvassing operation where census listers will canvass specified blocks and conduct brief interviews to verify or update address information against address information on the Census Bureau’s address lists and maps. Listers will enter an address status for every address based on what they found out during the visit. Listers will also visit addresses not listed on our address lists and add them. They will record address information and address statuses on the address lists that reside on the hand held computer (HHC). Sites for the 2010 Decennial Census will be nation wide.

Dress Rehearsal Update/Leave

The U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the Update/Leave operation, March 3, 2008 through April 7, 2008 in the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal sites of San Joaquin County, California and Fayetteville and Eastern North Carolina. Update/Leave is a field operation for the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal. The results of this test will enable the Census Bureau to identify, refine, and improve our address collection procedures for a more cost-effective and accurate decennial census.

Update/Leave requires Listers to update the Census Bureau’s address list and maps, and to leave a census questionnaire at each housing unit. Listers verify and update the addresses on the address list and their locations on census maps to ensure that they are as current, complete and accurate as possible. Listers will use Form DX-105A (U/L), Update/Leave Address Listing Pages to verify, and update addresses currently in the Census Bureau’s Update/Leave universe. Listers will enter an action code for every address based on what they found out. Listers will visit addresses not already listed and add them to our address list. To add addresses, Listers will use Form DX-105B (U/L), Update/Leave Add Pages.

If the occupants of these living quarters are not at home the Listers will leave a questionnaire at the household in a plastic bag, then attempt to contact neighbors in order to obtain the correct address information. If the Lister is unable to contact anyone about an address, they will use their own judgment, and information from surrounding addresses to enter the address information. Quality Control (QC) for Update/Leave consists of an initial observation, a dependent quality control check in the field and an office review of completed work.

Decennial Update/Leave

The U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the Update/Leave operation in the 2010 Decennial Census. Update/Leave requires Listers to update the Census Bureau’s address list and maps, and to leave a census questionnaire at each housing unit. Listers verify and update the addresses on the address list and their locations on census maps to ensure that they are as current, complete and accurate as possible. Listers will use Form DX-105A (U/L), Update/Leave Address Listing Pages to verify, and update addresses currently in the Census Bureau’s Update/Leave universe. Listers will enter an action code for every address based on what they found out. Listers will visit addresses not already listed and add them to our address list. To add addresses, Listers will use Form DX-105B (U/L), Update/Leave Add Pages.

If the occupants of these living quarters are not at home the Listers will leave a questionnaire at the household in a plastic bag, then attempt to contact neighbors in order to obtain the correct address information. If the Lister is unable to contact anyone about an address, they will use their own judgment, and information from surrounding addresses to enter the address information. Quality Control (QC) for Update/Leave consist of an initial observation, a dependent quality control check in the field and an office review of completed work.

Dress Rehearsal Group Quarters Validation (GQV)

The U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the Group Quarters Validation Operation from 17 September – 24 October 2007 at the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal sites of San Joaquin County, California and Fayetteville and Eastern North Carolina. The GQV operation, which supports the Census Bureau’s strategic goal of developing methodologies for compiling a complete and accurate MAF for the 2010 Census, is designed to verify and classify addresses identified as other living quarters during the 2006 Address Canvassing operation. The addresses will be classified as Group Quarters (GQ), Housing Unit (HU), or “not a living quarters”. If the address is a GQ, the lister will label it with the correct type code, (e.g. as a college residence hall or skilled nursing unit). Listers will use the DX-351 GQV Questionnaire to list address information and type codes for each GQ in their workload. GQV creates the universe for a follow-up operation known as Group Quarters Enumeration (GQE), in which we count the residents of identified GQs.

Decennial Group Quarters Validation

The U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the Group Quarters Validation Operation as part of the 2010 Decennial Census. The operation will take place between Sept 11, 2009 – October 22, 2009. The GQV operation verifies and classifies addresses identified as other living quarters during the Decennial Address Canvassing operation. The addresses will be classified as Group Quarters (GQ), Housing Unit (HU), or “not a living quarters”. If the address is a GQ, the lister will label it with the correct type code, (e.g. as a college residence hall or skilled nursing unit). Listers will use the DX-351 GQV Questionnaire to list address information and type codes for each GQ in their workload. GQV creates the universe for a follow-up operation known as Group Quarters Enumeration (GQE), in which we count the residents of identified GQs.

The list above is not exhaustive of all activities, which may be performed under this generic clearance. We will follow the approved procedure when submitting any additional activities not specifically listed here.

The authority for conducting the activities in this document comes from Title 13 United States Code, Sections 141 and 193.

Question 2. Needs and Uses

All activities described above directly support the Census Bureau’s efforts to update the MAF and the TIGER database on a regular basis so that they will be available for use in conducting and evaluating statistical programs the Census Bureau undertakes on a monthly, annual or periodic basis.

Information quality is an integral part of the pre-dissemination review of the information disseminated by the Census Bureau (fully described in the Census Bureau’s Information Quality Guidelines). Information quality is also integral to the information collections conducted by the Census Bureau and is incorporated into the clearance process required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Question 3. Use of Information Technology

Hand held computers and laptops are used by the listers in collecting responses or data in some of the activities we conduct.

Question 4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

These activities do not duplicate information collected by any other agency. Further, there is no similar current information available that could be used or modified for these purposes.

Question 5. Minimizing Burden

Using the Delivery Sequence File provided by the U.S. Postal Service, along with address information provided by state, local and tribal governments, to update the MAF will allow us to verify existing information in appropriate areas instead of collecting all the information from the respondent, thereby reducing respondent burden. The interviews at individual households are very short and most often require only the address or physical location, plus householder name and telephone number for some operations.

Question 6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collections

Response to each of these activities is on a one-time basis. However, the activities will be conducted periodically in conjunction with census tests, dress rehearsals, and other intercensal efforts to maintain a current and accurate list of addresses and geographic features. If these activities were not conducted, the accuracy of the MAF and the TIGER database would suffer, causing increased costs for, and problems in, conducting the decennial census and other Census Bureau statistical programs.

Question 7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances preventing the meeting of all guidelines.

Question 8. Consultations Outside the Agency

While planning for the mid-decade activities and the 2010 census, we have had consultations with outside parties, including the U.S. Postal Service. Consultations specific to the activities described above generally are not deemed necessary because the methodologies are well proven.

A Pre-submission Notice for the activities described in this statement was published on November 22, 2006, inviting public comment (vol 71, pg. 67543). Three comments were received in response to the Notice. One from an individual concerned about the Census Bureau need to collect information in general.

We received two other comments regarding enumerating multi-unit apartments. Our response to the latter two comments are as follows: We are aware of the issues raised by both Dr. Salvo of the New York City Department of City Planning and Mr. Reamer of the Brookings Institute, concerning labeling apartments in small multi-unit buildings that do not have unit designations and enumerating them. We have worked with Dr. Salvo for over three years in our efforts to address this problem and currently are finalizing a plan for labeling and enumerating these apartments during the census. We did not include mention of this plan in the generic clearance because these situations likely will only apply to some very specific situations in a few areas, and is not part of the standard operational plan for which we are seeking clearance. Also, at this point in time, we have not finished our research nor determined our final plan for the 2010 Census.

Question 9. Paying Respondents

Respondents will not be paid or provided with gifts.

Question 10. Assurance of Confidentiality

All information tending to identify individuals will be held in strict confidence according to the provisions of Title 13, United States Code, Section 9. The Census Bureau staff on site will give a notice to each person contacted (Attachment 1). This notice explains that any information given to the Census Bureau will be held in strict confidence. The notice also informs each respondent that participation is mandatory. P.L. 103-430 allows the Census Bureau to share its address information with state/local/tribal government officials designated as “Census Liaisons,” but requires these officials to maintain the strict confidentiality provisions of Title 13. Section 214 of that law imposes strict penalties for unauthorized disclosures of census information.

Question 11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

None of the questions asked during the activities described above are of a sensitive nature and they should not pose any problem for respondents in that respect.

Question 12. Estimate of Hour Burden

The following table shows the calculation of burden for FYs 2007, 2008 and 2009. We are requesting the burden hours for FY 07 at this time. At the beginning of FY 08 and FY 09 we will submit a change request for those fiscal years.

Activity	FY 2007 Respondents	FY 2008 Respondents	FY 2009 Respondents	Average Hours per Respondent	Responses Per Respondent	FY2007 Burden Hours	FY 2008 Burden Hours	FY 2009 Burden Hours
DAAL	17,000	40,000	100,000	.05	1	850	2000	5000
Dress Rehearsal Address Canvassing	654,000			.016	1	10,464
Decennial Address Canvassing			129,000,000	.016	1			2,064,000
Dress Rehearsal Update Leave	178,000			.016	1	2848
Decennial Update Leave			13,000,000	.016	1			208,000
Dress Rehearsal Group Quarters Validation	750			.17		128
Decennial Group Quarters Validation			2,000,000	.17				340,000
Totals	849,750	40,000	144,100,000	-----------	------------	14,290	2,000	2,617,000

All estimates of burden per response are derived from the Census Bureau’s experience conducting the same or similar activities previously.

Question 13. Estimate of Cost Burden

There are no costs to respondents other than that of their time to respond. For government entities, the information requested is of the type and scope normally carried in records and no special hardware or accounting software or system is necessary to provide answers to this information collection. Therefore, respondents are not expected to incur any capital and start-up costs or system maintenance costs in responding. Further, purchasing of outside accounting or information collection services, if performed by the respondent, is part of usual and customary business practices and not specifically required for this information collection.

Question 14. Cost to Federal Government

The annual cost to the Federal Government associated with each activity will be provided in the letter to the OMB that will precede the activity.

Question 15. Reason for Change in Burden

The numerous activities we conduct each fiscal year directly cause fluctuations in the burden hours we report. For fiscal year 07 we expect approximately 14,300 hours, however as we approach the 2010 census we expect the burden hours to exceed 2 million based on the greater number of respondents we expect to contact.

Question 16. Project Schedule

The chart in Question 12 and the description of each activity in Question 1 give an approximate time frame for each activity. A schedule for completing each activity will be provided in the letter to the OMB that will precede the activity.

Question 17. Request Not to Display Expiration Date

We will display the expiration date on the Privacy Act Notice given to respondents (see Attachment 1).

Question 18. Exceptions to the Certification

There are no exceptions.

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