2008 IHUFU OMB Supporting Statement A.wpd

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

2008 Census Coverage Measurement Initial Housing Unit Followup Operation

A. Justification

1. Necessity of the Information Collection

In preparation for the 2010 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct the Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) Initial Housing Unit Followup Interview as part of the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal. The CCM program for the dress rehearsal is a dry run to ensure that all planned coverage measurement operations are working as expected, that they are integrated internally, and that they are coordinated with the appropriate census operations.

The 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal will be conducted in two sites, one urban, and the other one, a mix of urban and suburban. San Joaquin County, California is the urban site. South Central North Carolina has been selected as the urban/suburban mix test site. This area consists of Fayetteville and nine counties surrounding Fayetteville (Chatham, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, and Scotland).

The 2008 CCM Dress Rehearsal will be comprised of two samples selected to measure census coverage of housing units and the household population: the population sample (P sample) and the enumeration sample (E sample). The P sample is a sample of housing units and persons obtained independently from the census for a sample of block clusters. The E sample is a sample of census housing units and enumerations in the same block cluster as the P sample. The independent roster of housing units is obtained during the CCM Independent Listing, the results of which will be matched to census housing units in the sample block clusters and surrounding blocks. Discrepancies between the CCM Independent Listing and census housing unit matching are followed up in Initial Housing Unit Followup. A separate OMB package was submitted for the CCM Independent Listing field operation, and additional OMB packages will be submitted for subsequent CCM field operations.

Title 13, United States Code, Section 141 authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a decennial census of the population, and Section 193 authorizes the Secretary to conduct tests to gather supplementary information related to the census.

2. Needs and Uses

The CCM operations planned for the dress rehearsal, to the extent possible, will mirror those that will be conducted for the 2010 Census to provide estimates of net coverage error and components of coverage error (omissions and erroneous enumerations) for housing units and persons in housing units (see Definition of Terms). The data collection and matching methodologies for previous coverage measurement programs were designed only to measure net coverage error, which reflects the difference between omissions and erroneous inclusions.

During CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup, interviewers collect additional information for addresses unresolved after the matching operations. The CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup operation attempts to collect additional information that might allow a resolution of match codes for any differences between the independent listing results and the census address list and also to resolve potential duplicates. The Initial Housing Unit Followup operation will also determine the housing unit/group quarters status for living quarters flagged during the CCM Independent Listing operation. The Initial Housing Unit Followup data collection form will be created via Docuprint technology. The questions included for each followup case will vary depending upon the reason the address is being sent to followup. There will be one Initial Housing Unit Followup Form, DX-1303 (See Attachment A), that contains preprinted questions to ask respondents dependent upon the reason the address is being sent to followup. Interviewers will contact a member of each housing unit (or proxy, as a last resort) to answer the questions identified for a given address. When applicable, they will also update the location of an address on the CCM block cluster map created during the CCM Independent Listing operation.

Completed Initial Housing Unit Followup Forms are subject to Quality Control (QC) wherein QC interviewers return to the field to check a sample of housing units in each block cluster to ensure the work performed is of acceptable quality. If the cluster fails the QC, then the QC interviewer reworks the entire block cluster.

Information quality is an integral part of the pre-dissemination review of data by the Census Bureau (fully described in the Census Bureau’s Information Quality Guidelines located at http://http://www.census.gov/quality/). Information quality also is integral to the information collections conducted by the Census Bureau and is incorporated into the clearance process required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.

3. Use of Information Technology

The automation efforts for the 2008 CCM survey instruments are focused on the CCM Person Interview (PI) and PI Reinterview. Those interviews will be conducted using handheld computers. The Initial Housing Unit Followup interviews, however, will use a paper questionnaire. Since the main objective of the 2008 Initial Housing Unit Followup operation is to test new methods for data collection and matching activities, the design efforts are focused on questionnaire content redesign and effective post-data collection processing.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

CCM operations are designed to collect information to evaluate new approaches that would provide more accurate measures of coverage error (net and components) for housing units and persons. This includes improving estimates of the number of people and housing units duplicated. This effort does not duplicate information collected by any other agency.

5. Minimizing Burden

The proposed information collection consists of collecting information about housing units, not businesses or other small entities, in the CCM sample blocks. Respondents are asked the minimum number of questions to determine the status of a CCM address, identify duplicate addresses, and resolve inconsistencies between the independent listing results and the census address list.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

Improving the measurement of census coverage is one of the major goals of reengineering the 2010 Decennial Census Program. The Census Bureau will conduct the CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup activities only once in the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal. If these activities were not conducted, it would adversely affect our ability to measure the coverage of housing units and the population in the 2010 Census and plan improvements for future censuses and surveys.

7. Special Circumstances

No special circumstances exist.

8. Consultations Outside the Agency

The Census Bureau published a notice in the Federal Register on January 30, 2007 (Vol.72, Pg. 12164), inviting public comment on our plans to submit this information collection. We received one comment which was determined to be irrelevant to the collection because it did not pertain specifically to the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal CCM .

The Census Bureau has historically conducted research to evaluate results for the decennial census. We benefit from consultation with a variety of data users, including, but not limited to academicians, national researchers, and community leaders. These individuals and members of the National Academy of Science and the various Census Bureau Advisory Committees are well-known scholars and social or political activists, and are respected as spokespersons for their communities and organizations. Both now and in the past, we have responded to advice obtained through this ongoing consultation process.

9. Paying Respondents

Respondents participating in this survey will not receive any form of compensation for their participation.

10. Assurances of Confidentiality

All respondents will be informed that participation is mandatory, that their responses are confidential, and that all information that could identify individuals will be held in the strictest confidence under applicable Federal statutes. This survey complies with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Paperwork Reduction Act (see Attachment D, Privacy Notice).

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

The Census Bureau perceives no questions in the CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup questionnaire as being sensitive.

12. Estimate of Hour Burden

A representative sample of block clusters where CCM activities will be conducted is selected for each of the dress rehearsal sites. The estimated workload for CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup is approximately 16,000 housing units in selected block clusters of both dress rehearsal sites – 8,000 housing units Fayetteville, North Carolina and 8,000 housing units in San Joaquin County, California. From the Initial Housing Unit Followup workload, we will select a sample of approximately 800 housing units from CCM sample block clusters in Fayetteville, North Carolina and 800 housing units from CCM sample block clusters in San Joaquin County, California for the Initial Housing unit Followup QC operation. To calculate the burden hours, we assumed a theoretical 100 percent response rate and an approximate completion time of three minutes per case. The estimated total annual respondent burden for the Initial Housing Unit Followup operation is approximately 880 hours.

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

There is no cost to respondents, except for the time it takes to respond to the questions.

14. Cost to the Federal Government

The cost of this evaluation is covered under funding for decennial testing. The initial cost estimate for this evaluation is approximately $297,863. An inter-divisional Census Bureau team developed the data collection methodologies and planned the dry run, and the Census Bureau’s Decennial Management Division allocated the resources for the test.

15. Reason for Change in Burden

This request for clearance pertains to a new data collection effort.

16. Project Schedule

Below is the schedule for the 2008 CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup Activities

Table: Schedule for 2008 CCM Initial Housing Unit Followup Activities

Activity	Schedule
	Start Date	Finish Date
Develop Initial Housing Unit Followup Content	07/25/06A	11/30/06A
Conduct Initial Housing Unit Followup Interviews	03/06/08	04/16/08
Conduct Initial Housing Unit Followup Quality Control Interviews	03/11/08	04/19/08

17. Request to Not Display Expiration Date

No exemption is requested.

18. Exceptions to the Certification

All respondents will be informed that participation is mandatory and the interview will take approximately three minutes. The Privacy Notice (see Attachment D) containing the OMB number and expiration date will be provided to all respondents.

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