D-1685tg-r Invitation Letter

DRAFT

D-1685(TG-R)

(Entity Name)

(Entity Code

(Contact ID of the HEO – allow for 7 characters)

(Date)

(Recipient Name)

(Position)

(Department Name)

(Mailing Address)

(City) (State) (ZIP)

Dear (Name of Tribal HEO),

The U.S. Census Bureau recently invited your tribal government to participate in the 2010 Decennial Census Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Program. I am now writing to notify you about a change to the LUCA Program.

In our invitation we stated that the addresses on our list located within your reservation and/or trust land boundaries would not be provided for review to any other government as part of the LUCA Program. This approach was in support of the government-to-government relationship federal agencies have with federally recognized American Indian tribes; however, it inadvertently caused us to fall short of our statutory obligations. The Census Bureau is required by statute (Title 13 U.S.C., Section 16) to provide its list of addresses for review to local units of general purpose government. The original plan would have limited this review. Thus, while this change will not affect your tribe’s ability to receive all addresses located within your reservation and/or trust land boundaries, we will provide non-tribal government units located within your reservation and/or trust land boundaries with census addresses located within their boundaries and invite these non-tribal governments to review their addresses for accuracy.

Any local government electing to participate in the LUCA Program will be provided only the addresses located within its [their] legal boundary. State governments participating in the LUCA program are also eligible to receive any addresses located within the state, including those within reservation/trust land boundaries. All LUCA participants will be required to maintain the confidentiality of the LUCA addresses, and no data about people or household composition are provided.

This determination does not limit your tribe’s ability to fully participate in the LUCA Program. If you intend to participate, please register for the LUCA Program as soon as possible; we will supply your LUCA materials as soon as possible after we receive your completed registration forms. We will accept registrations up until December 31, 2007, but the sooner we receive your registration forms the more time you will have to perform your review prior to the final submission deadline of April 4, 2008.

We recently completed 14 tribal consultation meetings with tribes across the country. These historic meetings were meant to demonstrate the Census Bureau’s commitment to its government-to-government relationship with federally recognized tribes and to the tenets of our draft American Indian and Alaska Native Policy Statement. This change in the LUCA Program in no way changes our dedication to our government-to-government relationship or to working in partnership with you for a more accurate 2010 Census for your tribe.

If you have any questions regarding the LUCA Program, please contact your Census Bureau Regional Office by telephone at 1-866-511-LUCA (5822) or via e-mail at (RO e-mail address). If you have questions about the legal basis for this program change please contact the Department of Commerce Office of the Chief Counsel for Economic Affairs at 202-482-5394.

We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Charles Louis Kincannon

Director

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