Justification for non-substantive change

Request for Non-Substantive Change

The U.S. Census Bureau requests a revision to the Civic Engagement Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS), which was conducted in November 2008. The Census Bureau received clearance by OMB for the 2008 Voting and Civic Engagement Supplement on October 14, 2008 (OMB#0607-0466, expires 10/31/2011). Now, we request clearance for collection of a Civic Engagement Supplement in November 2009. The Voting and Registration Supplement will continue to be a biennial collection, with the next one scheduled for November 2010.

This request reflects a decrease in the number of questions within the supplement, plus a decrease in the sample universe eligible for the supplement. The decrease is in response to recommendations put forth by the U.S. Census Bureau after completion of the supplemental collection in 2008. The questions that remain in place for this collection should provide the best results for analysis and should meet the sponsor’s objectives. The reduction of the sample universe will serve as a test for the questions, in hopes of conducting them to the full sample, possibly on an annual basis. The revised questions appear in the attachment.

Estimate of Hour Burden

Age and citizenship requirements for the voting questions result in approximately 52,000 households being interviewed for this portion of the supplement. With each household interview, on average, being one and a half minutes long, this amounts to an hour burden of 1,300 hours for these questions.

With the reduced eligibility and the reduced number of questions for the Civic Engagement Supplement, approximately 13,500 households will receive the Civic Engagement Supplement. With each household interview being nine minutes long, this amounts to an hour burden of 2,025 hours for the civic engagement questions.

Based on our assumption that the Civic Engagement Supplement will be conducted annually and given our plans to continue the biennial collection of the Voting and Registration Supplement, the burden over the remainder of the present clearance period is as follows:

	FY 2010 Burden	FY 2011 Burden
Civic Engagement Supplement	2,025	2,025
Voting & Registration Supplement		1,300
TOTAL	2,025	3,325
ANNUAL AVERAGE	2,675

Attachment