2010 CQR OMB Supporting Statement 110910r

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Census Bureau

Decennial Management Division/Count Question Resolution Office

2010 Census Count Question Resolution Program

OMB Control Number 0607-0879

Part A – Justification

1. Necessity of the Information Collection

The components of the Count Question Resolution (CQR) Program are to:

• Provide state, local and tribal area governments with a mechanism to challenge the accuracy of the counts of 2010 Census housing units and group quarters.

• Provide governmental units with revised, certified housing unit and/or group quarters counts with their associated population and any geographic boundary corrections when the resolution of a challenge results in a change.

The legal authority authorizing the CQR Program is Title 13, section 141.

The Count Question Resolution (CQR) Program will process requests for corrections to the 2010 Census count of housing units and/or group quarters (GQs) based on three types of challenges (1) boundary, (2) geocoding, and (3) coverage. The CQR Program is not a mechanism or process to challenge or revise the population counts sent to the President by December 31, 2010, which are used to apportion the U.S. House of Representatives. The Census Bureau will accept challenges between June 1, 2011, and June 1, 2013.

The Census Bureau will make all corrections on the basis of appropriate documentation provided by the challenging entities and through research of the official 2010 Census records by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau will not collect additional data for the enumeration of living quarters through the CQR Program. The Census Bureau will respond to all challenges and will notify all affected governmental units of any corrections to their official counts as a result of a CQR Program decision.

Corrections made to the population and housing unit counts by this program will result in the issuance of new official 2010 Census counts to the officials of governmental units affected. These corrections may be used by the governmental units for future programs requiring official 2010 Census data. The Census Bureau will use these corrections to modify the decennial census file for use in annual postcensal estimates beginning in December 2012, and to create the errata information we will make available to the public on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder Web site at http://factfinder.census.gov.

The Census Bureau will issue an official 2010 Census CQR Program announcement through the Federal Register after we receive OMB approval to conduct the program. This announcement will provide full details to governmental entities wishing to participate in the 2010 CQR Program.

2. Needs and Uses

The primary need for implementation of the CQR Program is to ensure a way for state, local and tribal area governments to request corrections to 2010 Census counts. The 2010 Census apportionment counts, redistricting and other official data products will not be modified. However, the Census Bureau will provide corrected and certified population and housing counts to each governmental unit (GU) affected by a CQR correction. This revised count may be used for official government purposes, including requests for federal or state funding, grants, and other needs that are based on the population and/or housing and group quarters counts within a governmental unit.

Information quality is an integral part of the pre-dissemination review of the information disseminated by the Census Bureau. 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.

3. Use of Information Technology

In Census 2000, the CQR Program staff used two automated systems that did not interface with each other. One system was used to track correspondence, the other to assign the CQR work. The two systems were cumbersome to use and update information, and prone to errors

For the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau’s Geography Division is developing a CQR Production Control System (PCS) that will contain all inputs, documentation, and output from the 2-year CQR Program. A transaction file will be created for each CQR case and will include the relevant challenge documentation along with the geographic, housing unit and/or group quarters corrections to the 2010 Census results.

When the Census Bureau receives documentation for a challenge, all materials will be scanned and input to the CQR PCS. All notification letters, research, and other verification documents will be linked to each challenge and available for evaluation, assessments, and 2020 Census planning. We will store templates of correspondence letters (see attachment B) within the CQR PCS. For each letter, we will input the appropriate information such as governmental unit name, contact name and title, address, and block/track of challenge, etc. into the CQR PCS. The output from a challenge requiring a change will be transmitted to the Decennial Systems and Processing Office and then to the Population Division to generate official, recertified population and housing counts.

For 2010, we plan to receive 90% of challenges through electronic submission. The Census Bureau requests that governments provide their CQR submissions through email by sending their submission documents to [email protected]. If electronic transmission is not available to the government, they may provide the challenge submission through the mail or via FAX to the Census Bureau’s CQR staff. The options, addresses and contact information for submitting a CQR challenge are included on the CQR Brochure (see Attachment C) sent to each Highest Elected Official and Tribal Chair in the United States and Puerto Rico. This mailing is scheduled to take place in February 2011.

The Census Bureau developed a new process to store and retrieve 2010 Census enumerator maps and address registers at the National Processing Center (NPC) in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The NPC will use the Automated Tracking and Control System (ATAC) application to locate the materials by shelf. They expect a turnaround within 24 hours of a request. In the past, it took NPC staff up to 2 weeks to manually locate and FedEx CQR materials to the requestor. For the 2010 Census, Census Bureau staff will receive scanned document images from NPC within hours of, but no longer than 1 day from, the time of the request. The new approach will greatly improve the efficiency of the research and verification phases of the CQR Program.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

The CQR Program is the only Census Bureau program that allows governmental unit representatives and Tribal chairs in the United State and Puerto Rico to challenge the decennial Census results.

5. Minimizing Burden

The requirements for CQR documentation are similar to those in Census 2000. The Census Bureau is urging governmental units to send challenges to the CQR Program to a secure e-mail or a secure .ftp site.

Challenging GUs must provide map spots on an electronic or paper map for a clear indication of the location of the housing unit(s) and/or group quarters. This will reduce the need to contact the challenger with questions regarding the specific location of the challenged units. Challenging GU’s must include an address list to specifically identify and verify the count of missed or misallocated housing units and/or group quarters. We do not require challengers to provide population records or population characteristics with their submission to the CQR staff.

The Census Bureau will not conduct any field enumeration as part of the CQR Program.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

The CQR Program is conducted over a 2-year period once every decade following the decennial census. To conduct this operation less than each decennial would result in the Census Bureau not being able to produce corrections to the decennial counts for state, local or tribal area governments. If there is no mechanism to correct the decennial counts which are the basis for allocating approximately $400 billion in federal funds each year, GUs may not receive their share of funding.

7. Special Circumstances

None.

8. Consultations Outside the Agency

We published a notice in the Federal Register on May 26, 2010, pages 29508 – 29513, inviting the public and other federal agencies to comment on our plans to submit this request. The Census Bureau received one response from Mr. Jan Vink from the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics in New York (see Attachment A). Mr. Vink is also a current member of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates.

The majority of the comments received were asking the Census Bureau to include additional text to clarify concepts presented in the document regarding the scope of and required documentation for the CQR Program. The Census Bureau provided the clarifications requested by Mr. Vink.

The Census Bureau began sharing the 2010 CQR Program plans with State Data Center representatives, the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates group, and Census Advisory Committee members starting in the fall of 2009.

9. Paying Respondents

We do not pay CQR Program participants or provide participants with gifts.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

The Census Bureau’s requirements under Title 13, U.S.C. for the confidentiality of address list information are applicable to this program. Safeguards are in place for ensuring that only sworn Census employees associated with the CQR Program have access to addresses provided with a CQR challenge. Participation in the CQR Program is required to obtain or retain benefits. Respondents are advised of the confidentiality of their submissions in the CQR Brochure. The Census Bureau also plans to publish a program announcement in the Federal Register after obtaining OMB clearance for the 2010 CQR Program.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

The CQR Program contains no questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Hour Burden

We expect to receive approximately 1,500 governmental challenges in each year of the 2-year program from June 1, 2011 through June 1, 2013. The Census Bureau estimates that, for the average challenge, it will take a governmental unit representative 5.2 hours to prepare and submit documentation for a CQR challenge. This estimate is based on an average challenge of 40 housing units. The total number of respondent burden hours each year is 7,800 hours.

The estimated cost for a governmental unit to prepare CQR challenge documentation and submit it to the Census Bureau for consideration is approximately $81.00 per submission (based on an average challenge of 40 housing units). The total estimated cost of the CQR challenge program per year is $122,220.

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

There are no costs to respondents other than their time to prepare the challenge submission.

14. Cost to Federal Government

The cost estimate for the 2010 Census Count Question Resolution (CQR) Program is $937,390. This estimate covers the program development, starting in fiscal year 2010, through the completion of the program at the end of fiscal year 2013. The CQR Program is paid for through funding from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Decennial Management Division.

15. Reason for Change in Burden

The Census 2000 CQR Program was developed based on an estimate of 3,000 challenges per year. The actual number of challenges received over the entire 2-year period was slightly more than 1,200. For 2010, the Census Bureau has implemented numerous pre- and post-data collection operations to increase the quality of the address lists, geographic information, and data collection associated with all housing units and group quarters in the U.S and Puerto Rico. We are estimating the number of potential 2010 CQR challenges as 1,500 per year.

The result of reducing the number of challenges expected for the 2010 CQR Program is a decrease in the expected annual burden hours for this program from 15,600 hours in 2000 to 7,800.

16. Project Schedule

May 26, 2010 – CQR Federal Register Notice Pre-submission posted for 60 day public comment.

October 2010 through March 2011 – Develop and test the CQR Production Control System.

December 2010 – Census Bureau obtains OMB clearance for the 2010 Census CQR Program.

January 2011 – Census Bureau mails the 2010 Census CQR brochure (see Attachment C) and a copy of the final Federal Register Notice to the highest elected officials at all levels of state, Municipio, and tribal area government in the United States and Puerto Rico.

June 1, 2011 through June 1, 2013 – The Census Bureau accepts housing and group quarters (and associated populations) count challenges.

June 1, 2011 through September 30, 2013 – Census Bureau staff determine the validity of a challenge, conduct research, generate revised counts and/or boundary maps (as applicable), and provide the challenger and any affected governments with results of their challenge.

17. Request to Not Display Expiration Date

The OMB clearance expiration date will be printed on the CQR brochure that will be delivered to the highest elected officials at all levels of state, Municipio, and tribal area government in the United States and Puerto Rico.

18. Exceptions to the Certification

There are no exceptions to the Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission.

Attachments

A Public Comments on the 2010 Census CQR Federal Register Notice Pre-submission

B 2010 Census Count Question Resolution Program Letters

C 2010 Census Count Question Resolution Brochures