2008 IL & RL OMB Supporting Statement PartA.wpd

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

2008 Census Coverage Measurement Independent Listing and Relisting Operations

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) Independent Listing Interview and the CCM Relisting Interview as part of the 2008 Dress Rehearsal. The CCM program for the dress rehearsal is designed to test 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 test 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, surrounding blocks, and across the entire site. Separate 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.

The Independent Listing Operation is the first step in the CCM process. It will be conducted to obtain a complete inventory of all housing unit addresses within the CCM sample block clusters before the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal enumeration commences. In both dress rehearsal sites, Listers will canvass every street, road, or other place where people might live in their assigned block clusters and construct a list of housing units. Listers will contact a member of each housing unit (or proxy, as a last resort) to ensure all units at a given address are identified. They will also identify the location of each housing unit by assigning map spots on block cluster maps provided with their assignment materials. If an enumerator is uncertain whether particular living quarters is a housing unit, it will be listed and flagged for possible followup, if still unresolved after matching (this will be a part of the Initial Housing Unit Followup).

Completed Independent Listing Books are subject to Dependent Quality Control (DQC) wherein DQC listers return to the field to check 12 housing units per cluster to ensure that the work performed is of acceptable quality and to verify that the correct blocks were visited. If the cluster fails the DQC, then the DQC lister reworks the entire cluster. The completed listing books are keyed for matching against the census Decennial Master Address File for the same areas.

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.

The Independent Listing results will be computer and clerically matched to the Decennial Master Address File from the census in the same areas. As the result of the matching, an additional relisting operation can occur for block clusters having high levels of geocoding errors in the original Independent Listing. The methods and procedures for Relisting will be the same as those for the Independent Listing operation. There will be one Independent Listing Form, DX-1302 (see Attachment A), that will be used for Independent Listing, DQC, and Relisting.

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 Independent Listing and Relisting interviews, however, will user paper questionnaires. Since the main objective of the 2008 Independent Listing and Relisting operations is to test new methods, the design efforts are focused on content redesign.

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.

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 Independent Listing and Relisting 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 the population in the 2010 Census.

7. Special Circumstances

No special circumstances exist.

8. Consultations Outside the Agency

The Census Bureau published a notice in the Federal Register on October 10, 2006 (Vol.71, Pg. 59429), inviting public comment on our plans to submit this information collection. We received two comments, one was determined to be irrelevant to the collection because it did not pertain specifically to the 2008 CCM test. The second comment was already planned for the 2008 CCM test.

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 Decennial 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 B, Privacy Notice).

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

The Census Bureau perceives no questions in the CCM Independent Listing and Relisting questionnaires as being sensitive.

12. Estimate of Hour Burden

The estimated workload is approximately 20,000 housing units for CCM Independent Listing and 200 housing units for Relisting in selected census tracts in Fayetteville, North Carolina; and 20,000 housing units for Independent Listing and 200 housing units for Relisting in San Joaquin County, California. From the Independent Listing workload, we will select a sample of approximately 3,600 housing units from all block clusters in Fayetteville, North Carolina and 2,700 housing units from all block clusters in San Joaquin County, California for the Independent Listing DQC operation. From the Relisting workload, we will select a sample of approximately 60 housing units from all block clusters in Fayetteville, North Carolina and San Joaquin County, California for the Relisting DQC operation. To calculate the burden hours, we assumed a theoretical 100 percent response rate and an approximate completion time of 2 minutes per case. The estimated total annual respondent burden for the Independent Listing and Relisting operations is approximately 1,559 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 $422,392. An inter-divisional Census Bureau team developed the data collection methodologies and planned the test, 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 Independent Listing and Relisting Activities

Table: Schedule for 2008 CCM Independent Listing and Relisting Activities

Activity	Schedule
	Start Date	Finish Date
Develop Independent Listing Book Content	02/21/06	05/19/06
Conduct Independent Listing Interviews	11/01/07	12/08/07
Conduct Independent Listing Quality Control Interviews	11/01/07	12/15/07
Conduct Relisting Interviews	04/07/08	05/09/08
Conduct Relisting Quality Control Interviews	04/10/08	05/13/08

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 2 minutes. The Privacy Notice (see Attachment B) containing the OMB number and expiration date will be provided to all respondents.

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