Non-Substantive Change Request (October 2013 Core Extension and Rotational Question Set)

The U.S. Census Bureau requests permission to make non-substantive changes to the questionnaire under the clearance for the Federal Statistical System Public Opinion Survey (OMB number 0607-0969). The objective of this research is to gather data on public understanding of and trust in Federal Statistical Agencies and federal statistics. These public opinion data will enable the Census Bureau to better understand public perceptions, which will provide guidance for communicating with the public and for future planning of data collection that reflects a good understanding of public perceptions and concerns.

From February 2012 through September 2013, the Census Bureau added 25 questions nightly onto an ongoing data collection by the Gallup Daily Tracking Survey. From October 2013 through March 2014, the Census Bureau will add 10 questions to the survey. Five of the 10 questions in the new series will be core questions and five are available for rotation. Core questions focus on awareness of and attitudes towards federal statistics and federal statistical agencies. Monthly, up to five questions may be rotated in the survey. OMB and Census have agreed that these rotating questions constitute non-substantive changes to this submission. Attached to this letter is the request to make these changes through a single tracking document. This tracking document contains a complete history of all questions asked and the date that each question was or is planned to be asked.

This is the first set of rotations proposed in the extension to the Gallup contract. As such, we are forming a new core of questions that consists of items measuring data users, trust in statistics, belief in confidentiality of data, relevance of statistics, and privacy. The data user item will have an experiment in the first week to see whether there is any difference using the unemployment rate or the Consumer Price Index as the final example.

The first set of rotating questions picks up a few old items that focus on cost savings as a reason to use administrative records to examine any possible effect of a government shut down on trust, should we have one. It also incorporates items to measure opinions towards using records for as many households as possible vs. only for nonresponding households. The second set of rotating items focuses on alternative methods of contact, reminder and response for the 2020 Census. This rotation differs from past rotations because it focuses on the reason for contact and it includes automated voice invitations and reminders as well as the other alternate methods.

We believe that lessons learned within the context of the Census Bureau questions will also provide strategic information to the other participating agencies planning to use administrative records for statistical purposes. We are requesting to field the first set of rotating questions from September 30 until October 27. The second rotating set will field from October 28-November 25.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and study design is:

Jennifer Hunter Childs

Center for Survey Measurement

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

202-603-4827

jennifer.hunter.childs@census.gov