OMB Memo

The U.S. Census Bureau requests to make minor changes to the questionnaire submitted under request number 201812-0607-001 (OMB number 0607-0978).

The updated documentation is two-fold. The initial submission had split ballot testing on questions for 1) awareness of the census, 2) intent to respond to the census and 3) trust in federal statistics. Based on data collected during the first month and data from pretesting, a single version of each of these has been selected. Second, a question is being asked if respondents believe a citizenship question will be on the 2020 Census form. This question was requested for three reasons (1) to get a benchmark prior to the start of the advertising campaign (2) to use as a covariate in analysis of intent to respond to the census and (3) to look at by subpopulations. Recent work by Jon Krosnik indicates over 70% of the public believe Citizenship will be asked in the Census despite the withdrawal of the request by DOC. The agency needs to track the prevalence of this belief to craft communications and advertisements. John Abowd, Associate Director for Research and Methodology is in favor of adding this question onto the Tracking Survey. The Legal Team at Census and Commerce do not see a problem adding this question and the Executive Leadership of Census, including the Director, agree that this question is beneficial.

There will be no net change to the burden estimate previously submitted.

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

Jenny Hunter Childs

Center for Behavioral Science Methods

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

301-763-4927

Jennifer.Hunter.Childs@census.gov