2026 Boundary and Annexation Survey NSC Memo

Request for Non-Substantive Change to the

Boundary and Annexation Survey

Office of Management and Budget Control No. 0607-0151

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Census Bureau

Purpose

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) annually to collect information about selected legally defined geographic areas. BAS provides tribal, state, and general-purpose local governments an opportunity to review the Census Bureau’s legal boundary data to ensure the Census Bureau has the correct boundary, name, and status. The Census Bureau uses the boundary information collected during BAS to tabulate data for the decennial and economic censuses, and for annual estimates and surveys such as the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Population Estimates Program (PEP). Title 13, Section 6, United States Code authorizes this survey.

Approved on November 30, 2024, the current BAS Office of Management and Budget (OMB) collection will expire on November 30, 2027. This non-substantive change (NSC) request is to update materials used for the 2026 BAS; these include replacing language to direct people to recorded webinars instead of conducting webinars, updating references to years, updating some variable names, and adding Privacy Act Statements. Refer to Table 1 (2026 BAS Materials Changes) for a complete list of updates made to the BAS materials.

Background

Starting in 2026, the Census Bureau will update all participant BAS IDs to GOVIDs. This change creates a standardized experience and will streamline Geographic Partnership Program participation allowing the IDs to be used across multiple programs. The IDs themselves have not changed, just the name of the ID. We also removed references to conducting webinars and replaced it with language to view a recorded webinar. References to GUPS have been replaced with GUPS Web as we begin to transition participants to the online only version of GUPS for BAS. Instructions for working on street updates have been clarified to improve the quality of submissions. There are no substantive changes to BAS resulting from these modifications. The updated materials included do not alter the content or objective of BAS. The requested changes are necessary to reflect the current BAS cycle.

Burden

The burden of the 2026 BAS is unchanged by this update.

Attachments

Table 1: 2026 BAS Material Changes

Reported Change	Material	Location in Material	Description/Summary of Change(s)
Added Privacy Act Statement on BAS Website	N/A	N/A	Added privacy statement to comply with requirements from the Policy and Coordination Office (PCO). Privacy statement will be available on the BAS website.
Added Privacy Act Statement in Geography Division Partner Portal	N/A	N/A	Added privacy statement to comply with requirements from the Policy and Coordination Office (PCO). This statement is specific to the Geography Division Partner Portal (GDPP) and is required for all geographic programs, whether active or not. The GDPP will not be used during the 2026 BAS.
Added Privacy Act Statement in Geographic Update Partnership Software	N/A	N/A	Added privacy statement to comply with requirements from the Policy and Coordination Office (PCO). This statement is specific to the Geographic Update Partnership Software (GUPS) and is required for all geographic programs, whether active or not.
Added Privacy Act Statement in Secure Web Incoming Module	N/A	N/A	Added privacy statement to comply with requirements from the Policy and Coordination Office (PCO). This statement is specific to the Secure Web Incoming Module (SWIM) and is required for all geographic programs, whether active or not.
Added Privacy Act Statement in the BAS Annual Response Form	N/A	N/A	Added privacy statement to comply with requirements from the Policy and Coordination Office (PCO). Privacy statement will be available on the BAS Annual Response Form.
Updated links and references for various program dates	All Documents	Throughout Documents	Updated any references or links containing 2025 to 2026.
Updated BAS Partnership Shapefile Links and References	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide, BAS Technical Guide	Throughout Document	Updated all references to the BAS Partnership Shapefiles “25v2”.
Updated BAS ID to GOVID	All Documents	Throughout Documents	Updated all instances of “BAS ID” and “BAS_ID” to “GOVID”.
Reworded Webinar Sentence	BAS-E-1, BAS-E-2, BAS-E-4, BAS-E-SDC, BAS-E-SWIM-HasAcct, BAS-E-SWIM-Token	Action Steps section	Reworded webinar sentence to reflect that there will be a webinar recording available but no live webinars or webinar registration.
Updated Linear Features to Streets	BAS Paper How-to Guide, BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide, BAS Technical Guide	Throughout Documents	Updated references of “linear features” to “streets”, except when referencing specific tool names.
Standardized Naming	BAS Paper How-to Guide	Throughout document	Changed usages of “BAS map” to “reference map.”
Removed Figures and Updated Figure Numbers	BAS Paper How-to Guide	Throughout Document	Removed figures 10 and 15 due to associated instructions or sections being removed. Updated proceeding figure numbers and references throughout document.
Added Language for Street Name Requirements	BAS Paper How-to Guide	3.1.2	Added language to step 1 to clarify that street names are required for newly added streets.
Removed Address Range Instructions	BAS Paper How-to Guide	Section 3.1.2	Removed instructions for updated address ranges.
Removed Section and Updated Section Numbers	BAS Paper How-to Guide	Chapter 3	Removed Section 3.1.6, Adding Cul-De-Sacs or Circles. Updated section numbering throughout document.
Updated GUPS Reference to GUPS Web	BAS Technical Guide	Introduction	Updated GUPS to GUPS Web.
Reworded Street Submissions Section	BAS Technical Guide	Section 3.3	Reworded for clarity and additional guidance related to street feature updates.
Removed FORM_ID Rows	BAS Technical Guide	Section 4.3	Removed mentions of FORM_ID since it is no longer in the shapefile tables.
Corrected Usage of “Setup”	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Chapter 2	Corrected “setup” to “set up” when appropriate.
Add New Incorporation and Disincorporation instructions	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Section 1.3	Added a section describing the requirements for adding or removing a whole government within a submission.
Added Tribal Data Section	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Section 2.2.1	Added to provide clarity for the Tribal BAS submission process
Added Figure and Updated Figure Numbers	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Section 3.7	Added new image, Figure 23, and updated all proceeding figure numbers.
Removed Sections	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Sections 4.8 through 4.10	Remove sections 4.8, 4.9, and 4.10, no longer relevant for troubleshoot.
Updated SWIM Instructions	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Chapter 5	Updated to better reflect process of uploading to SWIM for all levels of geography.
Replaced Images	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Figure 5, Figure 7, Figure 10, Figure 11,	Replaced images to reflect BAS ID to GOVID update.
Updated Table Value	BAS Partnership Toolbox Pro How-to Guide	Table 6	Updated “Recode Feature” to “Feature MTFCC Reclassification” to better clarify update type.
Updated Action Steps	BAS-E-3, BAS-E-4	Action Steps	Removed extraneous words to simplify instructions.