[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 168 (Wednesday, August 30, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45137-45140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-21521]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of the Census
[Docket No. 950807204-5204-01]


Standards for Address Lists: Public Law 103-430

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of Proposed Program and Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with Public Law (Pub. L.) 103-430, ``The Census 
Address List Improvement Act of 1994,'' the Census Bureau will accept 
address lists from States,1 tribal governments, and local units of 
general purpose government,2 as well as from metropolitan planning 
organizations and other regional planning agencies, (referred to 
hereafter as ``tribal, and local governments''), for the purpose of 
building and updating a nationwide address list called the Master 
Address File (MAF). The Census Bureau is developing the MAF to document 
the address of every living quarters in the United States and its 
territories and will use it to implement the full range of Census 
Bureau statistical programs. The Census Bureau will begin accepting 
address lists from tribal and local governments (``address lists'') in 
October 1995. Following Census Bureau review and processing of these 
address lists, the Census Bureau will provide detailed information to 
the submitting tribal or local government documenting the actions taken 
regarding each address. The program for using address lists to build 
the MAF and keep it up to date is referred to as the Program for 
Address List Supplementation (PALS). The Census Bureau is requesting 
comments on the proposed standards for the submission of address lists 
to the Census Bureau under the PALS program.

    \1\ The term ``State'' includes the District of Columbia, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands of the 
United States, and any other territory or possession of the United 
States.
    \2\ As defined in section 184 of Title 13, U.S. Code, the term 
``local units of general purpose government'' means the government 
of a county, municipality, township, Indian tribe, Alaska Native 
village, parish, borough, or other unit of government other than a 
state.

DATES: Any suggestions or recommendations concerning the proposed 
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standards should be submitted in writing by September 29, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Director, Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC 20233-0001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Joel Morrison, Chief, Geography 
Division, Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC, telephone (301) 457-
1132, or e-mail to ``[email protected].''

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Later in the decade, the Census Bureau will 
provide relevant portions of the MAF to ``Census Liaisons'' designated 
by tribal and local governments for their review and concurrence in 
conjunction with the 2000 census (a process herein referred to as ``MAF 
review''), consistent with the confidentiality provisions of Title 13, 
United States Code, as specified in Pub. L. 103-430. Further, the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Federal 
Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the Census 
Bureau, will develop an appeals process for Pub. L. 103-430 activities. 
Because the plan for these future activities is under development, the 
timetable for the activities described in this notice is tentative. 
Future notices (to be published by late 1996) will announce and seek 
comments on a detailed timetable for all address list improvement 
activities, information on Census Bureau processes for verifying 
addresses, and the substantive details of the appeals process.
    The Census Bureau will begin accepting and processing address lists 
containing city-style addresses (that is, those with house number-
street name addresses) beginning in October 1995. The Census Bureau 
will publish standards and a timetable for processing lists containing 
noncity-style addresses 

[[Page 45138]]
(those with rural route and box number, P.O. Box number, or general 
delivery addresses) in a future notice (to be published by late 1996). 
As address lists change due to deletions, corrections, and additions, 
the Census Bureau will accept second and subsequent submissions on a 
continuous basis, and process them as resources permit.
    The Census Bureau will attempt to use the most recent address 
information provided by a tribal or local government to conduct each 
subsequent census and survey, regardless of when that government 
provides it. Before the 2000 decennial census, the Census Bureau will 
seek to reach agreement with tribal and local officials--through 
processes of list matching, address verification, MAF review by the 
designated Census Liaisons, and Census Bureau feedback on results--
about the inventory of living quarters addresses within their 
jurisdictions. Addresses on address lists submitted to the Census 
Bureau by mid-calendar year 1998 (exact date to be determined and 
announced later) will be included in the full set of processes for MAF 
review described above. This MAF review process will provide an 
important opportunity for the designated Census Liaisons to check the 
Census Bureau's geographic assignment of each residential address 
within governmental unit boundaries and individual census blocks. 
Addresses on address lists submitted to the Census Bureau by late 1998 
(exact date to be determined and announced later) also will be eligible 
for the appeals process called for in Pub. L. 103-430. Between late 
1998 and the date for the 2000 census, the Census Bureau will accept 
and process address lists only to the extent they can be verified in 
other 2000 census operations; addresses on lists submitted after that 
date will not be eligible for the Pub. L. 103-430 appeals process. 
These late submissions will be most productive in helping the Census 
Bureau include in the census all housing units in existence as of the 
census date when tribal and local governments have previously submitted 
address lists.
    To effectively use the addresses contained on address lists to 
build and update the MAF, and to provide meaningful feedback to the 
tribal and local list providers, the Census Bureau must determine a 
geographic location for each address. The Census Bureau will do this 
through an automated match to its geographic support system, the 
Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) 
data base. When the Census Bureau is unable to determine the geographic 
location of an address, it will request that the submitting tribal or 
local government supply a map location for that address and for the 
street along which it is located before adding that address to the MAF 
and the street to the TIGER data base. The Census Bureau can provide 
maps for this purpose. For new addresses submitted after late 1998 and 
before the date for the 2000 census, the Census Bureau requests that 
the tribal or local government provide this map location information 
for all such new addresses at the time the address lists are submitted.
    The Census Bureau will conduct procedures to independently verify 
all addresses it adds to the MAF from address lists (for example, 
through matches to address information from the U.S. Postal Service, 
other independent sources, or its own field operations) and will remove 
from the MAF those addresses for which it cannot find confirming 
evidence.
    The Census Bureau will treat all address information received from 
tribal and local governments as confidential, pursuant to Title 13, 
United States Code, in accordance with Pub. L. 103-430; this does not 
limit in any manner the right of the tribal or local government to use 
its own address information, nor does it preclude the Census Bureau 
from providing detailed feedback to the submitting jurisdiction about 
the Census Bureau's disposition of addresses on its lists.
    STANDARDS FOR ADDRESS LISTS USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH PUB. L. 103-
430:
    The basic standards proposed in Section 1, below, describe the 
address list characteristics that will enable the Census Bureau to use 
the tribal and local address information. Address lists that also meet 
the supplemental standards specified in Section 2, below, will improve 
the Census Bureau's ability to process the information in a timely 
manner and will improve the match rate between the addresses on those 
lists and the addresses in the MAF. Along with other factors, such as 
when the address lists are received, the Census Bureau will consider 
the extent to which each address list meets these standards in setting 
priorities for processing.
1. Basic Standards

    The following basic standards apply to all address lists that a 
tribal or local government plans to submit to the Census Bureau as part 
of the PALS.
    a. Addresses must accurately reflect residential units existing at 
the time of submission. The definition of ``residential unit'' includes 
housing units in single or multiple-occupancy structures and in group 
living quarters where unrelated individuals share the facilities of a 
structure. Group living quarters include residential units such as 
college dormitories, orphanages, nursing homes, military barracks, 
prisons, and large rooming or boarding houses. A housing unit is a 
house, an apartment, a group of rooms, or a single room that is 
occupied as a separate living quarters or, if vacant, intended for 
occupancy as a separate living quarters. A separate living quarters is 
one in which the occupants live and eat separately from other people in 
the building AND for which the occupants have direct access from 
outside the building or through a common hall.
    b. City-style addresses must show the basic street address (that 
is, house number and street name). The street name must include 
applicable street directional and street type indicators (for example, 
``105 S MAIN ST NW'').
    c. For jurisdictions that have converted from a rural-style to a 
city-style address system, or that have replaced one city-style system 
with another city-style system, the addresses must reflect the current 
system. (See also related non-mandatory standards.) File documentation 
and the address list must indicate whether the current address system 
is recognized for mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.3

    \3\ For address lists wherein the city-style addresses are not 
recognized for mail delivery, the feedback provided by the Census 
Bureau will be on a different schedule and will lack the same level 
of detail as where the addresses are used for mail delivery.
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    d. If the address list includes both residential and nonresidential 
addresses, it must distinguish between the two. (If an address is used 
to identify a unit used for both residential and nonresidential 
purposes, it should be identified as ``residential'' or ``mixed use'' 
for purposes of this standard.)
    e. For jurisdictions that include addresses in more than one ZIP 
Code, each address record must include the correct and current 5-digit 
ZIP Code.
    f. Addresses in a multiunit structure must include a unit 
designation for each housing unit (for example, ``101 MAIN ST, APT A'') 
and a tally of the total number of individual dwelling units located 
within the multiunit structure. In addition to (but not instead of) the 
basic street address, it is useful for the Census Bureau to receive the 
building, apartment, and complex names as well.
    If individual unit designations are not available, each address 
record must include descriptive information that identifies the 
addresses for multi-unit structures separately from those addresses for 
single-unit structures. The 

[[Page 45139]]
options described below are in preferential order.
    (1) When the address list has in its inventory only one record 
representing a multiunit structure:
    i. Include as part of each address record a tally of the total 
number of individual dwelling units located within the multiunit 
structure.
    ii. Include as part of each address record a single character 
signifying that it represents a multiunit structure (for example, 
``M'').
    (2) When the address list includes a unique record for every 
individual unit, but does not contain distinguishing unit designations, 
mark each such record with a single character flag signifying that it 
represents an individual unit in a multiunit structure (for example, 
``I'').
    g. Tribal and local governments must provide with each address list 
documentation describing the file specifications, record layout 
(including field names, descriptions, character positions, and/or field 
delimiters), and data elements for each record in the address list, 
along with a description of the source of the address information.

2. Supplemental Standards

    The following supplemental standards set forth desirable 
characteristics for address lists that a tribal or local government 
plans to submit to the Census Bureau as part of the PALS.
    a. Address lists are most useful when they are submitted in a 
computer-readable format, using one of the following media: PC floppy 
disk, CD-ROM, 8-mm tape, or 9-track magnetic tape (no label with 1,600 
or 6,250 BPI density). All media casings should have external labels 
that clearly identify the data contained and the name of the tribal or 
local government.
    b. Computer-readable address lists are most useful when they are 
submitted using the file specifications and content format specified 
below:
    (1) ASCII files with fixed length records.
    (2) Separate records for each residential unit with an end-of-
record indicator appropriate to the submitting government's operating 
system.
    (3) Arrange the file content as:

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   Character position                          Field                    
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1-5.....................  5-digit ZIP Code.                             
6-77....................  Street Address, including house number, street
                           name, and within-structure designation.      
78......................  Multiunit Indicator (a flag signifying whether
                           or not the address record pertains to a      
                           multiunit structure; use for the situation   
                           represented by item 1f(1)ii OR 1f(2)).       
79-82...................  Multiunit Tally, right justified (the total   
                           number of units sharing the basic street     
                           address represented on the record; see item  
                           1f(1)i).                                     
                                                                        
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               Optional Fields, with Suggested Positioning              
                                                                        
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83-102..................  Post Office Name.                             
103-104.................  2-character USPS State Abbreviation or 2-digit
                           FIPS State Code.                             
105-107.................  3-digit FIPS County Code.                     
108-111.................  USPS Plus-4 add-on code.                      
112-end.................  Other Descriptive Information (for example, a 
                           single character indicator that distinguishes
                           between addresses used for mail delivery and 
                           those that are not [item 1c], a single       
                           character indicator that distinguishes       
                           between residential, nonresidential, and     
                           ``mixed use'' [item 1d], a building name     
                           address [item 2b(5)], the superseded address 
                           where a new address system has been put in   
                           place [item 2b(6)], a single-character       
                           indicator that distinguishes between address 
                           records that are corrections, deletions, and 
                           additions [item 2f], and for those address   
                           records incorporating a correction from a    
                           previous address list submission, the old    
                           information [item 2f]).                      
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The Street Address field (character positions 6-77) can be shortened if 
  no address record requires the full allotted space. In order to save  
  space, the tribal or local government may shorten each address record 
  by reducing the size of the Street Address field, eliminating the     
  optional fields, or repositioning the optional fields. Regardless of  
  data format used, basic standard 1,g requires that the tribal or local
  government document the file specifications, record layout, and data  
  elements for each record in the address list.                         
The Street Address field should contain only the indicated information. 
  It is highly desirable that this field NOT include person-name        
  information, post office name, or state abbreviations.                

    (4) Files that have the components of the Street Address stored in 
separate fields should include documentation that defines the subfields 
within the Street Address field (character positions 6-77) and the 
position of each component of the address in their appropriate 
subfields. Please ensure that the documentation accurately describes 
the field arrangement.
    (5) For residential units that are identified by both a house 
number-street name address and a building name address, it is most 
useful to have the house number-street name address in the Street 
Address field and the equivalent building name address in the Other 
Descriptive Information field. When the house number-street name 
address is unavailable, either place the building name address in the 
Street Address field or in the Other Descriptive Information field. 
Whichever is the case, please ensure that the documentation accurately 
describes the file content arrangement.
    (6) In addition to providing computerized address list and 
documentation, it is very helpful for the tribal or local government to 
submit a hard-copy document containing a representative sample of 
address records.
    c. For jurisdictions in which all addresses are in a single 5-digit 
ZIP Code, each address record should include the 5-digit ZIP Code.
    d. Append the 4-digit USPS Plus-4 add-on code, along with the 5-
digit ZIP Code, to each address record, if available.
    e. If a tribal or local government is submitting information from 
more than one address list, it should consolidate and unduplicate the 
address lists before submitting them to the Census Bureau. Otherwise, 
the submitting government should specify the sequence in which the 
Census Bureau should process the multiple lists.
    f. For jurisdictions that have changed address systems during the 
preceding five years, each address record should include both the 
current address and the superseded address.
    g. For second or subsequent address list submissions, it is 
preferable that the new address lists include only additions, 
deletions, and corrections to the original list(s). Provide an 
indicator (diagnostic flag) that will distinguish between the new 
address records (for 

[[Page 45140]]
example, ``N''), records from an earlier list that now should be 
deleted (such as, ``D''), and the corrected records (for example, 
``C''). For address records requiring corrections, provide the original 
depiction of the address in the Other Descriptive Information space 
allotment (character positions 112-end); this will significantly help 
the Census Bureau's efforts to identify and remove the superseded 
version of the address and avoid delivery of more than one 
questionnaire to the same household.

    Dated: August 24, 1995.
Harry A. Scarr,
Deputy Director, Bureau of the Census.
[FR Doc. 95-21521 Filed 8-29-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P