[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 227 (Monday, November 27, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58326-58329]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-28854]



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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 Final Program.

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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 

[[Page 58327]]
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 issued a Notice 
of Proposed Program and Request for Comments in the Federal Register, 
(60 FR 45137) on Wednesday, August 30, 1995. That notice solicited 
comments on the proposed Standards for Address Lists. The Census Bureau 
did not receive comments on the Federal Register Notice and now invites 
tribal and local governments to participate in the PALS.

    \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, United States 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.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Vic Meiller, Geography Division, 
Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C., telephone (301) 457-1106, 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 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 (such as, 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 (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 the first 
quarter of 1999 (exact date to be determined and announced later) also 
will be eligible for the appeals process called for in Pub. L. 103-430. 
Between the first quarter of 1999 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. If the Census Bureau is unable to determine a geographic 
location for an address, it will request that the submitting tribal or 
local government supply an address range and street location for the 
individual address. The Census Bureau can provide maps for this 
purpose. For new addresses submitted after the first quarter of 1999 
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 Public Law 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 Public Law 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 

[[Page 58328]]
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 (such 
as, 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 (USPS).\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 multiunit structures separately from those addresses for 
single-unit structures. The 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:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Character position                          Field               
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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).                           
------------------------------------------------------------------------
               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, nonresiden-   
                                     tial, 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 2g);
                                     and for those address records      
                                     incorporating a correction from a  
                                     previous address list submission,  
                                     the old information (item 2g)).    
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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 

[[Page 58329]]
format used, basic standard 1g 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 example, ``N''), records from an earlier list that 
now should be deleted (such as, ``D''), and the corrected records (such 
as, ``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: November 13, 1995.
Martha Farnsworth Riche,
Director, Bureau of the Census.
[FR Doc. 95-28854 Filed 11-24-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P