[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 191 (Wednesday, October 2, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60824-60826]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-24028]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 
Panel.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Form Number(s): SIPP-105(L)2014--Director's Letter; SIPP-
105(L)(SP)2014-- Director's Letter Spanish; SIPP/CAPI Automated 
Instrument.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Burden Hours: 73,500.
    Number of Respondents: 73,500.
    Average Hours per Response: 1 hour.
    Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau plans to conduct the 2014 Survey 
of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Panel in four waves 
beginning in February 2014. The Census Bureau's SIPP computer-assisted 
personal interviewing (CAPI) will use an Event History Calendar (EHC) 
interviewing method and a 12-month, calendar-year reference period in 
place of the current SIPP questionnaire approach that uses a sliding 4-
month reference period. The Census Bureau is re-engineering the SIPP to 
accomplish several goals including re-engineering the collection 
instrument and processing system, development of the EHC in the 
instrument, use of administrative records data where feasible, and 
increased stakeholder interaction.
    The main objective of the SIPP has been, and continues to be, to 
provide accurate and comprehensive information about the income and 
program participation of individuals and households in the United 
States. The survey's mission is to provide a nationally representative 
sample for evaluating: (1) Annual and sub-annual income dynamics; (2) 
movements into and out of government transfer programs; (3) family and 
social context of individuals and households; and (4) interactions 
among these items. A major use of the SIPP has been to evaluate the use 
of and eligibility for government programs and to analyze the impacts 
of modifications to those programs. The re-engineering of SIPP pursues 
these objectives in the context of several goals including cost 
reduction, improved accuracy, increased relevance and timeliness, 
reduced burden on respondents, and increased accessibility. The 2014 
SIPP Panel will collect detailed information on cash and non-cash 
income (including participation in government transfer programs) once 
per year.
    A key component of re-engineering the SIPP is a shift from the 
every-four-month data collection schedule of historical SIPP (most 
recently in the 2008 Panel) to an annual data collection schedule for 
the re-engineered survey. To accomplish this shift with minimal impact 
on data quality, the Census Bureau will use an EHC based instrument to 
gather SIPP data. The EHC is intended to help respondents recall 
information in a more natural ``autobiographical'' manner by using life 
events as triggers to recall other economic events. For example, a 
residence change may often occur contemporaneously with a change in 
employment. The entire process of compiling the calendar focuses, by 
its nature, on consistency and sequential order of events, and attempts 
to correct for otherwise missing data. For example, unemployed 
respondents may undertake a lengthy job search before successfully 
finding employment. The EHC allows recording dates of events and spells 
of coverage and will provide measures of monthly transitions of program 
receipt and coverage, labor force transitions, health insurance 
transitions, and others. The EHC was previously used in the 2010, 2011, 
2012, and 2013 SIPP-EHC field tests. Results from the 2010-2013 Field 
Tests and the 2008 SIPP Panel were used to inform final decisions 
regarding the design, content, and implementation of the 2014 SIPP 
Panel. The content of the 2014 SIPP Panel will match that of the 2013 
SIPP-EHC very closely. The 2014 SIPP Panel design does not contain 
freestanding topical modules as in the prior production SIPP 
instruments; however, a portion of traditional SIPP topical module 
content is integrated into the main body of the 2014 SIPP interview.
    The start of the 2014 SIPP Panel was scheduled at the earliest 
possible start (February 2014) that would allow the

[[Page 60825]]

use of a 2010 Census based sample. The 2014 SIPP Panel wave 1 will 
interview respondents using the previous calendar year 2013 as the 
reference period and will proceed with annual interviewing going 
forward. The 2014 SIPP Panel will use a revised interviewing method 
structure that will follow persons aged 15 years and older who move 
from the prior wave household. Consequently, future waves will 
incorporate dependent data, which is information collected from the 
prior wave interview brought forward to the current interview.
    The Census Bureau plans to use Computer Assisted Recorded Interview 
(CARI) technology during the 2014 SIPP Panel. CARI is a data collection 
method that captures audio along with response data during computer-
assisted personal and telephone interviews (CAPI & CATI). With the 
respondent's consent, a portion of each interview is recorded 
unobtrusively and both the sound file and screen images are returned 
with the response data to a central location for coding. By reviewing 
the recorded portions of the interview, quality assurance analysts can 
evaluate the likelihood that the exchange between the field 
representative and respondent is authentic and follows critical survey 
protocol as defined by the sponsor and based on best practices. 
Additionally, the recordings will be reviewed to develop standards for 
coaching interviewers and develop options to use them as supplements to 
both in-person observation and reinterview. The 2014 SIPP Panel 
instrument will utilize the CARI Interactive Data Access System (CARI 
System), an innovative, integrated, multifaceted monitoring system that 
features a configurable web-based interface for behavior coding, 
quality assurance, and coaching. This system assists in coding 
interviews for measuring question and interviewer performance and the 
interaction between interviewers and respondents.
    The 2014 SIPP Panel Wave 1 instrument will be evaluated in several 
domains including field implementation issues and data comparability 
vis-[agrave]-vis the 2008 SIPP Panel and administrative records. 
Distributional characteristics such as the percent of persons receiving 
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamps, Medicare, 
who are working, who are enrolled in school, or who have health 
insurance coverage reported in the EHC will be compared to the same 
distributions from the 2008 SIPP Panel. The primary focus will be to 
examine the quality of data that the new instrument yields for low-
income programs relative to the current SIPP and other administrative 
sources. The 2014 SIPP Panel sample is nationally representative, with 
an oversample of low-income areas in order to increase the ability to 
measure participation in government programs. In general, there are two 
ways we will evaluate data quality:
    First, we will compare monthly estimates from the 2014 SIPP Panel 
to estimates from the 2008 SIPP Panel for characteristics such as 
participation in Food Stamps, TANF, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), 
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 
Children (WIC), and Medicaid. We plan to conduct a rigorous statistical 
analysis using the model established for the 2010-2013 SIPP-EHC 
evaluations, where data from the 2008 Panel and 2010-2013 SIPP-EHC for 
the previous calendar years were mapped to a common analysis standard. 
The tests of significance conducted for the differences in monthly 
participation levels, identification of patterns of significance, and 
the likelihood of transition will again be applied to the 2013 calendar 
year comparison mapped data. Additional content will be included in the 
mapped data to expand the comparisons beyond the focus of the EHC 
section of the instrument comparisons made with the SIPP-EHC field 
tests. As with the 2010-2013 SIPP-EHC field tests, we will also compare 
paradata related to interview performance (interview length and non-
response) by region, interviewer and household characteristics, and 
training performance as measured by the certification test.
    Second, for a small subset of characteristics, and for a subset of 
sample areas, we will have access to administrative record data, which 
should allow for a more objective data quality assessment of the 
validity of the survey estimates for respondents matched to 
administrative data. The acquisition of administrative data from 
national sources and especially from states is difficult and time 
consuming. We continue to work with Texas, Maryland, Illinois, and 
Wisconsin to acquire state-level data (primarily focused on Food Stamps 
or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and TANF), and 
additional state discussions are in progress. From national-level 
administrative records, we are working to acquire additional data from 
the Internal Revenue Service, the detailed and summary earnings 
records, Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), SSI, 
Medicare, and Medicaid (from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services 
(CMS)). To the extent that data can be obtained in a timely way for 
calendar year 2013 we will include validation evaluations of the 
responses given both in the 2008 Panel and the 2014 SIPP Panel Wave 1 
data. These administrative data can tell us the rate of both false 
positive and false negative reporting, as well as some indication of 
the accuracy of the timing of reports. The ability to make effective 
comparisons with administrative data is dependent on the match rate of 
administrative data to SIPP and re-engineered SIPP data, the timing of 
the receipt of the data, and the accuracy and quality of the 
administrative records. This project will continue to show the 
importance of developing systems that can integrate administrative 
reports with survey data.
    This OMB clearance request is for the full 2014 SIPP Panel (Waves 
1, 2, 3, and 4). Wave 1 of the SIPP 2014 Panel will be conducted from 
February to May of 2014. Wave 2 is scheduled to be conducted from 
January to April of 2015. Wave 3 is scheduled to be conducted from 
January to April of 2016. Wave 4 is scheduled to be conducted from 
January to April of 2017. Approximately 52,000 households will be 
sampled to be interviewed for the 2014 Panel. From these sampled 
households, we expect approximately 35,000 interviewed households. We 
estimate that each household contains 2.1 people aged 15 and above, 
yielding approximately 73,500 person-level interviews per wave in this 
panel. Interviews take approximately 60 minutes per adult on average, 
consequently the total annual burden for 2014 SIPP-EHC interviews will 
be 73,500 hours per year in FY 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Section 182.
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Jennifer Jessup, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0336, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
[email protected]).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB

[[Page 60826]]

Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) or email 
([email protected]).

    Dated: September 27, 2013.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-24028 Filed 10-1-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P