[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 37 (Monday, February 25, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5986-5987]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-03200]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

U.S. Census Bureau


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.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: American Community Survey Methods Panel Tests, 2019 Census 
Test.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0936.
    Form Number(s): DM-QA, DM-QA(E/S), DM-QB, DM-QB(E/S).
    Type of Request: Non-Substantive Change Request.
    Number of Respondents: 480,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 10 minutes for the average household 
questionnaire.
    Burden Hours: No additional burden hours are requested under this 
non-substantive change request.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the American Community 
Survey (ACS) Methods Panel 2019 Census Test. The purpose of this 
proposed test is to gather direct, quantitative information on the 
potential impact of the inclusion of the citizenship question on self-
response in the 2020 Census to fine-tune the planning for the 2020 
Census Nonresponse Follow-up (NRFU) operation, which is designed to 
collect responses from addresses that did not self-respond. The 
potential impact on self-response is of particular interest since it is 
the primary and most cost-effective mode of data collection in the 
decennial census. The Census Bureau lacks definitive, empirical 
evidence on the impact of the inclusion of the citizenship question on 
self-response in the 2020 Census. The information obtained from this 
test may also inform the Integrated Partnership and Communications 
Campaign, which is the outreach campaign to maximize self-response to 
the 2020 Census.
    The 2019 Census Test will use the ACS Methods Panel to conduct the 
test. This will allow the Census Bureau to continue devoting its full 
complement of staff resources to 2020 Census operations.
    The ACS Methods Panel is a research program designed to address and 
respond to emerging issues and needs of the Census Bureau's Decennial 
Census Programs, including the 2020 Census and ACS. Every year, the 
Census Bureau contacts over 3.5 million sampled addresses across the 
country to participate in the ACS and hundreds of millions each decade 
for the decennial census. The complexity of both of these programs 
requires that the Census Bureau continue research, testing, and 
evaluations aimed at reducing respondent burden, improving data 
quality, achieving survey cost efficiencies, and improving 
questionnaire content and related data collection materials.
    For the 2019 Census Test, the Census Bureau will compare two 
treatments using a randomized controlled experiment. The control 
treatment questionnaire will ask 2020 Census questions (i.e., number of 
people, tenure, sex, age, date of birth, Hispanic origin, race, 
citizenship, relationship to householder, and coverage questions). The 
experimental treatment questionnaire will ask these same questions 
minus the citizenship question.
    The test will employ a sample size of 480,000 addresses that will 
be divided evenly between the control and the experimental treatments. 
This sample size is designed to detect a difference of 0.5 percentage 
points between the self-response rates of the control and experimental 
treatments at the national level. The sample, which will be separate 
from the ACS production sample, will oversample areas with high 
proportions of non-citizens and historically low self-response rates. 
The sample construction will allow for limited analysis by race and 
Hispanic origin.
    The test will have a Census Day (reference date) of July 1, 2019. 
The first mailing will go out mid-June 2019. The data collection period 
will be nine weeks. Data collection will end mid-August 2019. The test 
will utilize the 2020 Census mail strategy, including internet First 
and internet Choice contact strategies, and the use of English-only and 
English/Spanish bilingual materials. With the internet First contact 
strategy, the initial mailing only provides instructions for responding 
online. The initial mailing for the internet Choice contact strategy 
also includes a paper questionnaire. For each contact strategy, a 
subset of the areas will receive bilingual materials (English/Spanish).
    The 2019 Census Test will be of the household population and will 
include

[[Page 5987]]

areas designated to be self-response areas in the 2020 Census, 
specifically excluding Puerto Rico and the population living in group 
quarters. The test will be conducted using self-response only. The 
Census Bureau will also provide telephone questionnaire assistance 
(TQA). Respondents will be able to call TQA with questions about the 
survey and may also complete their survey over the phone. TQA can 
support 10 of the 12 non-English languages supported in the 2020 
Census: Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, Korean, 
Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese. The 
exceptions are Japanese and Polish.
    Preliminary results that can be used to adjust NRFU hiring and 
refine messaging for the Integrated Partnership and Communications 
Campaign will be available on a rolling basis. Self-response rates will 
be available by the end of August 2019, and preliminary results will be 
available in early October 2019. Final results are expected by spring 
2020.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: One-time test.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141, 193, 
and 221.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer, 
Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2019-03200 Filed 2-22-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P