[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 235 (Monday, December 7, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78824-78825]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26824]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; American Community Survey Methods Panel Tests

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on November 17, 2017 (Vol. 82, No. 221, p. 54317-
54320) during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an 
additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: American Community Survey Methods Panel Tests: Regional 
Office internet Letter Test and Initial Mailing Pressure Seal Test.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0936.
    Form Number(s): ACS-1, ACS internet, ACS CAPI.
    Type of Request: Regular submission. Request for a Nonsubstantive 
Change of a Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 182,400.
    Average Hours per Response: 40 minutes.
    Burden Hours: No additional burden hours are requested under this 
submission.
    Needs and Uses: The American Community Survey (ACS) collects 
detailed socioeconomic data from about 3.5 million housing units in the 
United States and 36,000 in Puerto Rico each year. The ACS also 
collects detailed socioeconomic data from about 195,000 residents 
living in group quarters. Residents of sampled housing units are 
invited to self-respond to the ACS through a series of up to five 
mailings, sent over a period of approximately six and a half weeks. The 
Census Bureau selects a subsample of the housing units that do not 
respond by internet, mail, or through the Telephone Questionnaire 
Assistance (TQA). This subsample of housing units is assigned to the 
Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) nonresponse follow-up data 
collection mode. During CAPI, field representatives call or visit these 
subsampled addresses to attempt to complete an interview.
    An ongoing data collection effort with an annual sample of this 
magnitude requires that the ACS continue research, testing, and 
evaluations aimed at reducing respondent burden, improving data 
quality, reducing data collection costs, and improving the ACS 
questionnaire content and related data collection materials. The ACS 
Methods Panel is a research program designed to address and respond to 
issues and survey needs. This request documents two Methods Panel 
tests: The Initial Mailing Pressure Seal Test and the Regional Office 
internet Letter Test.
    The Initial Mailing Pressure Seal Test is designed to test the use 
of a pressure seal mailer in the first mailing sent to sampled housing 
units. The purpose of the test is to understand the effect on self-
response of sending a pressure seal mailer instead of the initial mail 
package that is currently sent. Evidence from mailings sent in 2020 
suggest that the pressure seal mailer may be more effective at 
soliciting an internet response than a mail package containing a 
letter, brochure, and instruction card. However, several confounding 
factors could have caused an increase in self-response other than the 
mail type. First, the 2020 Census was conducting the nonresponse 
follow-up operation and advertising about the importance of responding 
to the 2020 Census, which some respondents confuse with the ACS. 
Second, the initial mail package lets respondents know that if they are 
unable to complete the survey online, then we will send a paper 
questionnaire in a few weeks. This message was omitted from the 
pressure seal mailer. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we were 
unable to mail paper ACS questionnaires to all nonresponding 
households. We theorize that telling respondents that they will have 
another opportunity to respond later delays response. Finally, the 
internet User ID in the initial mail package is included on the 
instruction card, not in the letter. In the pressure seal mailer, the 
User ID is included very clearly in a call-out box. We theorize that 
making the log-in instructions clear and easy to find increases 
internet response.
    The proposed test will include four experimental treatments and a 
control: An initial mail package (control), a modified initial mail 
package, and three variations of the pressure seal mailer. Addresses 
not part of the test will receive the initial mail package. The 
experimental design of this test allows the Census Bureau to assess the 
impact of using a pressure seal mailer instead of an initial mail 
package and how information about a paper questionnaire being mailed 
impacts response rates.
    To field this test, the Census Bureau plans to use the ACS 
production sample (clearance number: 0607-0810). Thus, there is no 
increase in burden from this test since each treatment will include the 
same number of mailings and result in the same burden estimate per 
interview (40 minutes). The Census Bureau proposes this test to be 
conducted in late spring or summer of 2021 (pending operational 
constraints) and adhere to the same data collection protocols as 
production ACS.
    The ACS sample design randomly assigns housing units in each 
monthly sample panel to one of 24 groups of approximately 12,000 
addresses each. Each group, called a methods panel group, is 
representative of the full monthly sample. Each monthly sample is a 
representative subsample of the

[[Page 78825]]

entire annual sample and is representative of the sampling frame. The 
Census Bureau proposes to use two randomly selected methods panel 
groups for each treatment. Hence, each treatment will have a sample 
size of approximately 24,000 addresses. In total, approximately 96,000 
addresses will be used for the four experimental treatments and 24,000 
for the control. The remaining ACS sample will receive production 
materials.
    The Census Bureau proposes to evaluate the experimental treatments 
by comparing self-response rates overall and by mode. For each 
comparison, a two-tailed t-test will be used to measure the impact on 
the evaluation measure in either direction with 80 percent power at the 
[alpha] = 0.1 level. The sample size will be able to detect differences 
of approximately 1.74 percentage points between the self-response 
return rates between two experimental treatments. To assess the costs 
of implementing any of the experimental treatments, we will also 
conduct a cost analysis.
    The Regional Office internet Letter Test is designed to test 
content changes to a letter used to encourage online self-response 
during CAPI. This letter is sent as a pressure-seal mailer from the 
Census Bureau's National Processing Center to all mailable sampled 
addresses in the CAPI universe.
    The changes to the pressure seal letter proposed for this test are 
(1) the message on the outside of the pressure seal mailer (options 
include either a ``Past Due'' message or ``Required by Law'') and (2) 
whether to include information about TQA as a response option, or only 
mention the internet. The experimental design isolates each of the 
content factors being studied. There is one control, which uses 
production materials, and three experimental treatments.
    To field this test, the Census Bureau plans to use the ACS 
production sample (clearance number: 0607-0810). There is no increase 
in burden from this test because each treatment will include the same 
number of mailings and result in the same burden estimate per interview 
(40 minutes). The Census Bureau proposes that this test be conducted in 
the summer of 2021 (pending operational constraints) and adhere to the 
same data collection protocols as production ACS.
    The Census Bureau proposes to use six randomly selected methods 
panel groups for each treatment. Each treatment will have a sample size 
of approximately 15,600 addresses. In total, approximately 46,800 
addresses will be used for the three experimental treatments and 15,600 
for the control. All mailable CAPI cases are included in the 
experiment.
    The Census Bureau proposes to evaluate the experimental treatments 
by comparing self-response rates during CAPI and overall CAPI response 
rates, as well as refusal rates and other interview outcomes. The TQA 
call volume will also be monitored. For each comparison, a two-tailed 
test will be used so that the Census Bureau can measure the impact on 
the evaluation measure in either direction with 80 percent power at the 
[alpha] = 0.1 level. The sample size will be able to detect differences 
of approximately 1.74 percentage points between the self-response 
return rates between two experimental treatments. A cost analysis will 
also be conducted.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: One-time tests as part of the monthly American Community 
Survey.
    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 the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-0936.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-26824 Filed 12-4-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P