[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 47 (Friday, March 10, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14976-14978]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-04952]


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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; The American Community Survey and Puerto Rico Community Survey

    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 September 13, 2022 during a 60-day comment period. 
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
    Title: The American Community Survey and the Puerto Rico Community 
Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0810.
    Form Number(s): ACS-1, ACS-1(SP), ACS-1(PR), ACS-1(PR)SP, ACS-
1(GQ), ACS-1(PR)(GQ), GQFQ, ACS CAPI (HU), ACS RI (HU), AGQ QI, and AGQ 
RI.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a 
Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 3,576,000 for household respondents; 20,100 
for contacts in group quarters; 170,900 people in group quarters; 
22,875 households for reinterview; and 1,422 group quarters contacts 
for reinterview. The total estimated number of respondents is 
3,791,297.
    Average Hours per Response: 40 minutes for the average household 
questionnaire; 15 minutes for a group quarters facility questionnaire; 
25 minutes for a group quarters person questionnaire; 10 minutes for a 
household reinterview; 10 minutes for a group quarters-level 
reinterview.
    Burden Hours: 2,384,000 for household respondents; 5,025 for 
contacts in group quarters; 71,208 for group quarters residents; 3,813 
households for reinterview; and 237 group quarters contacts for 
reinterview. The estimate is an annual average of 2,464,283 burden 
hours.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from 
the OMB for revisions to the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS 
is one of the Department of Commerce's most valuable data products, 
used extensively by businesses, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 
local governments, and many federal agencies. In conducting this 
survey, the Census Bureau's top priority is respecting the time and 
privacy of the people providing information while preserving its value 
to the public.
    In 2024, the ACS plans to add internet self-response as an 
additional option to the group quarters data collection operation. The 
Census Bureau believes there is value in offering a self-response 
option to people living in certain types of group quarters--college/
university student housing, group homes, military barracks, workers' 
group living quarters and Job Corps centers, and emergency and 
transitional shelters. The group quarters data collection operation 
will continue to offer paper, telephone, and in-person response options 
to collect data.

[[Page 14977]]

    The Census Bureau is authorized by law (Title 13, U.S. Code) to use 
existing information that has already been collected by other 
government agencies, whenever possible and consistent with the kind, 
timeliness, quality, and scope of the statistics required, instead of 
asking for such information directly from the public. The Census Bureau 
is allowed to use these data for statistical purposes only and may not 
use these records for enforcement purposes or to decide on eligibility 
for a benefit. Additionally, Census Bureau research has shown that 
using administrative data can reduce respondent burden and improve the 
quality of the ACS data. In 2024, the Census Bureau will supplement or 
replace ACS survey data for the question asking about property acreage. 
The Census Bureau will continue research to explore how administrative 
data can be used for other items on the survey, with initial efforts 
focusing on other housing items, such as agricultural sales and year 
built.
    In addition to using administrative records and in coordination 
with the Office of Management and Budget Interagency Committee for the 
ACS, the Census Bureau solicited proposals for question changes or 
additions from more than 20 federal agencies. Approved topics underwent 
cognitive testing to verify that proposed question wording would be 
understood by respondents. Based on cognitive testing results, the 
Census Bureau proposes to update wording in 2024 for questions on three 
topics: condominium fees, home heating fuel, and journey to work. The 
Census Bureau proposes to implement these three topics without 
additional testing; other topics are still undergoing testing.
    The condominium fees question would be extended to include 
homeowners association (HOA) fees. Data sources continue to show 
housing units that are part of HOAs outnumber housing units in 
condominiums. In order to provide more comprehensive and accurate costs 
of owning a home, the ACS needs to capture HOA fees for these homes. 
Adding these fees to the existing condominium fees question avoids 
adding a new question to the ACS and therefore minimizes respondent 
burden.
    The change to the home heating fuel question would update the 
natural gas and bottled gas categories. This will aid respondents in 
identifying the correct category more easily by using more commonly 
used terminology. In Puerto Rico, the question wording also changed to 
indicate respondents should only include fuel that heats their home.
    The journey to work question would be updated to include ride-
sharing services as a mode of transportation to work to account for new 
and growing travel trends. This will reduce ambiguity in the current 
question about where respondents should report ride-sharing commutes 
and will allow the government to monitor changes in transportation 
patterns for planning purposes.
    Since the 60-day Federal Register Notice, Doc. 2022-19705, Volume 
87, pages 55990-55993 posted on September 13, 2022, the Veterans 
Administration requested the ACS adjust the dates for the Vietnam War 
and Korean War to reflect the dates that they use for program 
evaluation (each period would be adjusted by one month). The Veterans 
Administration also requested that ``Post 9/11'' be added as a 
descriptor for the current service period; that ``Vietnam era'' be 
changed to ``Vietnam War''; and names of war periods be moved to the 
end of the date range for uniform appearance. The Veterans 
Administration requested that the date ranges use the word ``through'' 
instead of ``to'' for clarity. The updated dates for period of service 
will match the dates that the Veterans Administration uses for program 
evaluation as well as the official historical dates of war periods 
published by the Congressional Research Service. Moving names of war 
periods to the end of service categories will create a more uniform 
appearance of the question text, with dates listed first for all 
periods.
    The addition of White and Black or African American write-in lines 
in the race question led the Census Bureau to research redundancies 
between data collected from the improved race question and the ancestry 
question. Findings from this research may lead the Census Bureau to 
recommend the removal of the ancestry question from the American 
Community Survey.
    The Census Bureau developed the ACS to collect and update 
demographic, social, economic, and housing data every year that are 
essentially the same as the ``long-form'' data that the Census Bureau 
formerly collected once a decade as part of the decennial census. The 
ACS blends the strength of small area estimation with the high quality 
of current surveys. The ACS is an ongoing monthly survey that collects 
detailed housing and socioeconomic data from about 3.5 million 
addresses in the United States and about 36,000 addresses in Puerto 
Rico each year. The ACS also collects detailed socioeconomic data from 
about 170,000 residents living in group quarters facilities in the 
United States and about 900 in Puerto Rico. The ACS is now the only 
source of comparable data about social, economic, housing, and 
demographic characteristics for small areas and small subpopulations 
across the nation and in Puerto Rico. Every community in the nation 
continues to receive a detailed, statistical portrait of its social, 
economic, housing, and demographic characteristics each year through 
one-year and five-year ACS products.
    To collect the ACS data, the Census Bureau uses a multiple mode 
contact strategy. These modes include mail, internet, telephone, and 
personal visit. To encourage self-response in the ACS, the Census 
Bureau sends up to five mailings to housing units selected to be in the 
sample. The first mailing, sent to all mailable addresses in the 
sample, includes an invitation to participate in the ACS online and 
states that a paper questionnaire will be sent in a few weeks to those 
unable to respond online. The second mailing is a letter that reminds 
respondents to complete the survey online, thanks them if they have 
already done so, and informs them that a paper form will be sent at a 
later date if the Census Bureau does not receive their response. In a 
third mailing, the questionnaire package is sent only to those sample 
addresses that have not completed the online questionnaire within two 
and a half weeks. The fourth mailing is a postcard that reminds 
respondents to respond and informs them that an interviewer may contact 
them if they do not complete the survey. A fifth mailing is a letter 
sent to respondents who have not completed the survey within five 
weeks. This letter provides a due date and reminds the respondents to 
return their questionnaires to be removed from future contact. The 
Census Bureau will ask those who fill out the survey online to provide 
an email address, which will be used to send an email reminder to 
households that did not complete the online form. The reminder asks 
them to log back in to finish responding to the survey. If the Census 
Bureau does not receive a response or if the household refuses to 
participate, the address may be selected for computer-assisted personal 
interviewing, the nonresponse follow-up data collection mode.
    Some addresses are deemed unmailable because the address is 
incomplete or directs mail only to a post office box. The Census Bureau 
currently collects data for these housing units using both online and 
computer-assisted personal interviewing. A small sample of respondents 
from the nonresponse follow-up data collection interview are

[[Page 14978]]

recontacted for quality assurance purposes.
    For sample housing units in the Puerto Rico Community Survey, a 
different mail strategy is employed. The Census Bureau continues to use 
the previously used mail strategy with no references to an internet 
response option. The Census Bureau sends up to five mailings to a 
Puerto Rico address selected to be in the sample. The first mailing 
includes a prenotice letter. The second and fourth mailings include the 
paper survey. The third and fifth mailings serve as a reminder to 
respond to the survey. Puerto Rico addresses deemed unmailable because 
the address is incomplete or directs mail only to a post office box are 
collected by computer-assisted personal interviewing. A small sample of 
respondents from the nonresponse follow-up data collection interview 
are recontacted for quality assurance purposes.
    The Census Bureau uses a different strategy to collect data from 
group quarters. The Census Bureau defines group quarters as places 
where people live or stay, in a group living arrangement that is owned 
or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/or 
services for the residents, such as college/university student housing, 
residential treatment centers, skilled nursing facilities, group homes, 
military barracks, correctional facilities, workers' group living 
quarters and Job Corps centers, and emergency and transitional 
shelters. The Census Bureau collects data for group quarters primarily 
through personal interview. The Census Bureau will obtain the facility 
information by conducting a personal visit interview with a group 
quarters contact. During this interview, the Census Bureau obtains 
roster of residents and randomly selects them for person-level 
interviews. During the person-level phase, a field representative uses 
a computer-assisted personal interviewing instrument to collect 
detailed information for each sampled resident. Field representatives 
also have the option to distribute a bilingual (English/Spanish) 
questionnaire to residents for self-response if unable to complete a 
computer-assisted personal interviewing interview. Beginning in 2024, 
residents in some group quarters will have the option to self-respond 
to the survey online. A small sample of respondents are recontacted for 
quality assurance purposes.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: Monthly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C. 141 and 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 0607-0810.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023-04952 Filed 3-9-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P