Notice2023-04952
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
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
March 10, 2023
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 47 (Friday, March 10, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 47 (Friday, March 10, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14976-14978]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[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
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a>. 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 <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>.
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
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on March 10, 2023.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.