[Federal Register: March 10, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 47)]
[Notices]
[Page 12702-12703]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10mr08-23]
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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: Census Participation Survey.
Form Number(s): None.
OMB Control Number: None.
Type of Request: New collection.
Burden Hours: 1,667.
Number of Respondents: 4,000.
Average Hours per Response: 25 minutes.
Needs and Uses: Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau is
constitutionally and congressionally mandated, pursuant to Title 13
U.S.C. Section 141, to count everyone (citizens and non-citizens)
residing in the United States. An accurate count is critical for many
reasons including but not limited to:
Congressional reapportionment;
Redistricting congressional boundaries;
Community planning; and
Distribution of public funds and program development.
To facilitate the data collection effort for the 2010 Census, the
Census Bureau is developing an Integrated Communications Plan (ICP).
Toward that end, the Census Bureau has contracted with DraftFCB to
develop and implement an integrated communications campaign for the
2010 Census. DraftFCB had contracted with MACRO International, Inc.
(who in turn has subcontracted with Human Resources Research
Organization) to conduct a nationwide quantitative data collection to
understand the barriers and motivators underlying participation (or
lack thereof) in Census 2010. This data collection is critical to
ensure the utility and effectiveness of the ICP.
The role of the ICP is to increase public awareness and motivate
people
[[Page 12703]]
to respond to the census promptly, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.
The specific objectives of the ICP are:
Increase mail response;
Improve cooperation with enumerators; and
Improve overall accuracy and reduce differential
undercount.
From 1970--the first year questionnaires were mailed to
households--to 1990, the mail response rate declined from 78 percent to
65 percent. To halt the declining mail response rate, the Census Bureau
ran a paid advertising campaign to support data collection activities
for the 2000 Census. This campaign was considered a very successful
initiative and one of several reasons cited with helping to reverse
declining mail response rates.
The target mail response rate for the 2010 Census has been set at
69 percent, higher than the 67 percent obtained in Census 2000. To
support this goal, the ICP includes a communications campaign based on
behavior during the 2000 Census and current knowledge, attitudes,
perceptions, barriers, and motivations specific to 2010 Census
participation.
The Census Bureau is requesting clearance for DraftFCB's
subcontractor, MACRO International, Inc. to conduct the Census
Participation Survey to gain an in-depth understanding of the public's
opinions about the 2010 Census. Collecting this information allows the
Census Bureau to explore underlying factors contributing to public
views of the 2010 Census; identify census related behavioral drivers
and barriers; determine communication channels for reaching
historically hard-to-count populations; and analyze messages they
should convey to motivate the public to participate--potentially saving
hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars used to collect the census
data.
The primary purpose of the Census Participation Survey is to inform
tactical and strategic decisions for the ICP. This research is designed
to complement previous participation research conducted for Census 2000
as well as the Census Planning Database (a geographic summary file with
Census 2000 response information) to inform the strategic direction of
the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Plan (ICP). The data
collected will not be used to produce official Census Bureau estimates
of the population.
When possible, respondents to the Census Participation Survey will
be matched to the Census Planning Database (PDB) by tract number to
link to Census 2000 census participation and hard-to-count data. In
cases where a link to tract can be made, we will further roll cases
back up into an eight-cluster segmentation scheme based on the PDB. The
Census Participation Survey will make use of three different sampling
frames described below:
Address Frame: No address information is collected from the
respondent. The selected addresses are sampled from the USPS's Delivery
Sequence File (DSF) and geo-coded to link to census tract.
RDD Landline Frame: No address information is collected from the
respondent. Telephone numbers will be reverse matched to local
telephone directories to identify as many addresses as possible. These
addresses will be geo-coded to link to census tract. For those with no
match (unlisted telephone numbers), we use the estimated census tract
based on the telephone exchange and geographic associations.
RDD Cell Phone Frame: For cell phone respondents, we cannot
determine geographic location since cell phone area codes are not
always geographically associated. Instead, we will rely on demographic
data such as age, marital status, mobility, tenure, and whether the
household is cell-phone only to assign interviews into segment.
The combined data will be used to measure census awareness,
attitudes, knowledge, and likelihood to respond to the census. This
data will be used to further define the audience segmentation clusters
to inform the communications strategy. Further, the data will be used
to evaluate census messaging alternatives and analyze media consumption
by audience segmentation.
The Census Participation Survey also serves as a baseline measure
of 2010 Census for monitoring change in awareness and intent to
participate during the build-up and execution of Census 2010.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Frequency: One-time.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: The legal authority under which this information
is being collected is the general authority of the Census Bureau to
undertake the decennial Census in 2010, Title 13 U.S.C. 141.
OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, Room 6625, 14th and
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at
dHynek@doc.gov).
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 Desk Officer by fax (202-395-7245) or e-
mail (bharrisk@omb.eop.gov).
Dated: March 5, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E8-4635 Filed 3-7-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P