1 March 2006

Good morning. On behalf of the US Census Bureau, I want to thank Chairman Turner and the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census for inviting me to testify on the progress of the 2010 Decennial Census Program. Today, we are four years and one month from Census Day. Because of your support, many of the key planning and operational components of the 2010 reengineered census are already underway, including the fully-implemented American Community Survey; the address list and map, known as MAF/TIGER, consolidation and modernization; and the 2010 Census testing and preparation activities.[1] Each of these components is an integral part of a successful 2010 Decennial Census Program.

The success of the decennial census is the Census Bureau’s largest priority, and represents sixty percent of the President’s FY2007 budget request for the Census Bureau. This request includes approximately $184 million for salaries and expenses, as well as $182 million for other economic and demographic programs conducted by the Census Bureau. The budget request of $512 million, an increase of $64 million from last year, for the Decennial Census Program includes $180 million for the American Community Survey; $74 million for MAF/TIGER; and $258 million for 2010 Census activities.

The American Community Survey, the nation’s largest continuous household survey, is crucial to the overall success of the decennial census because it replaces the long form. This will allow the Census Bureau to conduct a short-form only census and fully focus its efforts on the constitutional responsibility of the census—an accurate, complete enumeration. The American Community Survey also provides annual, up-to-date estimates for the characteristics of the population. Because of strong congressional support, the American Community Survey is on track and moving toward its goals. The American Community Survey began full implementation in 2005, when the survey’s sample size reached three million housing units per year, or about 250,000 housing units per month. We have been able to maintain high response rates throughout the survey. In January 2006, we began the last phase of full implementation by incorporating group quarters data collection in the survey.

We will release the first annual estimates from the full American Community Survey this August for approximately 8,000 communities that have populations of 65,000 or more, as well as data for every congressional district. In 2008, we will release data for communities of 20,000 or more, and data for every census tract in 2010—two years before equivalent data from a census long form would be available. The 2007 budget request allows the Census Bureau to proceed and maintain all of its American Community Survey operations.

The American Community Survey is important to the nation, because it strengthens the nation’s data infrastructure by providing timely local data that will enhance decision-making at all levels of government, as well as the private sector. It is worth remembering that in prior decennial cycles, comprehensive, detailed information about local communities was only available once a decade from the census long form. The long form also complicated the decennial census. The response rates for those who received the long form were lower than for those who received the short form, thereby increasing the cost of conducting non-response follow-up. In 2010, these obstacles will be removed, enhancing the Census Bureau’s ability to conduct a successful 2010 Census for the purposes of apportionment and redistricting.

The Census Bureau is conducting an extensive, nation-wide operation to modernize and consolidate MAF/TIGER. We are using GPS to align streets of the TIGER maps and working with communities to ensure we do not miss a new neighborhood. These objectives are supported by the 2007 budget request for $74 million for the MAF/TIGER Enhancement Program. To date, working with the Harris Corporation, we have realigned the streets and roads for approximately 1,700 of the nation’s counties, with about 1,600 more to go in order to reach completion by April 2008. This improvement is significant because the TIGER system and census data are national resources used by both the public and private sectors to make decisions affecting the quality of life throughout the United States. TIGER is used by the US Geological Survey (USGS) for the National Map, as well as commercial applications.

The 2010 Census is a partnership between the Census Bureau and thousands of communities throughout the United States. As part of the 2010 Census, we will conduct an extensive advertising and marketing campaign to build partnerships and awareness with these communities. We have just sponsored an “Industry Day” to initiate the market-research phase for this campaign and learn more about the current “best practices” of the marketing industry.

We are also working to improve our most significant partnership opportunity, the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program. This program was first implemented for Census 2000 in response to PL 103-430, the Census Address List Improvement Act of 1994. As a result, the Census Bureau contacted the nation’s 39,000 municipal governments inviting them to help update the census address list before the census was conducted. In 2007, we will once again invite the nation’s 39,000 municipalities to help update the address list for their communities for use in the 2010 Census. However, we are endeavoring to improve the LUCA program based on lessons learned from Census 2000. Knowing that communities differ by population size, as well as by other factors, we will offer different options for governments to participate, ranging from a full review of the protected, confidential address file to review of housing unit counts. We are also working throughout the decade to update the address file with updates from the US Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File, conduct the Community Address and Updating Survey (CAUS), and conduct a nation-wide address canvassing operation in 2009.

From taking advantage of partnership opportunities to taking advantage of automation, we are working to strengthen the infrastructure for the 2010 Census. Part of our efforts have centered on two major systems, the 2010 Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) and the Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) system. Both of these are large information technology (IT) contracts, totaling together over one billion dollars. The purpose of the DRIS contract, which was awarded last year to Lockheed Martin Corporation, is to ensure accurate and protected collection and storage of Americans’ data whether by paper form or hand held computer. We are now currently involved in Phase I of this program, which includes design and implementation of the system for the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal.

For the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau also plans to increase the use of automation to directly capture information collected during personal interviews and eliminate the need for paper maps and address lists for the major field data collection operations. The FDCA contract, which will be awarded in late spring of this year, provides automation resources to support field data collection operations. The FDCA contractor will provide an integrated IT infrastructure, as well as support for mobile computing devices and other aspects of the field activities.

As we move forward, it is essential to remain on schedule. Although we are still four years from Census Day, we should not be deceived by the calendar. From now until Census Day, every activity undertaken needs to build on the success of previous activities. This year we will conduct the final Census Test, in Travis County, Texas and on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. These sites will provide an environment to further test and refine census operations and activities, such as the use of GPS-equipped hand-held computers and a replacement, second mailing of the questionnaires to non-responding households. We will also focus on enumeration methods within an American Indian community, finding ways to improve coverage, and testing improved self-response options. The testing program is valuable because it allows us to test operations separately in different environments to determine whether these operations could be used in census-like conditions and to prepare for the Census Dress Rehearsal.

We strive to make operations in the Dress Rehearsal closely resemble the actual census. We will conduct the 2008 Dress Rehearsal in two locations, San Joaquin County, California, and in Fayetteville and Eastern North Carolina, opening Local Census Offices in Stockton and Fayetteville. In fact, some aspects of the Dress Rehearsal are already underway, including LUCA. We have sent advance letters and will send invitations to selected local governments in a few weeks outlining the program and describing the materials, including the lists and maps they will receive if they choose to participate. The Dress Rehearsal will also feature the technology we plan to use in the decennial census, including the various data collection operations that are being developed through DRIS and FDCA. We will include a second mailing to encourage households to respond and potentially reduce the costly non-response follow-up workload. We will use a targeted mailing of Spanish/English bilingual questionnaires, successfully tested in the 2005 National Census Test.

It is important to note that many of the 2010 Census operations and procedures are being developed as we speak; and that many decisions, especially those involving technology, need to be in place prior to the Dress Rehearsal. The President’s Budget recognizes that we cannot postpone improvements or tests without introducing risks to the census. If for some reason we do not have the opportunity to test certain programs or procedures in the Dress Rehearsal, then we may not be able to implement those improvements or we would be forced to conduct untried procedures in the 2010 Census. Moreover, major changes to census operations or procedures at this late stage could also undermine the census. For instance, we recently outlined the implications of tabulating prisoners at the address of their “permanent home of record,” rather than at their place of incarceration in a report to Congress. A change such as this could have considerable consequences, not only to census operations, but also to the overall accuracy of the data for that sub-population.

All of this underscores the importance of congressional support for all aspects of the 2010 Decennial Census Program, from the American Community Survey to the Dress Rehearsal. Thousands of individual operations and procedures must be successfully implemented before Census Day, four years from now, in order to ensure the success of the 2010 Census. A successful census is more than a technical accomplishment for the Census Bureau; it is the creation of a national resource that empowers decision-making. The decennial census program, including the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey, and MAF/TIGER, provides facts and information to the nation —to the private and public sector, the large city and small town, the researcher and the private citizen—that can improve the quality of life throughout our country. I hope you will agree that this is a success worth supporting.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to provide an update to the Congress. I would be happy to answer your questions.

[1] MAF/TIGER: Master Address File (MAF) and Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Reference system (TIGER). These programs represent the “address list” and “road map” by which the census is conducted.