Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 18007-18010 [2014-07061]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 61 (Monday, March 31, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18007-18010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-07061]


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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: 2014 Census Test.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Form Number(s): The two basic forms to be tested are DC-1A and DC-
1B.

[[Page 18008]]

Numerous other documents such as letters, postcards, and call-back 
cards will be utilized in the test but are too numerous to list here.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Burden Hours: 31,750.
    Number of Respondents: 190,500.
    Average Hours per Response: 10 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: During the years preceding the 2020 Census, the 
Census Bureau will pursue its commitment to reducing the cost of 
conducting the next decennial census, while striving to maintain the 
level of quality it achieved for previous ones. A primary decennial 
census cost driver is the collection of data from members of the public 
for which the Census Bureau received no reply via initially offered 
response options. Increasing the number of people who take advantage of 
self-response options (such as completing a paper questionnaire and 
mailing it back to the Census Bureau) can contribute to a less costly 
census with high-quality results. An overall objective of the Census 
Bureau is to increase self-response in the decennial census by making 
it easier to respond to the population and housing unit count. The 
Census Bureau has committed to using the Internet as a primary response 
option in the 2020 Census. We need to study ways to promote the 
Internet as a self-response option for the 2020 Census; identify 
methods to communicate directly with respondents to alert them about 
the census data collection timeframe; provide each household a specific 
identification number to allow them to self-respond via the Internet; 
and allow options such as telephone questionnaire assistance to ensure 
respondents are comfortable with the use of this new data collection 
alternative.
    The 2014 Census Test (formerly known as the 2014 Census Site Test) 
will allow the Census Bureau to study a variety of new methods and 
advanced technologies that are under consideration for the 2020 Census. 
To improve self-response, the Census Bureau plans to test new contact 
and notification strategies such as allowing respondents to pre-
register their email address, cell phone number (for texting 
capabilities), mailing address, and physical location, and provide a 
preference for a contact strategy of either email or text. Furthermore, 
participants will have the option of responding to the test via 
multiple response modes including the Internet, paper questionnaires, 
and telephone interviews. Nonrespondents will be followed up via 
telephone and personal visit interviews using Computer Assisted 
Telephone Interviews (CATI) and Computer Assisted Personal Interview 
(CAPI) automated instruments. The Census Bureau plans to examine the 
following nonresponse followup (NRFU) design and implementation 
alternatives:
     Using administrative supported with commercial vendor 
data;
     varying the number of field followup contact attempts 
either in a prescribed fashion or applying an adaptive design (AD) 
approach to choose contact strategies on a housing unit basis. Frame 
data, paradata, administrative records supported with commercial vendor 
data, and cost data are used to prioritize cases and determine their 
contact types and stopping rules;
     changing the rules for when an enumerator can collect data 
from a proxy respondent; and
     collecting data for nonrespondents with automated devices 
such as tablets and smartphones.
    In addition, the 2014 Census Test provides an opportunity for the 
Census Bureau to test potential enhancements to its automated 
processing of responses lacking a pre-assigned Census identification 
(ID) number. When a respondent does not provide their unique Census ID 
number on their questionnaire, any address data supplied by him or her 
must undergo Non-ID Processing. Non-ID Processing is a comparison of 
respondent-provided addresses to the Census Bureau's national inventory 
of living quarters addresses.
    The 2014 Census Test will be conducted in a single geographic area 
in Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD. This test will include 
contacting up to 190,500 housing units. For these addresses, the 
testing includes an initial self-response phase followed by a 
nonresponse followup (NRFU) phase for no more than 50,000 non-
responding housing units. Furthermore, 250 of these 50,000 housing 
units will fall into Bring Your Own Device Testing, which is where the 
Census Bureau will experiment with using employee-owned, commercial 
smartphones to conduct NRFU. The households in NRFU are a sample of 
those who have failed to self-respond to the 2014 Census Test by a 
certain deadline. A Census Bureau employee will visit or phone these 
households to attempt to collect their questionnaire data. The number 
of personal visits or telephone call attempts to collect the data from 
nonrespondents will vary, based on alternative methods being tested.
    For the self-response phase of the test, the Census Bureau will 
randomly assign sampled housing units to one of eight different contact 
and enumeration strategies. Each strategy aims to increase the use of 
self-response enumeration in a decennial census. Sampled housing units 
will initially receive a letter or a postcard containing instructions 
about how to respond to the test online using a unique Census ID 
provided by the Census Bureau. Some households will receive a notice 
that allows them to pre-register for the Census and to notify the 
Census Bureau of their communication preference (that is, email or 
text). The telephone questionnaire assistance option will be available 
to all households. Respondents can respond by going to the Internet 
site or contacting the telephone questionnaire assistance center. For 
those participants who have not responded by late June, the Census 
Bureau will contact them with a final postcard reminder and then a 
paper questionnaire by mail, if necessary, on or around July 15.
    The geographic area for the 2014 Census Test contains two strata 
within Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD: One stratum is more 
likely to respond while the other is less likely to respond. Each of 
the contact and enumeration strategies will be tested in both strata. 
The difference in characteristics in the two strata will allow the 
Census Bureau to gather a variety of cost data associated with mileage 
and hours spent traveling to housing units and interviewing 
respondents. In addition, Time and Motion studies will be conducted to 
determine if/how we can produce efficiencies in the NRFU data 
collection operation.
    The 2014 Census Test will look to modify the 2010 NRFU operation to 
increase efficiency and to reduce costs. One difference from procedures 
in the 2010 Census will be that telephone numbers will be provided to 
enumerators (when possible) with their case assignment. These numbers 
will come from a supplemental contact frame developed from commercial 
data sources. A second difference is that data will be collected on 
automated enumeration devices, whereas the 2010 Census NRFU data were 
collected on paper questionnaires. Another difference is that the 
``notice of visit'' left at the door when a respondent is not home will 
contain information on how a respondent can self-respond via the 
Internet or by calling the Census Bureau's telephone questionnaire 
assistance line. The intent of this feature is to reduce the number of 
return visits by encouraging respondents to complete

[[Page 18009]]

their questionnaires online or by telephone.
    For the 2014 Census Test, the Census Bureau will test the use of an 
automated enumeration device or instrument in field operations. The 
enumeration device, called the Census Operations Mobile Platform for 
Adaptive Services and Solutions (COMPASS), is a new development effort 
with the goal of replacing paper-based data collection methods 
historically used in decennial operations such as NRFU. The plan is 
that the COMPASS instrument will be able to be loaded on consumer-grade 
devices, such as iPhones and iPads. The test will help inform:
     The feasibility of conducting a field operation with the 
use of consumer grade devices (for example, iPhones and iPads).
     The feasibility of replacing traditional paper maps from 
the Census Bureau's TIGER System with Google Maps for locating housing 
units for enumeration activities.
     The feasibility of collecting GPS coordinates with the 
COMPASS instrument.
    In addition, the Census Bureau will experiment with using employee-
owned, commercial smartphones to conduct NRFU. Employee-owned 
equipment/services are commonly referred to as Bring Your Own Device or 
BYOD. A separate sample of 250 households will be contacted at the end 
of the NRFU field operation to test the BYOD alternative against the 
COMPASS instrument, Google maps, and other systems being used for the 
test.
    The objectives of this additional study are as follows:

--Design, develop, deploy, and support software solutions and processes 
that run on commercially available employee-owned mobile devices (that 
is, iPhone).
--Deploy and support secure software solutions that can be installed on 
commercially available employee-owned mobile devices.
--Conduct interviews with respondents using employee-owned mobile 
devices.
--Capture lessons learned.
Content Testing
    The 2014 Census Test questionnaire will include questions on 
housing tenure, household roster, age, date of birth, race and Hispanic 
origin, and relationship. The 2014 Census Test will include testing of 
a combined race and Hispanic origin question that is similar to one 
used in the 2012 National Census Test. Based on results from the 2010 
Race and Hispanic Origin Alternative Questionnaire Experiment (Compton, 
et. al. 2012), the 2014 Census Test provides an opportunity to further 
test the ``streamlined'' version of a combined race and Hispanic origin 
question. This modified version of the combined question removes the 
term ``Negro'' from the ``Black or African Am.'' checkbox and provides 
a shortened list of examples for the ``Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish 
origin,'' ``Asian,'' and ``Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander'' 
checkbox categories. This combined question provides examples and 
write-in areas for each major response category. Respondents are asked 
to self-identify themselves by selecting one or more checkboxes and 
reporting a specific origin for each checkbox selected. The 2014 Census 
Test will involve testing two versions of a combined race and Hispanic 
origin question against separate race and Hispanic origin questions in 
the Internet data collection; and testing a single version of the 
combined question on the paper questionnaire and in the COMPASS.
    For the relationship question, the 2014 Census Test will involve 
the testing of new response categories for opposite sex and same sex 
husband/wife/spouse and unmarried partner. In Internet data collection 
and on the paper questionnaire, two versions of the relationship 
question will be tested against each other: the traditional version and 
the new version with response options both opposite sex and same sex 
husband/wife/spouse and unmarried partner. The COMPASS will use the new 
version.
    The results of the 2014 Census Test will guide the design of 
additional 2020 Census testing later this decade. Testing in 2014 is 
necessary to establish recommendations for contact strategies, response 
options, and field operation efficiencies that can be further refined 
and tested in later mid-decade tests. At this point in the decade, the 
Census Bureau needs to acquire evidence showing whether the strategies 
being tested can reduce the costs of a decennial census, while 
maintaining the quality of the census data.
    The response rates to paper and Internet have ``practical 
utility,'' i.e., the information will be used for a practical and 
necessary 2020 Decennial program planning and determination of metrics. 
The use of several software and operating systems for field data 
collection has ``practical utility'' for the 2020 Decennial program 
planning and determination of options for software deployment. Several 
demographic questions and coverage probes are included to contribute to 
other recent testing opportunities to achieve optimal coverage for 
decennial censuses and surveys.
    In the geographically restricted test areas where the Census Bureau 
will conduct NRFU, the 2014 Census Test is designed to collect 
information to (1) research the cost and quality impacts of differing 
NRFU contact strategies, and (2) test the use and functionality of 
mobile computing devices by the field staff. Research on the 
alternative NRFU respondent contact strategies will be conducted to 
discern if differing instructions to enumerators on the number of 
contact attempts they should make leads to improved cost and 
productivity measures. Both fixed and adaptive design alternatives for 
contact strategies will be tested and compared. For the fixed panels, 
all NRFU cases will get two personal visit attempts with one telephone 
contact attempt in between for households where telephone numbers are 
available and provided to the enumerator. For the adaptive design 
panels an adaptive design model will indicate to the enumerator which 
cases are the highest priority to attempt on the current day, using 
information particular to the specific cases. Results from both of 
these alternative strategies will be compared to a control panel that 
will conduct NRFU operations similar to what was done in the 2010 
Census. The testing will also obtain detailed data on the use of 
telephone contacts by enumerators (including the occurrence of inbound 
telephone calls to the TQA centers) and data on when and how 
enumerators use proxy respondents. Another major piece of the test is 
to introduce the use of mobile computing devices and IT processes in 
field operations to determine if/how these may produce efficiencies in 
data collection.
    The specific goal for the Non-ID Processing research is to evaluate 
enhancements to the Census Bureau's process to collect address 
information and for matching and geocoding Non-ID responses via batch 
processing. Testing enhancements to Non-ID processing early in the 
decade will inform early planning for the 2020 Census design, as well 
as the infrastructure required to support large-scale processing of 
electronic Non-ID response data submitted via the Internet or a Census-
provided questionnaire application designed for mobile devices.
    The data collected from households and individuals during the 2014 
Census Test will be used to research and evaluate new methodologies and 
systems to plan the 2020 Census. The Census Bureau will not publish any 
tabulations or population estimates from

[[Page 18010]]

the substantive results from this test. However, methodological papers 
may be written that include tallies of response characteristics or 
problems identified, and responses may be used to inform future 
research studies building upon the results of these tests.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: One time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 
193.
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Jennifer Jessup, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0336, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
jjessup@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 either by fax (202-395-7245) 
or email (bharrisk@omb.eop.gov).

    Dated: March 26, 2014.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-07061 Filed 3-28-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P