81 FR 86693 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 231 (December 1, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 231 (Thursday, December 1, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 86693-86694]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-28860]


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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: 2017 Census Test.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-XXXX.
    Form Number(s):

Questionnaire

DG-1D
DG-1D(E/S)

Questionnaire Cover Letters

DG-16(L1)
DG-16(L1) (E/S)
DG-16(L2)
DG-16(L2) (E/S)
DG-16(L3)
DG-16(L3) (E/S)
DG-16(L4)
DG-16(L4) (E/S)
DG-17(L1)
DG-17(L1) (E/S)

Postcards

DG-9C
DG-9C(E/S)
DG-9P
DG-9P(E/S)
DG-9
DG-9(E/S)

Information Insert

DG-17I(E/S)
DG-17(CQA)

Envelopes

DG-5(E/S)
DG-6A (1) (IN)(E/S)
DG-6A(IN)(E/S)
DG-6B(IN)(E/S)
DG-8A(E/S)

    Type of Request: New Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 43,500.
    Average Hours per Response: 9.5 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 6,875 hours

                                             Estimated Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Estimated
                                                   number of                                         Estimated
         Type of respondent/operation             responding       Estimated time per response     total annual
                                                 housing units                                     burden hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Self-Response.................................          36,000  10 minutes......................           6,000
Content Reinterview...........................           7,500  7 minutes.......................             875
                                               -----------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals....................................          43,500  ................................           6,875
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    Needs and Uses:
    During the years preceding the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau is 
pursuing its commitment to reducing the cost of conducting the census 
while maintaining the quality of the results. Testing of the 
feasibility of collecting tribal enrollment information is the primary 
objective of this test. A sample of 80,000 households will be drawn for 
a self-response-only operation, oversampled in areas with relatively 
higher concentrations of people identifying as American Indian or 
Alaska Native, as indicated through American Community Survey data.
    These households will be mailed census questionnaires and other 
materials that provide details about the available modes of response, 
including Internet. Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA) will offer 
the option for completing the questionnaire on the telephone, as well 
as language assistance with completing the questionnaire and 
Interactive Voice Recognition to answer respondent questions and route 
calls appropriately.
    Self-response to the test can occur through Internet, paper 
questionnaire or telephone modes. There will be no follow-up field 
operation to obtain response. However, there will be a sample of 15,000 
housing units selected for reinterview to check the quality of 
responses to the tribal enrollment question. Responses received to both 
the self-enumeration and the reinterview will be used for the test 
results and evaluation.
    A second objective is continued testing of the systems designed for 
Internet self-response and the integration of the systems associated 
with self-response. With the development of these systems, the Census 
Bureau has made the transition from in-house test systems created in 
prior years to the full systems designed under the Census Enterprise 
Data Collection and Processing (CEDCaP) contract. It is crucial to test 
and prove in the new systems in pre-decennial tests, starting with this 
2017 Census Test. Internet Self-Response has been prioritized as the 
system to complete in time for the 2017 Census Test. The Internet Self-
Response application will have a Spanish language option. Other key 
systems that will be tested are the CQA and the Operational Control 
System that is integrated with these two response modes. We will also 
test the ability to provision and run in a Cloud environment.
    This test was described in the 60-day Federal Register Notice (FRN) 
published August 8, 2016, 81 FR 52398. Based on the proposed funding 
levels for FY 2017, the Census Bureau subsequently reprioritized the 
test activities for 2017 to include only one of the two components 
described in the August FRN. The current test scope includes only that 
which is necessary to answer our most immediate design questions. The 
scope also includes enabling our new Ceca systems to test systems 
integration for key systems. Further systems will be developed and 
tested through the integration stages in the planned 2018 End-to-End 
Census Test, in particular for the Nonresponse Followup and Update 
Enumerate

[[Page 86694]]

operations. The 2018 End-to-End Census Test will be the last 
opportunity to test all systems in an integrated environment before 
full implementation in the 2020 Census.
    Affected Public: Individuals or Households.
    Frequency: One time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 
193.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202)395-5806.

Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Departmental Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-28860 Filed 11-30-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P