83 FR 18502 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; 2020 Census New Construction Program

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
U.S. Census Bureau

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 82 (April 27, 2018)

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 82 (Friday, April 27, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18502-18504]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08964]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

U.S. Census Bureau


Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; 2020 Census New 
Construction Program

AGENCY: U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort 
to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public 
and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on 
proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be submitted on 
or before June 26, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments to Jennifer Jessup, Departmental 
Paperwork Clearance Officer, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th 
and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230 (or via the internet 
at [email protected]). You may also submit comments, identified by 
Docket Number USBC-2018-0007, to the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: 
http://www.regulations.gov. All comments received are part of the 
public record. No comments will be posted to http://www.regulations.gov 
for public viewing until after the comment period has closed. Comments 
will generally be posted without change. All Personally Identifiable 
Information (for example, name and address) voluntarily submitted by 
the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential 
Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information. 
You may submit attachments to electronic comments in Microsoft Word, 
Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file 
formats only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument(s) and instructions 
should be directed to Robin A. Pennington, Decennial Census Management 
Division Program Management Office, U.S. Census Bureau, 4600 Silver 
Hill Road, Washington, DC 20233 or via email at 
[email protected].

[[Page 18503]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Overview

    The 2020 Census New Construction Program is one of the seven (7) 
voluntary geographic partnership programs that collect residential 
addresses to update the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File (MAF). 
To deliver questionnaires, locate residences, and tabulate statistics 
by localities, the Census Bureau must have accurate addresses and 
boundaries. The Census Bureau also uses its geographic database to link 
demographic data from surveys and the decennial census to locations and 
areas, such as cities, congressional and legislative districts, and 
counties.
    The census block is the geographic building block for all Census 
Bureau geographic boundaries. Geographic programs such as the 
Redistricting Data Program update the boundaries of census blocks. The 
addresses collected in the 2020 Local Update of Census Addresses 
Operation (LUCA), the New Construction Program, and other geocoding 
processes place households in a specific census block.
    While the geographic programs differ in requirements, time frame, 
and participants, the New Construction Program and the other geographic 
programs all follow the same basic process:
    1. The Census Bureau invites eligible participants to the program.
    2. If they elect to participate in the program, participants 
receive program materials, in this case, user guides, address 
templates, spatial data in PDF or shapefile format, and/or free, 
customized mapping software.
    3. Participants review the materials and submit their addresses in 
the Census Bureau's predefined format.
    4. The Census Bureau updates its address list with updates from 
participants.
    5. The Census Bureau uses its address list to conduct the 2020 
Census and tabulate statistics.

II. Abstract

    The Census Bureau is requesting clearance to conduct the New 
Construction Program from February 2019 through December 2019. The 
purpose of the New Construction Program is to obtain city-style 
addresses for newly built housing units in blocks where census 
questionnaires or mailing packages are delivered and households are 
expected to use a self-response mode to complete the census.
    The Census Bureau conducts LUCA and the New Construction Program as 
successive partnership operations to assure the completeness and 
accuracy of the Census Bureau's address list. These operations allow 
participating governments the opportunity to provide input to improve 
the Census Bureau's address list and to ensure accurate and complete 
enumeration of their communities. LUCA and the New Construction Program 
are complementary; however, there is no dependency on either program 
for participation in the other.
     LUCA participants who agree to receive the address list 
for their jurisdiction receive Title 13 protected materials. 
Participants review the address list and submit their validated or 
revised address list to the Census Bureau between spring and summer 
2018.
     The Census Bureau processes and validates the LUCA updates 
using a combination of independent address sources, such as the United 
States Postal Service's list of delivery addresses or the 2020 Census 
Address Canvassing operation. Upon completion of the LUCA address 
validations by April of 2019, the Census Bureau provides address-level 
feedback to partners, allowing them to appeal any determination made by 
the Census Bureau to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) LUCA 
Appeals Office.
     In spring 2019, the Census Bureau invites tribal, state, 
and local governments to participate in the New Construction Program. 
The Census Bureau will provide a list of governments eligible for 
participation in the New Construction Program by fall 2018. The Census 
Bureau confines the scope of the New Construction Program to the 
submission of addresses for newly constructed living quarters that 
began or will begin construction in the year leading up to the census. 
The Census Bureau does not provide Title 13 protected materials to the 
participants of the New Construction Program. Between June and August 
2019, tribal, state, and local governments identify addresses for 
housing units, group quarters, and transitory locations for which 
construction began during or after March 2019 that are expected to be 
closed to the elements (final roof, windows, and doors) and potentially 
inhabitable by Census Day, April 1, 2020. No other updates, including 
streets or boundaries, will be accepted.
    Through the New Construction Program, the Census Bureau improves 
the accuracy and completeness of the address list used to conduct the 
2020 Census by utilizing the expertise of tribal, state, and local 
governments. The Census Address List Improvement Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 
103-430) strengthened the Census Bureau's partnership capabilities with 
participating governments by expanding the methods the Census Bureau 
uses to collect address information from tribal, state, and local 
governments. The New Construction Program does not provide Title 13 
protected addresses to participants, however, when participants submit 
address data for new housing to be included in the 2020 Census, the 
Census Bureau will protect the submitted data under Title 13, U.S.C. 
Section 9 provides for the confidential treatment of census-related 
information, including individual address and structure coordinates. 
Participation in the New Construction Program is voluntary.
    The New Construction Program includes four phases:
    1. New Construction Program Invitation Phase.
    2. New Construction Program Participant Review Materials.
    3. New Construction Program Address Updates.
    4. Closeout.

New Construction Program Invitation Phase

    The Census Bureau will mail the New Construction Program invitation 
letter and registration form in April 2019 to approximately 32,000 
eligible participants that includes federally recognized American 
Indian tribal governments with reservations and/or off-reservation 
trust lands, states, and local governments. Based on the 2010 Census 
New Construction Program, the Census Bureau estimates 6,550 out of the 
32,000 invited governments will participate. To participate, interested 
governments must respond to the invitation package by completing and 
returning the registration form to the Census Bureau by June 2019. 
Participants must also identify the format of the maps or spatial data 
that they wish to receive from the Census Bureau. The estimated time 
burden for this stage is one hour per participant.

New Construction Program Participant Review Materials

    During summer 2019, the Census Bureau will deliver review materials 
to registered governments. Governments will receive the materials they 
selected on the registration form. Participating governments will be 
required to submit full address data for qualifying structures, 
including individual unit numbers for multiunit structures (e.g., Apt. 
1, Apt. 2, Unit 1, and Unit 2), and geographic information such as the 
census tract and block numbers, or geographic coordinates.

[[Page 18504]]

    The typical New Construction Program Participant Review Materials 
package will contain the following:
    1. New Construction Program Quick Start Document.
    2. New Construction Program User Guide.
    3. New Construction Program Address List Template.
    4. Geographic Update Partnership Software (GUPS).
    5. New Construction Program Map PDFs (for geocoding purposes only).
    6. New Construction Program spatial shapefiles (for geocoding 
purposes only).
    Participants must submit their New Construction Program address 
list to the Census Bureau within 45 calendar days of receipt of the New 
Construction Program materials. The New Construction Program addresses 
must be returned in the Census Bureau's predefined format, and each 
address must be geocoded or assigned to the census tract and block in 
which it is located as shown on the New Construction Program PDF or 
digital (shapefile) maps. This stage will occur between August and 
September 2019. The average estimated time burden to add, review, and 
submit the New Construction Program address list to the Census Bureau 
is 47 hours per participant.

New Construction Program Address Updates

    From September through November 2019, the Census Bureau will 
process all files received from participants. Files that are submitted 
in the proper format and with complete geocoding data are compared 
against the Census Bureau's census address list, extracted from the 
MAF, to check for any addresses already on the list. The Census Bureau 
will add the addresses to the census address list and MAF, if needed, 
and mail decennial census forms to any participant-supplied addresses 
that were not already in the census address list. The census 
enumeration process will determine the final housing unit status and 
population for each unit.

Closeout

    The Census Bureau provides a closeout letter to governments that 
registered to participate and provided updates as well as a thank you 
letter to governments that provided updates. Closeout occurs between 
December 2019 and January 2020.

II. Method of Collection

    The Census Bureau will collect the New Construction Program 
participants' contact information and product media preference when 
participants fill out the electronic or printed forms. To prepare and 
submit their list of new living quarters addresses, the New 
Construction Program participants can opt to receive:
     GUPS with Census Bureau spatial data.
     PDF maps.
    Participants may also use their own software to create a computer-
readable list of addresses in the prescribed format. Participants will 
use the Census Bureau provided maps or spatial data as a reference for 
assigning census tract and block codes (geocodes) for each submitted 
address.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0607-XXXX.
    Form Number(s): NC_RForm_2020.
    Type of Review: Regular submission.
    Affected Public: Federally recognized tribes, states, local 
governments (counties, incorporated places, functioning minor civil 
divisions).
    Estimated Number of Respondents:
    Program Invitation: 32,000.
    Participant Material Review: 6,550.
    Estimated Time per Response:
    Program Invitation: 1 hour.
    Participant Material Review: 47 hours.
    Estimated Total Hour Burden:
    Program Invitation: 32,000 hours.
    Participant Material Review: 307,850 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 339,850 hours.

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                                                                              Estimated time
                    Stage of review                       Estimated number     per response     Total estimated
                                                           of respondents        (hours)          hour burden
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Program Invitation.....................................             32,000                  1             32,000
Participant Material Review............................              6,550                 47            307,850
                                                        --------------------------------------------------------
    Total..............................................  .................  .................     339,850 hours.
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    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: $0. (This is not the cost of 
respondents' time, but the indirect costs respondents may incur for 
such things as purchases of specialized software or hardware needed to 
report, or expenditures for accounting or records maintenance services 
required specifically by the collection.)
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, U.S.C., Section 141(a).

IV. Request for Comments

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information 
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-08964 Filed 4-26-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P