From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org>
Former Census Directors Support Proposal Giving Bureau Chief
Final Say Over Statistical Adjustment Decision
Plus: Census Bureau Issues Report Addressing
Concern Over Rushed Household Visits
Four former Census Bureau chiefs co-signed a letter of support for a
proposed Commerce Department rule that would delegate to the Bureau
director the decision over whether to release statistically corrected
population numbers. The four directors, whose service spanned
Republican and Democratic administrations in the years after the 1970
count, said the proposed delegation from the Commerce Secretary to the
Bureau director "puts the decision with scientific professionals where
we believe it belongs."
The comments, submitted for the rule-making record, were signed by
Vincent Barabba (1973-76 and 1979-81); John G. Keane (1984-89); Barbara
Everitt Bryant (1989-93); and Martha Farnsworth Riche (1994-98). The
agency's professional staff, the directors wrote, are "more capable than
others of judging and recommending whether the corrected 2000 data more
accurately reflects the U.S. population than does the enumerated count
released earlier for apportionment purposes." By law, the Bureau must
transmit detailed census data to the state legislatures by April 1,
2001, for use in the redistricting process. The agency's current head,
Dr. Kenneth Prewitt, has said the Bureau will determine by the end of
February 2001 if the statistically adjusted numbers are more accurate.
Drs. Bryant and Riche also spearheaded a letter from more than 180
demographers, statisticians, business leaders, academics, and other
census experts supporting adoption of the proposed rule. The letter,
circulated with assistance from the Los Angeles City Attorney's office,
notes that a committee of senior Census Bureau professionals would
advise the director on whether the results of a quality check survey
(the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) survey) and related
statistical estimation would improve the accuracy of the data compiled
only through direct counting methods. The full text of the letter and a
listing of signatories are posted on the web at www.lacounts2000.org.
A dozen organizations representing religious, women's, labor, and civil
rights interests submitted formal comments in support of the proposed
rule. In a statement announcing the joint letter, Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights (LCCR) Executive Director Wade Henderson said, "We
strongly support the Secretary of Commerce's determination that [Census
Bureau] experts ...are most qualified to decide whether to release
statistically corrected population totals to the states." Joining the
LCCR as signers on the comment letter were top officials from the
National Council of La Raza, American Association of University Women,
Arab American Institute, United Methodist Church, Organization of
Chinese Americans, Housing Assistance Council, American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, United Church of Christ, People
for the American Way, National Association of Latino Elected and
Appointed Officials, and the American Federation of Government
Employees.
Former Secretary of Commerce William Daley announced the proposed rule
in June; the 45-day comment period ended last week. All comments
submitted as part of the rule-making process are posted on the Census
Bureau's web site, at www.census.gov/dmd/www/Feascom.htm.
Census Bureau issues report on 15 local offices cited by House chairman:
The Census Bureau has completed its review of field work in 15 Local
Census Offices (LCOs) and found "no cause to re-enumerate" households
that census takers visited as part of the 'nonresponse follow-up'
operation, Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said in an August 3 letter to
Rep. Dan Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House Subcommittee on the
Census. Chairman Miller asked the Bureau to review field operations in
the 15 offices last month, saying an analysis by his staff of agency
data tracking the progress of follow-up visits to households that did
not mail back their census forms revealed "disturbing characteristics"
that suggested "a rush to finish at the expense of quality."
Dr. Prewitt charged that the congressional staff analysis "seriously
misrepresents the quality of the census effort" in the 15 cited offices
and "calls into question the dedication, honesty, and commitment" of the
employees in those areas. He said high case completion rates both early
and late in the household visit phase, which ran from late April to late
June, are "attributable to documented operational efforts by the Census
Bureau and to exceptional promotion efforts by the local community."
Rep. Miller had expressed concern that "improper or fraudulent
procedures" may have led to "early peak" and "late surges" in the
nonresponse follow-up work. The analysis by his staff also cited "high"
rates of deleted addresses from the Bureau's Master Address File, as
well as "high" rates of partial interviews and reliance on information
from neighbors or other non-household sources to complete caseloads, as
evidence of irregular procedures. Dr. Prewitt questioned the staff's
conclusions and said the Bureau's tracking data "cannot be analyzed in
isolation or without a comprehensive understanding of the local
conditions."
The director said the Bureau is working separately with the Commerce
Department's Inspector General to investigate allegations of fraud or
falsification of data in a handful of areas. He again disputed the
congressman's description of the count as a "rushed census," noting that
'Quality Counts' operations "indicate ongoing, close attention to every
procedure that can increase coverage and/or improve data quality." The
Bureau's findings, contained in a report entitled, "Census Bureau Review
of Local Census Offices Profiled by the Subcommittee," are posted on the
agency's web site at
www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00cn53.html.
Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be
directed to Terri Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at
<terriann2k(a)aol.com>. For copies of previous News Alerts and other
information, use our web site www.census2000.org . Please direct all
requests to receive News Alerts, and all changes in
address/phone/fax/e-mail, to the Census 2000 Initiative at
<Census2000(a)ccmc.org> or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate
this information to colleagues and other interested individuals.
TRANSPORTATION SPECIALIST II - Pierre, SD
Job #11-2200-08042000
(A separate application is needed for each Job #).
South Dakota Department of Transportation, Planning and Engineering/Planning
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Salary: $15.21 per hour minimum, salary negotiable within N17 Range
Position Purpose: This position is the liaison between the South Dakota
Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Metropolitan Planning
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* represents DOT at MPO technical advisory and executive policy
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* ensures compliance with state and federal statutes, rules and
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* coordinates special studies;
* compiles and prepares studies, presentations, memoranda, letters,
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* coordinates local and regional corridor studies;
* coordinates street and highway improvements between the state and
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* provides technical assistance using computerized traffic forecasting
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Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Knowledge of:
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* sources of state and federal highway revenue;
* statistical methods and their applications;
* principles and practices of planning;
* traffic forecasting;
* public administration;
* revenue forecasting as it is related to public finance;
* fiscal procedures;
* grant procedures;
* applicable federal and state regulations.
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* gather, analyze, and interpret data;
* interpret applicable laws and regulations and apply them
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* use a computer and appropriate applications;
* coordinate work activities with other agencies;
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* communicate sufficiently to moderate meetings and facilitate public
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Comments: Travel is required each month in various parts of the state,
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FOR AN APPLICATION PLEASE CONTACT:
(Online application available at website)
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Pierre, SD 57501-5070
(605) 773-3148
(605) 773-4344 (fax)
http://www.state.sd.us/bop/bop.htm
From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org>
House Chairman Says Rush To Finish Put Quality of Count at Risk,
But Census Director Says Charges Are Rush to Judgment
Plus: Update on Census Operations
Rep. Dan Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House Subcommittee on the
Census, called for a review of counting operations in 15 Local Census
Office areas where he said "improper or fraudulent procedures may have
been employed." At a July 25 press conference in Washington, DC,
Chairman Miller said a staff analysis of Census Bureau data tracking the
progress of follow-up visits to households that did not mail back their
census forms revealed "disturbing characteristics" that suggested "a
rush to finish at the expense of quality." The congressman also cited
complaints he said his office received from local census managers and
enumerators who were concerned about pressure to finish their
'nonresponse follow-up' (NRFU) workloads early.
Rep. Miller said his staff identified seven census offices where there
were "early surges" in completing follow-up visits to unresponsive
households: Hialeah, FL; Florence, AL; Las Vegas; Rapid City, SD; and
East Los Angeles, Commerce, and Santa Ana, CA. The Census Bureau
previously announced its decision to re-enumerate the entire NRFU
caseload in Hialeah, after an investigation showed a failure to follow
census procedures. Rep. Miller also identified nine census offices
where he said "late surges" in completing the follow-up caseloads, as
well as high rates of vacancy, deleted addresses, single-person
households, and cases completed with 'proxy' data from neighbors or
landlords, might indicate "fraud or irregularity": Atlanta West; Chicago
Near North and Far South; Marion County, IN; Newark, NJ; Queens (NY)
Northwest; New York Northeast; Newcastle, DE; and Philadelphia North.
The chairman asked the Census Bureau to review the count in the 15
offices, which he noted were responsible for many hard-to-count areas
with large African American, Latino, Asian, and American Indian
populations. He also asked the Commerce Department's Inspector General
to audit work in three of those offices - Chicago Near North, Atlanta
West, and Queens Northwest -- to ensure that "proper quality controls"
were implemented.
Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt vigorously disputed Rep. Miller's
conclusion that census activities were rushed or that enumerators were
pressured to cut corners to complete their follow-up caseloads. In a
telephone briefing for reporters on July 25 and a previously scheduled
Washington, DC press briefing on July 26, the director said he was
"disappointed" the congressional subcommittee did not give the Census
Bureau an opportunity to review its analysis before releasing the
findings publicly.
Dr. Prewitt subsequently told members of the Census Bureau's seven
advisory committees at their joint meeting on July 28 that he had
completed his review of operations at all 15 offices and found "no need
for any further action." He called the report prepared by Rep. Miller's
staff "seriously flawed." The director said he was troubled that the
"reputations of some of our best local offices have been impugned" by
the charges of fraudulent or shoddy work. "This has been a good
census," Dr. Prewitt said. "We are not going to let a series of
unfounded charges take that away from us."
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the highest-ranking Democrat on the census
subcommittee, said in a July 25th written statement that she "take[s]
[Rep. Miller's] allegations very seriously" and that the Census Bureau
should "investigate and correct" any failure to follow proper counting
procedures. However, the congresswoman also questioned Chairman Miller's
assertions of fraudulent activities, saying she had reviewed the same
Census Bureau operational reports and had found "no evidence of
widespread fraud." She also criticized the chairman for presenting his
concerns "to the press first and the Census Bureau second." "What we
have instead is the equivalent of 'Statistical McCarthyism' -
allegations without proof," Rep. Maloney concluded. The congresswoman's
district includes one of the census offices Rep. Miller cited as cause
for concern.
Dr. Prewitt said early last week that there was "no systemic evidence
that quality was compromised" in any local offices other than Hialeah,
Florida. "The evidence does not support calling this a rushed census,"
the director said, noting that the census "is done in a fishbowl," under
the constant scrutiny of congressional committees, an eight-member
Census Monitoring Board, the U.S. General Accounting Office, and the
Inspector General. Dr. Prewitt previously ordered a re-enumeration of
about 60,000 households in Hialeah, Florida, after finding systemic
procedural irregularities. (The Census Bureau reduced the number of
cases requiring re-enumeration from 71,000 to 60,000 after eliminating
households that mailed back their census forms late.)
At the advisory committee meeting later in the week, Dr. Prewitt said he
found "no reason to doubt the quality of work" at the offices cited by
Rep. Miller. "In each case, the increased pace of field work by
dedicated census takers - either at the beginning or at the end of our
door-to-door phase - is consistent with the staff resources applied to
the situation," the director concluded.
Responding to Chairman Miller's specific charges, Dr. Prewitt said the
higher-than-expected mail response rate of 66 percent reduced the
follow-up workload substantially, so that visits to unresponsive
households were finished according to a revised time frame for that
level of work. The Census Bureau announced completion of the
nonresponse follow-up phase on June 27; the original completion target
date of July 7 was based on a 61 percent mail back rate.
Some areas posted a high number of completed cases early in the
follow-up process because recruitment far exceeded expectations, the
director said. He pointed to Commerce, CA, where census managers and
community leaders made special efforts to reach the large number of
non-English speaking residents, and 900 enumerators were deployed in the
first weeks of field operations, instead of the projected 266. In
communities where the follow-up work lagged, Dr. Prewitt said, the
Bureau brought in more experienced managers and enumerators from other
areas, which accounted for the quicker completion of cases later in the
NRFU process.
Chairman Miller sent a follow-up letter to Dr. Prewitt on July 26,
pointing out that hiring peaks did not correspond with periods of rapid
completion of household interviews in many of the local offices in
question. Dr. Prewitt said the congressman's analysis overlooked the
fact that productive enumerators who were reassigned to problem areas
stayed on the payroll of the Local Census Office to which they were
originally assigned, resulting in incomplete workforce figures for
offices that required outside help.
The Census Bureau is redoing about 150,000 cases nationwide, including
those in the Hialeah area, because of concerns about the quality of the
data. Forty-two million households did not return questionnaires by
mail, requiring census takers to collect the information in person.
Re-enumeration also is planned for selected households in Marion County,
IN, Rockville, MD, and two areas of Chicago, as well as isolated cases
in other areas. ("Re-enumeration" means the Bureau will set aside the
original enumerator-completed questionnaire and send another worker to
collect all of the information again.) The Bureau said Hialeah Local
Census Office managers ordered enumerators to use both 'blitz
enumeration' and 'last resort' procedures early in the process, without
informing regional officials of the proposed change. Dr. Prewitt noted
that his agency did not find evidence of fraud in Hialeah, but said the
Inspector General continued to investigate that possibility.
Director Prewitt also said he "took Chairman Miller's concerns
seriously" and would provide a report to the oversight subcommittee this
week. He acknowledged that some 'curbstoning' (so named because a
census taker might 'stand at the curb' and guess the number of residents
in a building or house without ever entering) is inevitable in any
census but said the practice is not widespread or systemic and that
ongoing sample checks of each enumerator's work often exposes individual
fraud.
In an open letter to members of the Bureau's advisory committees, Rep.
Maloney called the allegations of systematic fraud and mismanagement
"unsubstantiated." She said Commerce Inspector General Johnnie Frazier
and General Accounting Office auditors assured her in separate
conversations last week that they had not uncovered any "systemic fraud"
in their reviews of census operations. The congresswoman encouraged
census employees who believe procedures are not being followed "to step
forward and make those allegations in a way that allows the issue to be
investigated" by the Census Bureau or its independent overseers.
Census 2000 operations continue: Dr. Prewitt and other Census Bureau
officials reported last week that 200,000 temporary workers were still
conducting coverage improvement activities in the field. There are nine
major operations still in progress, they said, as part of the "Quality
Counts" phase of the census. The director said he still believes Census
2000 "is a good census" and that quality control procedures "will make
it a better census."
In early July, enumerators finished follow-up visits in rural and remote
areas, including American Indian reservations, where the Bureau employed
'list/enumerate' and 'update/enumerate' procedures to count housing
units with irregular or unknown addresses. The Bureau has completed
two-thirds of the 2.3 million cases marked for 'coverage edit,' which
involves telephone follow-up with households of six or more residents or
whose questionnaires contained inconsistent information. In addition,
census takers are revisiting 8.7 housing units initially identified as
vacant or nonexistent, to confirm there are no occupants. Dr. Prewitt
said there was no deadline for completing the visits, but that the first
of three 'waves' of these 'coverage improvement' visits was done. The
Bureau also is randomly checking three million households nationwide by
telephone, to verify the accuracy of the information collected.
Other quality-check operations include physical verification of about
one million addresses listed on Be Counted forms or on questionnaires
completed through a telephone interview; rechecking about 724,000
apparently occupied housing units for which enumerators could not
determine the number of residents; confirming jurisdictional boundaries
with local government officials; and various internal evaluations of
operational progress. The Census Bureau has finished 92 percent of the
Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) workload; the 314,000
household survey is designed to measure under-and overcounts in the
census.
"We will remain in the field until we've exhausted every procedure that
will help make this a better census," Dr. Prewitt said, addressing
concerns that the census was over or had been rushed. Quality check
activities will continue through September, after which no new cases
will be added to the information already collected. The Census Bureau
then conducts internal checks of the address list and other key
components of the count as it prepares for release of the state
population totals by December 31, as required by law for congressional
apportionment, the director said.
News Alert update: Norman Mineta was sworn in on July 21 as Secretary of
Commerce, one day after the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination by
voice vote. Secretary Mineta is the first Asian American to serve in a
cabinet position. He addressed members of the census advisory
committees at their July 28th meeting.
Advisory committee name change: The Commerce Department has expanded the
charter for its 2000 Census Advisory Committee to include planning for
the 2010 decennial census and the American Community Survey, which the
Census Bureau hopes will eliminate the need for the traditional long
form in 2010 and beyond. The panel was renamed the "Decennial Census
Advisory Committee" to reflect its new duties. The department also
named the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse as a new member of the committee.
Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be
directed to Terri Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at
terriann2k(a)aol.com. For copies of previous News Alerts and other
information, use our web site www.census2000.org
<http://www.census2000.org>. Please direct all requests to receive News
Alerts, and all changes in address/phone/fax/e-mail, to the Census 2000
Initiative at Census2000(a)ccmc.org or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to
circulate this information to colleagues and other interested
individuals.
TRAVEL DEMAND MODEL PROJECTION ENGINEER
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Dear CTPP News Recipients:
The US House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform,
Subcommittee on the Census, held a hearing this past Thursday, July
20th, on the American Community Survey.
Written testimony presented at this meeting is included on
Congressman Dan Miller's web site, at:
http://www.house.gov/danmiller/census/hearing/hearing.html
I would encourage census data users to review Congressman Miller's
opening remarks, the statemement by the Census Bureau director,
Kenneth Prewitt, and statements by: John Spotila (OMB), David Crowe,
(National Association of Home Builders), and Chuck Fluharty ((Rural
Policy Research Institute), and Kulka and Lessler (Research Triangle
Institute.) Obviously this is the written testimony, and I can't
"read between the lines" so I'm uncertain what was the tenor of the
congressional subcommittee in terms of support or antagonism towards
ACS.
Dr. Prewitt mentioned that the 1999 ACS data for 21 of the 31 areas
would be released the week of July 24, 2000. I've check the Bureau's
ACS web site, and haven't seen the '99 data yet. To me, it's kind of
like waiting for the Nouveau Beaujolais....
http://www.census.gov/CMS/www/
Chuck Purvis, MTC
From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org>
Justice Department Withholds Judgment
On Alaska Anti-Sampling Redistricting Law;
Continues to Spar with Virginia Over Similar Measure
Plus: Census Funding Bill Clears Senate Committee;
Senate Confirms Mineta To Be Commerce Secretary;
Update on Census Operations
The U.S. Department of Justice has notified Alaska state officials that
it cannot determine, until Census 2000 data are available, whether a
change to the state Constitution and a related provision of law violate
the federal Voting Rights Act. "[U]ntil the Alaska block-level 2000
census data are released," wrote Joseph D. Rich, Acting Chief of the
Voting Section, "we cannot properly evaluate the effect of the proposed
limitations in HJR 44 and SB 99 on the political participation
opportunities of Alaska's minority voters in future legislative
redistricting plans."
The July 7th letter to Alaska Assistant Attorney General James L.
Baldwin is the latest step in the 'preclearance' process required by
section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; Alaska is one of 16 states with
a history of election-related discrimination covered by section 5. Last
summer, state officials asked the Justice Department to sign off on two
new measures that, in relevant part, prohibit the use of statistically
adjusted numbers to redraw legislative district boundaries following the
census. A provision of House Joint Resolution No. 44, enacted in 1998,
amends the Alaska Constitution to require the use of official decennial
census data by the state's Redistricting Board. A provision of Senate
Bill 99 (Chapter 18), enacted in 1999, defines "official" census data as
the population numbers used for congressional apportionment, which the
Supreme Court ruled cannot be derived through sampling methods under
federal law. The two provisions limiting the type of census data that
may be used for redistricting cannot take effect without Justice
Department approval. The Census Bureau is required by law to transmit
detailed population figures to the states by April 1, 2001, for use in
the redistricting process.
The State of Virginia, also covered by section 5 of the Voting Rights
Act, continued to seek quick approval from a federal court for a law
enacted last spring that bars the use of statistically corrected
population data for congressional and state legislative redistricting.
Bypassing the Justice Department's preclearance process, Virginia asked
the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in April to rule
that the law complies with the Voting Right Act. The department
subsequently asked the three-judge panel to delay consideration of the
case until 2000 census data are released. In addition, ten Democratic
state legislators and the American Civil Liberties Union, all of who
oppose the new law, filed requests to intervene in the lawsuit.
Earlier this month, in response to the proposals to delay a judicial
decision, Virginia Attorney General Mark L. Earley asked the district
court to rule expeditiously in favor of the new law. The motion for
summary judgment notes that the state is one of a handful to hold
odd-year elections, leaving little time after block-level census data
are released in 2001 to draw new legislative districts.
Census Bureau appropriations update: The Senate Appropriations Committee
unanimously approved a funding bill that includes money for the
decennial census and other Census Bureau programs in fiscal year 2001.
The Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies
Appropriations bill (not yet numbered) cleared the panel on July 18; the
House of Representatives passed its version of the measure (H.R. 4690)
on June 26. The full Senate is likely to consider the bill this week
before adjourning for the traditional August recess.
The Senate bill includes $389.7 million for Census 2000 activities,
about $3 million less than the Clinton Administration's request of
$392.8 million (but about $300,000 more than the House bill) to close
down local census offices and data processing centers, finish the
Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) program, and tabulate and
disseminate data collected in the census. In their report explaining
the bill's provisions, the appropriators directed the Census Bureau, in
concert with the State Department, to count private American citizens
living abroad "in future censuses when appropriate."
The bill allocates $21.6 million for continued development of the
American Community Survey (ACS), less than the $25 million the
Administration requested but more than the House-approved $20 million.
(Funding for the ACS falls under the 'continuous measurement'
category.) If fully implemented in 2003, the ACS could eliminate the
need for a traditional 'long form' in the 2010 census by gathering data
on housing, most population characteristics, commuting patterns, and
economic status from a rolling annual sample of three million households
throughout the decade. (The House Subcommittee on the Census held a
hearing on July 20 to review the Census Bureau's plans for the American
Community Survey. The Census 2000 Initiative will report on the
highlights of this in-depth oversight hearing in a future News Alert.)
Overall, Senate appropriators came closer than their House counterparts
to meeting the Administration's request of $719.2 million for the Census
Bureau in the fiscal year starting October 1, 2000. The Salaries and
Expenses ('S&E') account, one of the Bureau's two broad funding
categories, received $158.4 million for ongoing surveys of the
population and economy, $18.4 million more than the House allocation but
$15.4 million short of the requested $173.8 million. The Senate
committee provided funds to develop a new measure of electronic business
(part of the Commerce Department's 'E-Commerce' Initiative) and to
survey minority-owned businesses more frequently. The Periodic Censuses
and Programs ('Periodics') account, which covers activities related to
the decennial census and other cyclical programs, received $535.2
million, $5.6 million more than the House figure but $10.2 million below
the budget request. For all Census Bureau activities, the Senate
appropriations committee bill falls $25.6 million short of the
Administration's request, while the House-passed version is $51.8
million below the request.
Following Senate passage of the Commerce spending measure, each chamber
will appoint members to a conference committee that will iron out
differences between the two versions of the bill.
Mineta nomination moving through Senate: Former California Rep. Norman
Mineta became the first Asian American to serve in a cabinet position
after the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination to be Secretary of
Commerce. The Senate approved the nomination by voice vote and without
debate on July 20, after the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation endorsed President Clinton's pick to succeed William
Daley earlier in the day. Mr. Daley resigned from his post last month
to head up Vice President Gore's presidential campaign. The Census
Bureau is an agency of the Commerce Department.
Secretary Mineta represented the San Jose area in Congress for 20 years
before resigning in 1995 to take a senior executive post with Lockheed
Martin Corporation. He was active in policy debates during the 1990
census, opposing efforts to exclude undocumented residents from the
state population totals used for congressional apportionment and
supporting the collection of detailed data on Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders.
Census 2000 operations update: Census 2000 counting activities continue
across the country, as census takers gather information from homes built
after the pre-census address listing effort ended last fall and revisit
housing units identified as vacant or nonexistent in earlier
operations. A separate group of more seasoned enumerators is completing
interviews of 314,000 households in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation
(A.C.E.) survey, to check the quality of the direct counting effort and
provide a basis for correcting under- and overcounts using statistical
methods.
The Census Bureau also decided to recount households in several areas
where they believe some census takers cut corners to finish their
nonresponse follow-up caseloads, possibly at the urging of local census
managers. Enumerators are revisiting about 9,000 households in Chicago
and 71,000 households in Hialeah, Florida. Bureau officials said they
ordered the recounts after learning that census takers might have sought
information from neighbors or other surrogate sources of information
before making six attempts (three in person and three by telephone) to
contact the residents of a household, as required by census rules.
Stakeholder activities: The Census Bureau's advisory committees will
meet jointly on Friday, July 28, to review the American Community
Survey, planning for the 2010 census, and the status of Census 2000
operations. The committees include the five panels focused on racial and
ethnic populations, the professional association representatives, and
the Commerce Secretary's 2000 Census Advisory Committee. The meeting
will be held at the Doubletree Hotel, 300 Army Navy Drive, Arlington,
VA, from 8:30 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.; it is open to the public.
Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be
directed to Terri Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at
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Hello All.
Regarding the NPTS 2000 Survey, in which Congress deleted the funding for
this "every five years" household survey, I don't believe this is a "done
deal", yet, the funding could still be revived, with some congressional
decisions to be made this week. Can anyone confirm this?
For those so inclined to send emails of support for a worthy cause, here is
a web site with the names and email addresses of all members of the
Subcommittee on Transportation:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/commpage.cgi?committee=happrop_tra
ns
This is a very long URL address, so if you can't just click on it, you can
copy it and paste it into your browser.
Ken Cervenka
North Central Texas Council of Governments
-----Original Message-----
From: ed christopher [mailto:berwyned(a)mcs.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 11:50 AM
To: ctpp-news maillist
this was posted to another listserve but serves as a response to Jerry
Everett's NPTS question from yesterday.
*************
Congress deleted the line item for the Nationwide Personal Transportation
Survey (NPTS) for 2000. FHWA is working on their response.
I think many of us do not realize how instrumental the NPTS is to a lot of
what we do. The NPTS is the only source of travel-characteristic data for
the
nation, allowing us to track trends since 1969 when the first survey was
done.
NPTS data was used to develop the household trip generation rates in the
update of the old NCHRP 187, published as the NCHRP 365, *Travel Estimation
Techniques for Urban Planning*. Many, many areas use it for bench-marking
their locally collected data. It offers comparative data for any area to see
the similarities and differences to regional and national trends.
A number of States and MPOs use the NPTS data as a source of default values
when no other data is available, especially for smaller population groups
such
as elderly drivers. State-wide models are being developed using the NPTS
data to fill in rural areas or smaller towns and cities.
The web site (http://www-cta.ornl.gov/npts/) was a real step forward to make
accessing the data easy, and is a good resource for special studies and
topic
papers, such as the one on trip chaining.
The 2000 survey would have been a valuable tool to address contemporary
transportation needs and topics because of the extension of the previous
data
as well as the addition of new data items directed to emerging issues.
The TAZ Verification program to verify the updated TAZ layer in the TIGER
database has been completed. 278 agencies responded on-time to accept or
revise the new TAZ layer for 1454 counties. A database of agency and county
information has been placed on the CTPP website for your reference. To access
the file, please visit:
http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/tazinfo.html
or alternately:
http://members.tripod.com/~TRBstate/ctpp/tazv0717.pdf
*Thank you* for your participation and on-time response. We are sure your
contributions will help in a timely delivery of CTPP 2000.
If you have any questions, please call me at 202-366-5021 (e-mail:
ctpp(a)fhwa.dot.gov)
Nanda Srinivasan
