CTPP

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3075 discussions

by ed christopher

The Draft Standard Tabulations for CTPP 2000 are now available for review and comment. They can found at http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/content.html The July issue of the "status report" newsletter has been mailed and is available on the web. In the "status report" is important information regarding PUMS, ACS and the CTPP standard tabulations. http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/newsltr/sr0700.html A list depicting the status of all TAZ submittals as of July 7, 2000, can be found at http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/tazinfo.html Finally, all this information is linked through the subcommittee web site http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/

25 years, 2 months

Recall: [CTPP] Attention TAZ-Verify Participants: TAZ-Verificatio n will end on July 14, 2000

by Tambellini

Tambellini, Rick L. would like to recall the message, "[CTPP] Attention TAZ-Verify Participants: TAZ-Verification will end on July 14, 2000".

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Census 2000 News Alert

by ed christopher

From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> Census Bureau Completes Follow-up Visits Ahead of Schedule Plus: President Nominates New Commerce Secretary; House Panel Plans Hearing on American Community Survey Census takers have counted or declared vacant the 42 million households that did not return a questionnaire by mail, finishing the 'nonresponse follow-up' (NRFU) phase of Census 2000 about a week ahead of the scheduled July 7th completion date. Commerce Secretary William Daley and Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt announced the milestone on June 29 at Bureau headquarters in Suitland, MD. Sixty-six percent of the 120 million households on the Bureau's master address list mailed back their forms by the April 17 cut-off date, reversing a decline in mail-back rates since the census first relied primarily on mailed questionnaires in 1970. According to Associated Press reports of the announcement, Director Prewitt praised the work of agency staff for helping to make Census 2000 an operational success. "There had been a sense that this was an incompetent federal agency, that we could not do things right," the director said, referring to criticism of the 1990 census. "I think we erased a lot of those negatives." The AP wire service also quoted a spokesman for House Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL), in response to the announcement. "If the bureau has completed its work and done so in a quality manner, that's good and they are to be congratulated. But we are not prepared to make that judgment yet," the spokesman said. Census takers are now revisiting about 12 million housing units as part of quality-check activities to improve the accuracy of earlier counting operations. 'Coverage improvement programs' include revisiting housing units previously identified as vacant or nonexistent, to be sure there are no occupants or that the address does not exist. Census enumerators also are gathering responses from housing units that were built after the fall 1999 cut-off date for address list development. A separate group of experienced survey takers is revisiting a sample of households nationwide as part of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) program to measure undercounts and overcounts in the direct counting phases of the census. Visits to the 224,000 out of 314,000 households in the A.C.E. sample survey that were not contacted by telephone in May and early June are scheduled to run through mid-August. President nominates new Commerce Department head: President Clinton nominated former California Representative Norman Mineta (D) to succeed outgoing Secretary of Commerce William Daley. If confirmed, Mr. Mineta would be the first Asian Pacific American to serve in a Cabinet position. Secretary Daley announced his decision to step down last month; he will head Vice President Albert Gore's presidential campaign. The Census Bureau is an agency of the Commerce Department. Mr. Mineta represented the San Jose area in the U.S. House of Representatives for 10 terms, eventually chairing the Committee on Public Works and Transportation. After retiring from Congress in 1995, he took a position with Lockheed Martin Corporation, a large defense-oriented company with a growing presence in the transportation sector. The son of Japanese immigrants, Mr. Mineta and his family were sent to an internment camp in Wyoming during World War II when he was 10 years old. He eventually returned to San Jose, where he served on the city council and then as mayor before winning a seat in Congress in 1974. According to published news reports, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Commerce Committee that will consider Mr. Mineta's nomination, said he supported Mr. Mineta's nomination and would schedule confirmation hearings as quickly as possible after Congress returns from its July 4th recess. "He's a good man. He's highly qualified," Sen. McCain is quoted as saying. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) also reacted positively to the nomination, saying, "It's a good choice. ..We all know him and knew him to be an effective legislator." As a member of Congress, Mr. Mineta was actively involved in debates over census content and methods during the 1990 count. He fought to ensure the collection of accurate data on Asian Pacific American population subgroups and opposed efforts to exclude undocumented residents from the state population totals used for congressional apportionment. House panel to review long form replacement plans: The House Subcommittee on the Census will hold a hearing on July 20 to review the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). The Bureau hopes the ACS, which is currently being tested in 31 sites around the country, will eliminate the need for a traditional census long form starting in 2010. An additional 750,000 households nationwide also are receiving the ACS questionnaire this year, to help the Bureau compare census long form data with information collected through the ACS. The congressional hearing will be the first to focus on the ACS as a possible replacement for the long form. The census oversight panel has not released a witness list, although the Census Bureau is expected to testify. The hearing will start at 10:00 a.m. in room 2247. Proposed decision-making rule published in Federal Register: On June 20, the Commerce Department published in the Federal Register a proposed rule delegating to the Census Bureau director the authority to decide whether to report statistically corrected census figures to the states next spring for use in the redistricting process. Director Prewitt announced the proposed action at a press briefing on June 14. The official 45-day comment period ends on August 6. Interested parties may send comments to: John H. Thompson, Associate Director for Decennial Census, Bureau of the Census, Suitland and Silver Hill Roads, Building 2, Room 3586, Suitland, MD 20233. The proposed rule and related materials, including a Bureau report on the feasibility of producing statistically corrected data by the April 1, 2001 legal deadline, are available on the agency's web site at <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/presskit.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 <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.

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Attention TAZ-Verify Participants: TAZ-Verification will end on July 14, 2000

by Srinivasan

The Census Bureau, Geography Division has informed me that July 14, 2000 is the absolute cut-off date for all TAZ-Verification participants. This is because the Census Bureau will start work on its final TIGER 2000 operations on Saturday, July 15, 2000. Please make sure you complete your verification by Friday, July 14. If you have completed your verification, please ensure we have the right information by visiting our website at: http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/tazinfo.html The website is current as of June 23, 2000. We will update this website on July 9, 2000 and again on July 17, 2000. If you have any questions, please call me at 202-366-5021. (E:mail: ctpp(a)fhwa.dot.gov) Thank you! Nanda Srinivasan

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] census 2000 news alert

by Ed Christopher

From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> House Fully Funds Remaining Census 2000 Operations, But Some Overseers Concerned About Rush to Completion Plus: House Rejects Effort to Slash Funding for Non-Decennial Programs; Sampling Critics Skeptical of Proposed Commerce Dept. Rule; New Jersey Legislature Stops Work on Anti-Sampling Bill The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Monday to a bill that funds Census 2000 operations for the fiscal year beginning October 1. The House passed the $37.4 billion Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies appropriations bill (H.R. 4690) by a vote of 214-195 after rejecting an amendment during debate last week that would have reduced funding for non-decennial programs by $40 million. The non-decennial activities include the American Community Survey (ACS), which the Census Bureau is developing as a possible alternative to the traditional census long form. The House-passed version of H.R. 4690 allocates $392.9 million for Census 2000 operations, which include closing down local census offices and data processing centers, analyzing results of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) survey, and releasing population numbers for congressional apportionment and political line-drawing. The allocation, essentially the amount requested by the Clinton Administration, also includes $3.5 million for the eight-member Census Monitoring Board. Funding for all non-decennial programs was set at $275 million, $51 million below the Administration's request. The bill allocates $20 million for the ACS, $5 million below the requested amount. An amendment offered on the House floor last Friday by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) would have further reduced funding for activities in the broad Periodic Censuses and Surveys account, with the exception of Census 2000, by $40 million. The Coble amendment sought to increase funding for the Commerce Department's Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) after the appropriations committee cut that agency's budget during its mark-up on June 14. Rep. Coble chairs the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property. According to the Census Bureau, the proposed $40 million funding decrease would "curtail" development of the ACS, "shut down the Economic Censuses and Census of Governments," and "cripple the mapping and address listing program that supports all Bureau surveys." The reduction also would force the elimination of 500 positions, the Bureau said, "greatly disrupting the entire Census Bureau including the decennial census" and jeopardizing its ability to transmit redistricting data to the states by the March 31, 2001 legal deadline. The amendment generated significant debate from both Republicans and Democrats. Many legislators who spoke during the debate expressed frustration over being forced to choose between adequate funding to ensure timely processing of patent applications and the Census Bureau's ability to produce reliable demographic and economic data. Reps. Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Jose Serrano (D-NY), chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Commerce appropriations subcommittee, opposed the amendment, as did House Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL) and the oversight panel's senior Democrat, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). The amendment was defeated by a vote of 145-222, with 67 representatives not voting. Congressional oversight of Census 2000 operations continues: The House Subcommittee on the Census continued its oversight of Census 2000 operations at a June 22 hearing in Washington, D.C. Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt told panel members that census takers had completed more than 99 percent of the nonresponse follow-up workload, putting the Bureau on track to finish the second major phase of Census 2000 well ahead of the scheduled July 7th completion date. He cited the Bureau's success in overcoming "obstacles and potential problems," including hiring and retaining enough temporary workers, meeting payroll obligations on time, completing early counting operations on schedule, exceeding the projected mail response rate, accurately scanning and processing over 120 million questionnaires, and providing assistance to the public at walk-in centers, by telephone, and through foreign language forms. The director described special counting efforts that he said contributed to successful follow-up visits to unresponsive homes in historically 'hard-to-enumerate' neighborhoods. Based on data from the 1990 census as well as observations of field staff, the Bureau identified census tracts where Be Counted forms, Questionnaire Assistance Centers, team or blitz numeration, and other "special enumeration tools" might help encourage participation. Dr. Prewitt concluded his remarks by calling Census 2000 "the most open and transparent census in history; every detail has been and is being scrutinized. We welcome that scrutiny because we believe it will dispel any notion that there is or could be any political manipulation of the final results." He pointed to the Bureau's release of its report on the feasibility of issuing statistically corrected census data, as an example of the "spirit of openness." After receiving that report, the Commerce Department published a proposed rule in the June 20 Federal Register that would delegate final authority to the Census Bureau director over the decision on whether to release the adjusted census data next spring. Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller commended census enumerators "for their hard work and civic duty in helping to count America," but he expressed concern about the early completion of visits to unresponsive households. Referring to the director's earlier references to Census 2000 as "the good census," the chairman said, "[I]t may prove to be the Rushed Census." He cited "numerous" calls to his office from census employees "express[ing] a felling of tremendous pressure to finish ahead of schedule." "Unless the undercount has been eliminated, why are people pulling out of the field before July 7?" he asked. Rep. Carolyn Maloney applauded the Bureau's progress in finishing nonresponse follow-up, commending the Bureau's staff and a cooperative public for "a truly amazing result." She also thanked Chairman Miller for helping to secure full funding for Census 2000 operations over the past year. Dr. Prewitt countered the chairman's criticism of the fast pace of follow-up operations by saying it would cost more money, but not improve the accuracy of the count, to keep knocking on the doors of households that still refused to cooperate after six attempts to collect information from the residents. Rep. Maloney said evaluations of the 1990 census showed that 70 percent of the people missed lived in households that were counted (known as "within household misses"). Sampling controversy renewed over proposed Commerce Department rule: At the June 22 hearing, Chairman Miller also strongly criticized the proposed rule delegating authority over the adjustment decision to the Bureau director. He called the idea a "ridiculous proposal" that "doesn't make the decision to release manipulated numbers any more palatable or less political." The congressman said the proposed rule was made public right before Commerce Secretary William Daley announced he would leave his post to head up Vice President Albert Gore's presidential campaign. Noting that the Bureau director is a political appointee, Rep. Miller questioned Dr. Prewitt about political contributions the director might have made to Democratic candidates. Dr. Prewitt said he had not made contributions to any political candidates since his appointment as census director. The chairman suggested that the Bureau seek an independent, external review of the adjusted census numbers before deciding whether to release them. Referring to the proposed committee of senior Census Bureau staff that would advise the director on the adjustment decision, the chairman said, "This is not public scrutiny - it's a whitewash." Rep. Maloney said she strongly supports the proposed delegation rule and noted that the director is the only political appointee among the Bureau's 6,000 permanent employees. "I believe the Secretary has wisely decided to try and take the politics out of this decision by leaving it up to the professionals at the Census Bureau," she said. Rep. Maloney pointed out that former Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher decided not to statistically adjust the 1990 census counts, despite a recommendation to do so from then-Census Bureau Director Barbara Bryant, before resigning from his position to join President George Bush's reelection campaign. Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), a subcommittee member, said the proposed rule would give the public the mistaken impression that the Census Bureau director is less political than the Secretary of Commerce. "We're all politicians here," the congressman said. Dr. Prewitt expressed frustration that the proposed delegation of authority had sparked renewed partisan controversy. "Nothing is more dangerous than to suggest that national numbers are subject to political manipulation," the director told panel members. He suggested that members of Congress were concerned about how census data will be used, while the Census Bureau is only interested in how to collect the data. The latter, Dr. Prewitt said, is determined without regard to politics or partisanship. State legislative activities update: The New Jersey Senate committee abruptly postponed a hearing on a bill to bar the use of statistically corrected census numbers for congressional and state legislative redistricting, delaying further action on the measure indefinitely. The state Assembly, voting along party lines, approved the bill (A. 1682) on June 5. The Senate State Government Committee had scheduled a hearing to review the bill on June 22. Local newspapers reported that Governor Christine Todd Whitman (R) asked Republican legislators to postpone further action on the bill until federal courts could review a similar measure enacted in Virginia earlier in the year. The New Jersey Star Ledger quoted Gov. Whitman's spokesperson as saying, "We've asked the Senate to hold off on this bill until there is a clear road map from the federal courts. It doesn't make sense to go forward with all the trial and tribulation and argument until we know what's going to happen in [the Virginia] case." Virginia is one of sixteen states required under the federal Voting Rights Act to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for any changes to election law. The state is pursuing an alternative "pre-clearance" process by asking a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to approve the new law prohibiting the use of adjusted numbers for redistricting purposes. Last week, ten Democratic state legislators opposed to the anti-sampling law sought to intervene in the case, saying use of unadjusted census data for redistricting would violate the Voting Rights Act by failing to account for racial minorities likely to be missed by the census. In addition, the Justice Department asked the federal court to put off a decision in the Virginia case until the Census Bureau releases detailed population counts to the states beginning next February or March. 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 <mailto: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 <mailto:Census2000(a)ccmc.org> or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals.

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Attention: TAZ-Verify Participants

by Srinivasan

We have added a list of agencies that have completed TAZ Verification to our website. To access this list please visit: http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/tazinfo.html The list is current as on June 23, 2000. If you have any questions, please call Nanda Srinivasan at 202-366-5021. (E:mail: ctpp(a)fhwa.dot.gov) *Thanks* to all those that completed their verification! Nanda Srinivasan

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Census 2000 - The Scary, The Weird, The Sad (Long Post)

by Chuck Purvis

Here's a very interesting "Sunday supplement" Census 2000 story from the 6/18/00 Philadelphia Inquirer. Chuck P. ************************************************************* Census takers encounter the scary - and the weird INQUIRER STAFF WRITER By Thomas Ginsberg Knock on one stranger's door and perhaps get a cordial greeting. Knock on 42 million doors, as U.S. census workers have done this summer, and bank on being berated, embraced, bitten, doused and flashed. A census taker in Detroit walked into a police drug raid - and kept counting. A census taker crashed through the floorboards of a rural Texas porch but got her interview while waiting for an ambulance. Census takers have used snowshoes to comb the Rockies and helicopters to descend into the Grand Canyon. Last weekend, one census taker was mauled to death by dogs in Indiana. Scary and funny, tragic and heroic, the stories of the nation's nearly half-million census takers are now piling up in the homestretch of the 2000 Census. Three weeks are left before the end of the operation's most labor-intensive phase in which the enumerators, as census takers are officially known, have gone door-to-door to query people who failed to return the questionnaires this spring. Enumerators have had run-ins with the happy, sad and naked among us. Their encounters have served as a kind of mini-census, revealing a quirky blend of distrust and openness around the country, amid a U.S. government mobilization bigger in numbers than the invasion of Normandy. "In rural West Virginia, some of the folks come out with shotguns," said Julia Ho, a regional spokeswoman. "Enumerators really have to depend on their wits." Sixteen census workers have died on the job. But enumerators also have saved lives. Along the way they have crashed into wild turkeys, set off prison alarms, rescued people from elevators, counted at least one self-described space traveler, and confronted dogs. A lot of dogs. On June 10, Dorothy Stewart, a 71-year-old enumerator, was fatally attacked by a pack of dogs in front of a house in Nashville, Ind. She became the first census taker to die this year while at a respondent's home. Six other census workers - not all enumerators - have died in car accidents, and nine died of heart attacks or strokes. Many census takers have been injured or attacked. It's not yet clear whether the fatality rate is higher than in years past. "We have sent out the strongest signal we can that our first concern is safety," said Kenneth Prewitt, the Census Bureau director. Dog bites are the primary injury every decade, and the Census Bureau has recorded at least 200 this year. Last month in Southern California, enumerator Kenneth P. Kasoni approached a house with a large, barking canine in the yard. He left, then returned with a dog bone on a day that happened to be the beast's birthday, said a regional spokeswoman, Lynn Uyeda. So impressed was the owner that he happily answered all the questions, and the Census Bureau reimbursed Kasoni $2.15 for one "five-inch dog bone." Census officials acknowledge that public antagonism and distrust have made the door-to-door work more dicey. These are, after all, just temporary workers who earn between $9.25 and $18 an hour, depending on the area. Take the enumerator in rural Texas, Socorro Meza, who had a resistant resident on her route. Meza said she visited the house three times and saw a person peek from behind curtains but never open the door. On her fourth attempt, Meza took an unlucky step and crashed through the porch floor, bruising herself badly. While a neighbor helped lift Meza out, the resident arrived home, apologized profusely, and promptly answered Meza's questions - while the enumerator waited for an ambulance. "I've been to your home four times to attempt an interview," Meza recalled telling the resident, "and now I'm going to get it from you!" In Kansas, regional officials said one resister chased away a census taker by drenching him and his papers with a garden hose. The enumerator returned wearing a rain slicker and brandishing an umbrella. The bemused resident gave up and answered his questions. One reason given for not answering the questionnaire already is becoming legend among census workers. In Salt Lake City, an enumerator knocked on a door and dutifully asked the man who answered how many people lived there on April 1, the official census date. "The guy says, 'I wasn't here, I was on another planet,' " recalled Anjali Olgeirson, a Denver regional spokeswoman. "So the enumerator says, 'Well, we still need to record you here at this address.' And he did." Getting to the front door is half the battle. In Wyoming and upstate New York this spring, census takers not only had to use snowshoes, they had to learn just the right kind of shoe for the snow conditions, said Donna Gindes, a regional spokeswoman in Boston. In Arizona, counting the Havasupai tribe meant getting to the bottom of the Grand Canyon first. Census workers rode a helicopter down, but then the chopper couldn't retrieve them. So they hiked and rode horses back up, carrying their census papers the whole way, said Olgeirson, a Denver spokeswoman. "The mail doesn't work so well there," she said. People answering their doors in the nude is so common that enumerators almost yawn at the question. There were women dressed only in socks and one naked man holding a dog leash. It is almost summer, after all, and it takes more than nudity to ruffle an enumerator. "We had one lady answering in the nude, she just stood there, didn't bat an eye," said the Detroit spokeswoman. "Well, what's an enumerator to do? He counted her." Enumerators have had their brushes with the law. In Detroit recently, a female enumerator was invited to a barbecue being thrown by a bunch of men and found herself the center of attention. Suddenly, police arrived next door and conducted what turned out to be a drug raid, causing the men around her to run for cover. "She just stood there, she wasn't fazed," Ho said. "She took care of her work and left." In Wyoming, enumerator Ed Clark got his own taste of modern justice. In March he was assigned to arrange the counting of inmates at a new prison in Rawlins. After driving through a snowstorm, he said he arrived to find an empty guard house. He walked past - and suddenly was berated by a voice over a loudspeaker: "Who goes there?" "I don't know that I actually broke in, but it sure seemed that way," Clark said. After dropping off census forms, Clark got yelled at again. "They said, 'Close the damn door!' " Some enumerators go way beyond the call of duty. Laura Iman, 29, a crew leader from northern Louisiana, was nine months pregnant when her 10 enumerators began their work in May. Between contractions, with an epidural drug softening her pain, she made phone calls to check on their work, and the next day, welcomed them into her room - not to count her first baby, Koby, but so she could sign their completed forms. "They told me I was crazy, that I didn't have to do this," Iman said. "But I'm not the type of person to slow down anyway." In rural Virginia, a crew leader noticed a man slumped at the wheel of his car and stopped, called 911, then waited for the ambulance to arrive and save the driver from what turned out to be a heart attack, said Jerry Stahl, a regional spokesman. Last month in Toledo, Ohio, enumerator Phillip Cunningham was making his rounds in a residential neighborhood when he noticed a girl running between parked cars into the street as a car approached, recalled a regional official, Lynne Hebner. "A bunch of neighbors were gabbing on a front porch and weren't paying attention," Hebner said. "He yelled at her to stop and literally saved her life by inches. The car slammed on its brakes and just missed her." Who said the census is just about numbers? "The neighbors were thrilled with this man," Hebner said. "He was in the the right place at the right time." ******************************************************************* ******************************************************* e-mail: cpurvis(a)mtc.ca.gov Chuck Purvis, AICP Senior Transportation Planner/Analyst, Planning Section Metropolitan Transportation Commission 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607-4700 (510) 464-7731 (voice) (510) 464-7848 (fax) WWW: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/ MTC DataMart: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/datamart/ MTC FTP Site: ftp://ftp.abag.ca.gov/pub/mtc/planning/ *******************************************************

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Attention TAZ Verify Participants

by Srinivasan

The Census Bureau, Geography division has noticed that a few participants have submitted new equivalency files, even though they had no/very few changes to the TAZ layer in TIGER. Please note that: 1. If you have no changes to the TAZ layer, you only need to e-mail Valerie Murdock (vmurdock(a)geo.census.gov) and Carrie Saunders (csaunders(a)geo.census.gov) at the Census Bureau informing them that you have no changes. 2. If only a few TAZs (eg: fewer than 20 TAZs) need changes, you can submit sketch maps with supporting documentation to your regional Census Bureau liason. For a list of Census Bureau regional office contacts, please see the attached pdf file. 3. If a substantial number (eg: more than 20 TAZs) need changes, you will need to upload the new equivalency file through the Census Bureau website at: http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/taz/sendfile If you submitted an equivalency file, but have fewer than 20 TAZs than need changes, please call Carrie Saunders at 301-457-1099 (e:mail csaunders(a)geo.census.gov") If you have any questions, please call me at (202) 366-5021 (e:mail ctpp(a)fhwa.dot.gov) Thank You Nanda Srinivasan

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Attention: TAZ Verification Participants.

by Srinivasan

The deadline for TAZ verification was June 15 for agencies in the thirty states listed below. If you are a participating agency and have not yet responded, we will assume that you have no changes to the TAZ layer in the TIGER database. If you have any questions/clarifications, please contact Nanda Srinivasan by replying to this e-mail or by calling 202-366-5021. 1. Alabama 2. Alaska 3. Arizona 4. California 5. Colorado 6. Connecticut 7. District of Columbia 8. Georgia 9. Idaho 10. Illinois 11. Kentucky 12. Maine 13. Massachusetts 14. Michigan 15. Minnesota 16. Missouri 17. New Hampshire 18. New Mexico 19. New York 20. North Carolina 21. Ohio 22. Oregon 23. Rhode Island 24. South Carolina 25. Tennessee 26. Utah 27. Vermont 28. Virginia 29. West Virginia 30. Wyoming Thank You! Nanda Srinivasan

25 years, 3 months

[CTPP] Census 2000 Initiative News Alert

by Ed Christopher

From: Census2000(a)ccmc.org Proposed Rule Would Delegate Adjustment Decision To Census Bureau Director Plus: Census Director Proclaims 2000 "The Good Census"; House Committee Allocates FY01 Funds for Census Bureau; Telephone Assistance Extended Through June The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued a proposed rule that would give the Census Bureau Director sole authority to decide whether to release statistically corrected census numbers for purposes other than congressional apportionment. Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt, with two former census directors at his side, announced the action at a June 14th press conference in Washington, DC. Under the proposed rule, the census director would make "the final determination" on adjusting the census figures. The decision "shall not be subject to review, reconsideration, or reversal by the Secretary of Commerce." The notice of the proposed action, published in the Federal Register, discusses the justification for the delegation of authority. The decision, the notice says, "turns entirely on operational and methodological implementation within the expertise of the Bureau of the Census." Review by the Commerce Secretary would "create the appearance" that "non-scientific considerations" played a role in the adjustment decision, according to the background statement. The transfer of authority would "safeguard both the substance and public credibility of the decision making process." The proposed rule would create a committee of "distinguished senior career [Census Bureau] professionals" to review the operational and technical aspects of the procedures for measuring census accuracy and correcting under- and overcounts in the first set of population numbers. The Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy (ESCAP) will then issue a written report recommending whether the director should release statistically adjusted data. The Census Act requires the Bureau to transmit block-level population data to the states by April 1, 2001, for use in the redistricting process. The rule sets forth the twelve members of the steering committee by position; the ESCAP report would be made public at the same time it is sent to the director. "A.C.E." is the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation program, which includes a quality-check survey of 314,000 households. At the press conference, former Census Bureau directors Barbara Bryant and Martha ("Marty") Riche said they support delegating the adjustment decision to the Bureau chief. Dr. Bryant, who led the agency during the 1990 census for the Bush Administration, noted that significant reform of the census process began in 1991. Despite the move to paid advertising and efforts to simplify the questionnaires, it is "not possible to count everybody" without the use of sampling, she said. Dr. Riche, appointed by President Clinton to head the Bureau in 1994, said partnerships with community groups and local officials were a key improvement for Census 2000. Still, she said, a household-based census is "simply bound to fall short." On Monday, Dr. Prewitt sent former Commerce Secretary William Daley a report prepared by the Bureau's senior staff on the feasibility of using statistical methods to account for people missed or counted twice in Census 2000. The report, entitled "Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation: Statement on the Feasibility of Using Statistical Methods to Improve the Accuracy of Census 2000," sets forth the rationale for the "preliminary determination" that the Bureau can produce statistically corrected census numbers within the legal time frame and that the corrected data "will be more accurate." In his June 13th response adopting the report's conclusions, Secretary Daley said, "We owe it to the American people to use all of the tools at our disposal to make the census as accurate as possible." The choice, he said, is whether to use statistical methods to improve census accuracy, or "whether we do nothing." The differential undercount of racial minorities cannot be eliminated without using these methods, the Secretary concluded. The rule making document also notes that in 1980, the Commerce Secretary formally delegated a similar decision on whether to use sampling methods to correct the census undercount to the Census Bureau director. That delegation of authority was rescinded before the 1990 census, when controversy over an adjustment led to a lawsuit by the City of New York and dozens of other localities. In 1991, Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher decided not to adjust the 1990 census counts, despite a recommendation to do so by census director Barbara Bryant. The rule (in current or modified form) will take effect after a 45-day public comment period. Comments should be sent to: John H. Thompson, Associate Director for Decennial Census, Bureau of the Census, Suitland Federal Center, Suitland and Silver Hill Roads, Building 2, Room 3586, Suitland, MD 20233. The proposed rule, the Census Bureau's feasibility statement, and other relevant documents are available on the Bureau's Web site at <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/presskit.html>. Census operations update: The Census Bureau has completed 98 percent of its door-to-door visits to unresponsive households, Dr. Prewitt announced at the June 14 press conference. The Denver census region, covering ten states, as well as Puerto Rico, have reached the 100 percent completion rate, the director said. The Los Angeles census region is on the verge of reaching that milestone, as well. Census takers are continuing their efforts to count the remaining 908,000 households that did not respond by mail. As of June 13, the Bureau had counted or declared vacant 99 percent of the housing units included in the mail out/mail back and follow-up phases of Census 2000. Census operations continued at a faster pace than in 1990. In the last census, only 60 percent of the overall workload was finished by June 1, compared to 82 percent by the same date this year. Other highlights of Dr. Prewitt's Census 2000 status report were: * 117 million census forms had been scanned, and the accuracy rate for scanning was the same both for forms returned by mail and those completed by an enumerator. * Census workers completed telephone interviews with 90,000 households in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) sample. At a June 8th press briefing, Dr. Prewitt told reporters there was "no bad news to report" about Census 2000 operations. He characterized the nation's 22nd decennial count as "the good census" and cited the "enthusiasm, commitment, and dedication" of census workers as a primary reason for the operational success. The director also said an "echo effect" from the marketing program helped keep Census 2000 operations on schedule and well ahead of the 1990 pace for similar activities. "We underestimated," he said, "the lingering effect of the advertising campaign and partnership program." The director expanded on his characterization of Census 2000 at the June 14 press conference. A "good census," he said, meets three criteria. It is "operationally robust and successful; open, transparent, and earns the public trust; and dedicated to being fully inclusive." NRFU visits are scheduled to end on July 7. Census workers have started follow-up telephone calls (called Coverage Edit operations) to approximately 2.2 million households that listed six or more residents (questionnaires were designed to collect information for up to six people, with space provided to list additional residents) or that reported information for only some of the people listed as residents. Clean-up operations (called Coverage Improvement Programs), which include rechecking housing units designated as vacant or nonexistent in earlier visits, will be conducted on a flow basis from early July into August. During this operation, census enumerators also will visit addresses submitted by local governments since last fall as part of the "New Construction" phase of the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program. The Bureau will start in-person interviews with households in the quality-check A.C.E. survey on June 19, in neighborhoods where NRFU operations are complete. Despite his upbeat assessment, Dr. Prewitt noted several problems that he said the Bureau had moved quickly to alleviate. The Census Bureau added enumerators, authorized overtime payments, and created narrowly targeted Public Service Announcements in English and Spanish to help boost response rates in the "small number" of Local Census Office areas where completion rates are lagging. The director has visited several cities in recent weeks, including Chicago, Baltimore, Columbus (OH), and Milwaukee, to convey the message that, "It's not too late to be counted." During last week's Census 2000 briefing, the director also warned that census workers trying to finish their workload still encounter "real resistance," some of which he described as "organized." He displayed a sign taped to the doors of some unresponsive households, bearing the message, "Census Workers Are Not Welcome Here. Do Not Knock." The printed sign provides space to list the gender and age of up to six residents, and concludes by saying, "This is all you need to know and are entitled to ask. Have a nice day." A logo and Web address for "The Heartland Institute" (www.heartland.org <http://www.heartland.org>) is printed at the bottom. In a written statement issued on June 8, the Institute's president and CEO, Joseph Bast, said his organization "does not advise anyone to violate the law," but that the questions asked in the census "[go] far beyond any reasonable interpretation of the 'Enumeration' authorized by the Constitution." The statement described the Institute as an "independent, nonprofit research organization" in Chicago that addresses issues such as school reform, environmental regulation, and tax policy. Mr. Bast said "many political leaders, including Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Sen. Chuck Hagel, and Rep. Tom Coburn have stated publicly that people should not answer Census questions they believe invade their privacy." The poster, which Mr. Bast said appeared on the back of the Institute's monthly newspaper sent to 45,000 people, also bears a small-print "warning" about penalties for not answering census questions. Telephone help lines to remain open longer: The Census Bureau has decided to keep its toll-free telephone assistance lines (TQA) open until June 30, about three weeks past the original shut-down date of June 8. TQA operators will continue to accept census responses over the phone in the six languages in which questionnaires are printed (English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese) from people who did not mail back a form and have not been visited by a census taker, or people who believe they were left off the questionnaire completed for their residence. People who provide their answers over the telephone might still receive a visit from a census enumerator, if the address is included on the list for nonresponse follow-up. The Census Bureau will rely on local governments and complete count committees in areas where response is lagging to promote the continued availability of the telephone response option. Census Bureau funding for fiscal year 2001: On June 14, the House Committee on Appropriations approved the Fiscal Year 2001 Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies funding bill. The panel allocated a total of $670,867,000 for Census Bureau programs, about $48.3 million less than the Administration had requested. The Census Bureau is an agency of the Commerce Department. Aside from Census 2000, Census Bureau programs did not receive requested funding increases over current year levels. The committee allocated $392.9 million for the decennial census, just shy of the Administration's request. In fiscal year 2001 (FY01), which begins October 1, 2000, the Census Bureau must finish 2000 census operations, including the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation program to measure and adjust for undercounts and overcounts in the initial set of population numbers. It also must shut down local census offices and data processing centers, and begin tabulating and publishing data collected in the census. The bill specifies how decennial census funds should be spent, listing nine broad categories such as field data collection, marketing, data processing, and testing and evaluation. The Census 2000 appropriation includes $3.5 million for the eight-member Census Monitoring Board. The panel allocated $20 million to continue development of the American Community Survey (ACS), the same amount appropriated for the current year and $5 million below the President's request. The ACS would collect demographic and socio-economic data from a rolling sample of households throughout the decade, with 3 million housing units surveyed each year. The survey is designed to replace the traditional census 'long form' in 2010 and beyond. The Census Bureau is testing the ACS in 31 sites around the country. Funding for the decennial census and the ACS is part of the Periodic Censuses and Programs ("Periodics") account, one of two main funding categories for the Census Bureau. The Periodics account covers activities that support census operations, such as mapping, as well as other mandated censuses of business establishments and local governments. The House committee allocated a total of $530,867,000 for the Periodics account, about $14.5 million below the request. The Census Bureau's second main funding category is Salaries and Expenses ("S&E), which covers ongoing surveys (such as the Current Population Survey) to collect important demographic, economic, and social statistics. The committee allocated $140 million for the S&E account, the same amount appropriated in fiscal year 2000 and $33.8 million below the Administration's request. The full House may take up the Commerce spending bill before the July 4th recess starts on June 30. The bill is one of thirteen regular appropriations bills that fund activities of the federal government. Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to TerriAnn 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.

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