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2560 discussions

2010 Census Advisory Committee meeting held May 7-8. 2009

by Elaine.Murakami＠dot.gov

One of the benefits of APDU membership is Ken Hodges' meticulous notes from the Census Advisory Committee. http://www.apdu.org/advocacy/dcac.htm Ken represents APDU in this CB committee. At the meeting, Susan Schechter gave an ACS status report, including discussion of the March 2009 Fed Register notice regarding 5-year ACS data products. Quoting from Ken's notes, "They (CB) received about 25 comments on these proposals, many from the transportation community because the most severe restrictions on 5-year ACS data are applied to the journey to work data. The Census Bureau is reviewing the comments now, and working toward final specifications." Some of the responses submitted to the FR notice are posted at the TRB Census subcommittee page: http://www.trbcensus.com/notes.html (look under the title "Census-related notes and articles" Also very interesting is that the Joint Advisory Advertising Review Panel (JAARP) issued a vote of "no confidence" in the company, DraftFCB for their work on the 2010 Census. Ken's notes include much more detail about this. FHWA is a corporate member of APDU (which is a paperwork struggle, just so you know). Ed Christopher, FHWA Resource Center Planning Team now is on the APDU Board. For more information about APDU (Association of Public Data Users, please visit their website: www.apdu.org <http://www.apdu.org/> Elaine Murakami FHWA Office of Planning 206-220-4460

15 years, 6 months

Removal of Name (resend)

by Zakaria, Thabet

MEMORANDUM Date: June 18, 2009 To: Ed Christopher and ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net From: Thabet Zakaria Subject: Removal of Name From ctpp.net Dear Ed: Please remove my name from cttp.net effective June 30, 2009 because of retirement. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for reviewing my TRB papers and emails on transportation surveys, census data, journey-to-work, population and employment estimates, CTPP, and ACS during the last 30 years. Also, many thanks go to the members of this net including, but not limited to, Elaine Murakami, Chuck Purvis, Nancy McGuckin, Ken Cervenka, Catharine Lawson, Alan Pisarski, David Pearson, Rolf Schmitt, Peter Stopher, Nanda Srinivasan, Jerry Everet, Kevin Tierney, Clara Reschovsky, and Jonette Kreideweis. By the way, I have evaluated the latest results of the ACS (2007 and 2005-2007) and found out that the ACS data are useless for all areas promised by the Census Bureau (65,000 and 20,000 population). Even at the county level (larger than 250,000 population), I had to make some adjustments to the ACS data to make them reasonable. These adjustments are based on local data and other census information. As you know, DVRPC does not use or publish any unreasonable data. There are nine counties and 352 municipalities in the region that depend on DVRPC data. As you will recall, I have stated on this net and in many national conferences that the current ACS methods and procedures will not produce accurate or usable zonal data for transportation planning and travel forecasting. I hope that FHWA and AASHTO will convince the Census Bureau to replace the ACS with the Long-Form in Census 2020. I think that accurate data from the Long-Form every 10 years are much more useful to the transportation community than erroneous data from the ACS every year. Thabet Zakaria Deputy Director, Technical Services Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission Phone: (215) 238-2885 Email: tzakaria(a)dvrpc.org Fax: (215) 592-9125

15 years, 6 months

Census News Brief

by Ed Christopher

BREAKING NEWS: 2010 Census Funding at Risk on House Floor 2010 Census Funding at Risk on House Floor: Funding for the Census Bureau next year could be slashed significantly as the U.S. House of Representatives begins debating the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) today. Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) is expected to offer an amendment that would shift $566.5 million from the Census Bureau to NASA's exploration account, more than eight percent of the $6.671 billion the Appropriations Committee allocated for 2010 census operations in the fiscal year that begins on October 1, 2009. Numerous additional amendments that would siphon off funds from the Census Bureau -- always a target for lawmakers seeking to boost funding for law enforcement, science, and other popular programs in the massive spending bill -- are expected over the next two days. According to analyses by the Brookings Institution, almost $400 billion in federal program funds annually -- $4 trillion over the decade -- is allocated to states and localities based in whole or in part on census data. The analyses, broken down by program and by state, are available on The Census Project web site at www.thecensusproject.org (under Fact Sheets). The Census Bureau's FY2010 budget also took an unexpected hit in the Appropriations Committee last week, when a misunderstanding between panel members and the Commerce Department (the Census Bureau's parent department) led appropriators to reduce the agency's funding by $206 million. Lawmakers had thought the amount, appearing in the President's detailed budget request as a carry-over from 2009, represented extra money, when in fact the Census Bureau had committed the funds to a paid media buy. The Administration told Congress yesterday that if the $206 million is not restored before Congress finalizes the Commerce spending measure, the Census Bureau would reduce a planned $573 million contingency fund for the 2010 census by that amount. The contingency fund, the Administration said, would cover unanticipated conditions, such as a lower-than-projected mail response rate or more vacant units that increase the non-response follow-up workload, or unforeseen events, such as a natural disaster or health pandemic. The emergency fund, Census officials told Congress, "is not a very large reserve for a once-a-decade program of this size and complexity, which must be completed by statutory deadlines." Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent legislative and policy consultant specializing in the census and federal statistics. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations. -- Ed Christopher 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA Resource Center 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461

15 years, 6 months

Urbanized Area Webinar held on Friday, June 12: recording is now available

by Elaine.Murakami＠dot.gov

Hi Everyone: Thank you to the enthusiastic crowd of about 225-250 attendees from the session last Friday. The session is now available: http://fhwa.na3.acrobat.com/p20171907/ While in the recorded session, you will be able to go to the "download" pod and download the ppts and other documents shared by the Census Bureau staff. Some of the time, the download pod is not in the viewing area, so if you move toward the end of the presentation, the download pod will be seen. There were a lot of questions that were raised and FHWA, FTA, and Census Bureau staff are working on compiling answers as best we can. We will notify everyone using the CTPP listserv when they are posted. All of you are obviously members of the CTPP-listserv, but several people who joined the webinar are not. Please let them know that the best way to keep "in touch" is to subscribe to the CTPP Listserv. http://www.trbcensus.com/maillist.html If you request "digest" you will reduce the number of individual emails you receive and get a compiled set when there are several in a day. You can also look at the archive of this listserv via this link. This link ALSO includes how to UNSUBSCRIBE to the listserv. Elaine Murakami Elaine.murakami(a)dot.gov 206-220-4460

15 years, 6 months

CTPP RFP for Data Access Software

by Weinberger, Penelope

Hi All, The CTPP has issued a request for proposals from all interested parties to develop CTPP Data Access Software. The RFP and all relevant supplemental materials can be downloaded at: http://ctpp.transportation.org/home/rfp.html Please forward this notice to all interested parties. Penelope Weinberger CTPP Program Manager AASHTO 202-624-3556 www.transportation.org It's just as bad to not make a plan as to blindly follow the one you already have.

15 years, 7 months

Cheryl V Chambers/ACSO/HQ/BOC is out of the office until Monday, June 15, 2009

by cheryl.v.chambers＠census.gov

I will be out of the office starting 06/10/2009 and will not return until 06/15/2009. For immediate assistance regarding the American Community Survey, please contact Ms. Cynthia Hollingsworth on 301-763-3655; cynthia.davis.hollingsworth(a)census.gov, or visit our website at www.census.gov. Thank you.

15 years, 7 months

Census News Brief (No. 64)

by Ed Christopher

HOUSE APPROPRIATORS APPROVE 2010 CENSUS FUNDING; GROVES NOMINATION ON HOLD IN SENATE House appropriators fended off a proposal to strip $100 million from the Census Bureau’s 2010 budget before approving the Fiscal Year 2010 (FY2010) Commerce, Justice, and Science and Related Agencies spending bill yesterday, allocating the full $7.375 billion for the agency that the Administration’s requested. The proposed funding level is $4.235 billion more than this year’s appropriation; the Census Bureau received an additional $1 billion for 2010 census operations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill). Almost all of the increase would go towards the decennial census under the Periodic Censuses and Programs account, which received $7.116 billion in the committee bill. Roughly $6.9 billion of this amount is for the 2010 census, which includes the American Community Survey (ACS), leaving $214.6 million for other cyclical programs such as the Economic Census ($111.7 million) and annual (“intercensal”) demographic estimates ($10.4 million). The committee bill appropriates $259 million for the bureau’s Salaries and Expenses account, covering ongoing economic, demographic, and social statistics programs such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which would receive $4.6 million more than in Fiscal Year 2009 for a total of $50.3 million. By a vote of 21 – 30, the Committee on Appropriations defeated an amendment offered by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) to shift $100 million from the Census Bureau to the Justice Department’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which the President had slated for elimination in his own budget. All Democratic members of the committee who were present voted against the amendment. (There are 37 Democrats and 23 Republicans on the committee.) California historically has received about 40 percent of SCAAP funds, and the Census Bureau has been the target of similar off-setting amendments to increase funding for law enforcement programs in past years, although none had proposed shifting such a large amount of money. Some apportionment projections for 2010 show that California could be at risk of losing one of its current 53 congressional districts after the census. In the committee report accompanying the spending bill, appropriators expressed particular interest in 2010 census outreach, promotion, and paid advertising activities. They noted that a Census Bureau advisory panel had characterized much of the proposed paid advertising campaign as “obsolete,” and they directed the agency to ensure that all communications activities focus on increasing mail response rates, especially in historically hard-to-count communities. The committee asked for more information on the language assistance program, saying that it was concerned that the Census Bureau “has not adequately planned for assistance in languages other than Spanish for the 2010 census and ACS.” The report called on the Census Bureau to ensure a diverse temporary workforce for the decennial census, as well as to improve the diversity of its full time workforce, “including at the senior management level.” The committee bill would provide $7.7 million less than the President requested for new initiatives at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the second Commerce Department statistical agency housed in the Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA). Committee documents indicate that lawmakers reduced funding “to support higher priority activities.” ESA would receive a total allocation of $97.2 million, an increase of about $6.6 million over 2009. Appropriators agreed to fund two proposed new BEA initiatives, to develop new estimation models for financial services statistics and to enhance and accelerate county-level economic statistics. The Appropriations Committee approved the $64.4 billion Commerce spending measure – overall, about $200 million less than the President requested – by voice vote. The full House is tentatively scheduled to take up the funding bill on June 16-17. “Objection” puts Groves nomination on hold in Senate: The nomination of Dr. Robert Groves to be Census Bureau director remains in limbo, a possible victim both of specific concerns about his candidacy and of partisan maneuvering over unrelated issues. Late last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called up Dr. Groves’ nomination under a “unanimous consent” request, a procedure sometimes used to uncover specific concerns any senators might harbor about a nominee and to move a nomination more quickly to a vote. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected to consideration of the nomination, saying he did not yet have the consent of all of his party’s members. Any senator who wants to delay a vote on the nomination has six Senate business days (from the time of the unanimous consent request) to come forward. The Majority Leader’s effort to bring the nomination up for a vote in the full Senate has been hampered further, however, by controversy over another nomination. Republican senators reportedly have decided to delay consideration of all nominations (except for some key Defense Department posts), to protest the Democratic majority’s decision to start hearings on Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor in early July. Legislative update: Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA), joined by a bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers, introduced a “sense of the House” resolution (H. Res. 521), highlighting the importance of a “complete and accurate” 2010 census. The measure notes important uses of census population numbers, including congressional apportionment, make-up of the Electoral College, decision-making by businesses, and the allocation of federal funds for a wide range of programs. “[A]reas are ultimately underserved by the Federal Government when significant portions of the population, especially those in low-income and minority neighborhoods, fail to participate in the census,” the resolution notes. Rep. Dent’s bill “encourages full participation” in the census and urges State, local, and Tribal governments to promote awareness and cooperation with the count. The resolution, which must only pass the House of Representatives and would not be signed into law, was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent legislative and policy consultant specializing in the census and federal statistics. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is a consultant to the nonpartisan Census Project, organized by the Communications Consortium Media Center in Washington, DC. Previous Census News Briefs are posted at www.thecensusproject.org. -- Ed Christopher 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA RC-TST-PLN 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461

15 years, 7 months

Census News Brief

by Ed Christopher

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES 2010 CENSUS FUNDING A House appropriations subcommittee allocated $7.37 billion for the Census Bureau in Fiscal Year 2010 (FY2010), the amount the Administration requested, representing a 135 percent funding increase (about $4.23 billion) over Fiscal Year 2009. Overall, the $64.4 billion bill represents a 12 percent increase over the 2009 spending level for this appropriations account. The draft bill includes $7.116 billion for Periodic Censuses and Programs, one of two main Census Bureau accounts, which covers the decennial census, American Community Survey, Economic Census, and other cyclical programs. A specific funding level for the 2010 census is not yet available; the President requested $6.97 billion in new budget authority for 2010 census activities. The quinquennial Economic Census is beginning a new planning cycle for the 2012 survey and would receive $111.7 million. The bill allocates $259 million for the second main account, Salaries and Expenses, which covers ongoing surveys and data programs such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The Census Bureau would receive $50.3 million for the SIPP program. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science and Related Agencies, noted at the start of the panel’s “mark-up” that the FY2010 Congressional Budget Resolution provided a lower overall limit on discretionary spending than President Obama’s budget request for next year, requiring appropriators to make “hard choices” and reduce or eliminate funding for some programs “that many members support.” Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), the panel’s senior Republican, expressed concern about the bill’s funding level. “This level of spending is unsustainable in light of our growing deficits and debt,” Rep. Wolf said. “I believe that we could have met the most urgent needs by prioritizing within a lower allocation.” Reps. Mollohan and Wolf both mentioned that the bill funds the Justice Department’s popular State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) well below the 2009 spending level (the President’s budget proposed eliminating SCAAP), possibly suggesting that lawmakers might look for ways to shift money from other programs within the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill to increase SCAAP funding as the appropriations measure moves through the House and Senate. The committee report accompanying the funding measure is not printed yet, but committee sources indicated that appropriators continue to urge the Census Bureau to focus sufficient 2010 census advertising, promotion, and outreach efforts on the hardest-to-count population groups, including people with limited English language proficiency, and to ensure more diversity in hiring. Stakeholder organizations sent letters expressing strong support for the President’s Census Bureau budget request in the days leading up to the mark-up. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) urged the panel to allocate the full amount the President requested for the Census Bureau, saying “an accurate census is a vital civil rights objective.” The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), a member of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, also highlighted adequate funding for other important Census Bureau activities, including the American Community Survey (ACS), which replaced the traditional census “long form” and will produce census tract-level estimates of key socio-economic indicators for the first time in late 2010. Hispanic clergy urge immigrants to participate in census: The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) issued a statement today, urging Latinos and immigrants to participate in the 2010 census. Dr. Jesse Miranda, CEO of the NHCLC, said that an accurate census is “critical for the continued economic and political progress of the Latino community.” The NHCLC serves 16 million Hispanic born-again Christians in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to the statement. The Hispanic pastors have joined with Comunidad Presbiteriana Hispana & El Pozo de Jacob, the Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Christian Leadership, the Hispanic Mega Church Association, the Hispanic Pentecostal Congress, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to implement a widespread campaign, ya es hora !HAGASE CONTAR! (It’s Time, Make Yourself Count!), encouraging Hispanics to participate in the 2010 census. The National Association for Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund is leading the campaign in conjunction with Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, National Council of La Raza, and major Hispanic media companies such as Univision, as well as other national, state, and local partners. The religious leaders also expressed opposition to a boycott of the census by undocumented immigrants. “By diminishing the representation of newcomers in our democracy, an [census] undercount will also undermine efforts to achieve comprehensive immigration reform,” Dr. Miranda said. “Encouraging anyone not to participate in the Census is simply wrong.” The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC), which represents 20,000 churches in 34 states, according to its web site, has called for a boycott of the census among undocumented residents. An April 18th statement announcing the boycott said the organization hoped to compel the Obama Administration and Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also has challenged the boycott campaign, saying that failure to achieve a complete count of the Latino population “would have political implications and jeopardize vital resources” that flow to communities based on census data (April 16 CHC press statement). Did you know? (An occasional feature of fun census facts!) The 2010 census is a paper-intensive, as well as labor-intensive, undertaking. The Census Bureau has begun assembling kits at its National Processing Center (NPC) in Jeffersonville, IN, for census takers and other field staff to use next year. The process is automated for the first time, almost quadrupling the pace of the task over manual assembly. The NPC will assemble 5.5 million kits -- six billion (with a “b”!) pieces of paper in all – over a 15 - 18 month period. The stack of paper would be 27 Empire State Buildings high! Who knew? Comic relief: I rarely stray from my “just the facts, m’am” reporting of census news, but I’m sure we can all use a good laugh as we hurtle at lightening speed towards the 2010 census. So I thought census stakeholders would enjoy a funny Saturday Night Live skit about a census taker (posted on You Tube), featuring Christopher Walken. Enjoy (and thanks to the former Census Bureau official who brought this to my attention)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XtuPvwBa2U Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent legislative and policy consultant specializing in the census and federal statistics. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is a consultant to the nonpartisan Census Project, organized by the Communications Consortium Media Center in Washington, DC. Previous Census News Briefs are posted at www.thecensusproject.org. -- Ed Christopher 708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell) FHWA RC-TST-PLN 19900 Governors Dr Olympia Fields, IL 60461

15 years, 7 months

Re: [CTPP] New NCHRP 08-36 Report on Census Disclosure Avoidance issues

by Darrell Westmoreland

I don't get where transportation data collection invades people's privacy. People generally fill out travel surveys with no problems. >>> "Srinivasan, Nanda" <NSrinivasan(a)nas.edu> 6/8/2009 1:50 PM >>> I am pleased to provide an electronic copy of the latest final report in the NCHRP 08-36 series on Task 71: Disclosure Avoidance Techniques to Improve ACS Data Availability for Transportation Planners. The report is posted at http://www.trb.org/NotesDocs/NCHRP08-36(71)_FR.pdf. The report was prepared by Cambridge Systematics. Abstract: Data dissemination rules initiated by the DRB caused significant loss of data for CTPP 2000, and are expected to cause an even more serious loss when applied to products emanating from the American Community Survey. This report summarizes the development and testing of synthetic data techniques that the Census Bureau could employ to provide alternative data, particularly in regards to journey-to-work flow data at small geography from the Decennial Census (or from the 5-year accumulation of the American Community Survey). Multi-year ACS data tables are inherently protected from potential harmful disclosure of participants, and therefore do not require further disclosure restrictions. However, if disclosure-proofing is nevertheless deemed necessary, using a form of data synthesis is probably the best approach from the viewpoint of the transportation planning data user. This research examines alternative data synthesis approaches that could be employed for multi-year ACS journey-to-work tables, including iterative proportional fitting, combined Bayesian/iterative proportional fitting, and the Generalized Shuttle Algorithm. Disclaimer: This project was conducted at the request of the AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning as part of NCHRP Project 08-36. Please note that the report did not go through the usual rigorous review process established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee or the Governing Board of the National Research Council, and should not be referred to as a "TRB Report". It should be described as a contractor's report conducted for the AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning with funding provided through the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Project 08-36. Regards, Nanda Srinivasan _______________________________________________ ctpp-news mailing list ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net http://www.chrispy.net/mailman/listinfo/ctpp-news

15 years, 7 months

If you missed the Federal Data Workshop at the TRB Transportation Planning Applications conference...

by Elaine.Murakami＠dot.gov

Now that I have your attention, I have an important announcement! All of the sessions from the Houston conference, May 17-21, are now available. What a wonderful resource! http://teachamerica.com/APP09/index.html The federal data workshop was held on Sunday. It included 4 topics: 1. CTPP-Ed Christopher 2. ACS-Melissa Chiu and Elaine Murakami 3. LEHD-Matt Graham 4. NHTS - Heather Contrino To find out what all those acronyms are, please watch and listen to the session! Currently, to navigate to Melissa Chiu's presentation on ACS, you have to go to the Alphabetical list by presenter's last name, it is missing in the Chronological sort for the Sunday session. I have asked the conference chair to see if the Sunday session can be corrected. I am sure you will enjoy many of the sessions! Elaine

15 years, 7 months

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