Census Bureau Recharters, Shrinks Decennial Census Advisory Committee;
May meeting Postponed; Plus: Race/Ethnic, Professional Advisory
Committees To Meet; New House Oversight Panel Schedules First Census
Hearing; and more.
The Census Bureau will reconstitute the Decennial Census Advisory
Committee (DCAC) with fewer members, according to a notice in the
Federal Register on March 21. The DCAC, whose charter expired, had 38
member organizations, as well as ex-officio members from Congress and
the U.S. Postal Service. The Secretary of Commerce will appoint 20
member organizations to the new 2010 Census Advisory Committee (2010
CAC) and will designate its chair and vice chair. The committee will
report to the Census Bureau director. The deadline for submitting
nominations for membership was April 8. Members of the old DCAC were
required to reapply for membership on the new committee.
According to the Federal Register notice, the new advisory committee
will advise the Census Bureau on how best to achieve its decennial
goals and objectives and will address policy, research, and technical
issues related to the design and implementation of the census. 2010
CAC members may not duplicate other organizations, interests, or
communities already represented on other Census Bureau advisory
committees or census consultation groups, such as Census Information
Centers or State Data Centers. The Census Bureau said it is seeking
members that are knowledgeable about issues related to the statutory
and/or constitutional uses of the census data, general governmental
entities, data users, and research and technology-based organizations.
Several members of the now-defunct DCAC, including the NAACP and
National Urban League, are Census Information Centers (CICs), a
cooperative program between the Census Bureau and non-profit
organizations established to represent the interests of underserved
communities. Centers serve as repositories of census data and
reports, making census information and data available to the public and
the communities they serve.
The Census Bureau also has five race and ethnic advisory committees,
representing the interests of the African American, American Indian and
Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific
Islander communities. Individuals, not organizations, are appointed to
these committees. In addition, the Census Advisory Committee of
Professional Associations (CACPA) is comprised of representatives of the
American Economic Association, American Marketing Association, American
Statistical Association, and Population Association of America. The
latter two associations were members of the DCAC.
2010 CAC member organizations will serve three year terms, after initial
appointments of two or three years to stagger terms over the life of the
committee. The next meeting of the decennial advisory committee,
originally scheduled for May, has been postponed until sometime in the
fall.
Other census advisory committees to meet this month: The Census Bureaus
five race and ethnic advisory committees (REAC) will meet on April 25-27
to review the status of planning for Census 2010 and the newly-launched
American Community Survey (ACS). Topics of discussion include updates
from congressional staff, status of 2010 census tests, accessing ACS
data on the Census Bureaus web site, and Census Bureau research related
to data quality, enumerating small populations, and reaching people
whose primary language is not English.
The Census Advisory Committees on the African American Population,
American Indian and Alaska Native Population, Asian Population, Hispanic
Population, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population
will meet jointly on April 25 from 9:00 AM 5:15 PM; on April 26 from
8:30 AM 4:30 PM (including concurrent sessions from 1:00 4:30 PM);
and on April 27 from 9:00 AM 12:15 PM.
The Census Advisory Committee of Professional Associations (CACPA) will
meet April 21 from 8:30 AM 5:00 PM, and April 22 from 8:30 AM 12:15
PM. Agenda items related to Census 2010 and the ACS include plans for
computer-assisted interviewing, proposed residence rules, group quarters
definitions, and content tests (including race/ethnicity questions).
All of the advisory committees will meet at the Sheraton Crystal City
Hotel in Arlington, VA (tel. 703-486-1111). The meetings are open to
the public.
New Census Subcommittee to review plans for 2010: The House
Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census has scheduled a hearing for
Tuesday, April 19, to review the status of planning for Census 2010
halfway through the decade. Witnesses include Under Secretary (of
Commerce) for Economic Affairs Kathleen Cooper; Census Bureau Director
C. Louis Kincannon; Joan Naymark, Target Corporation, testifying for the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Andrew Reamer, Urban Markets Initiative,
The Brookings Institution; and Jacqueline Byers, National Association of
Counties. The hearing will start at 10:00 AM in Room 2154 Rayburn House
Office Building.
Census legislation reintroduced in the House: Rep. Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY), a member of the House census oversight subcommittee, has
reintroduced two bills related to the census. Both bills were referred
to the Committee on Government Reform.
H.R. 337 would set a five-year term for the Census Bureau director.
Currently, the director, who is nominated by the President and confirmed
by the U.S. Senate, has no fixed term of service. Historically,
directors have stepped down if a president from the opposing political
party is elected. Some critics have charged that this arrangement
leaves the position vulnerable to political influence. The heads of
several other federal statistical agencies, including the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, serve a fixed term of office, while career civil
servants are in the top position at other agencies.
H.R. 564, introduced with four cosponsors, would amend title 13, United
States Code, to allow the use of statistical sampling in determining the
population counts used for congressional reapportionment. Conflicting
interpretations of section 195, which Rep. Maloneys bill would clarify,
were central to a lawsuit filed by House Republicans before the 2000
census, challenging the Census Bureaus plan to use sampling methods as
part of follow-up operations and to adjust the initial census numbers to
correct for under- and overcounts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
January 1999 that section 195 of title 13 barred the use of sampling for
apportionment purposes, forcing the Census Bureau to revise its census
plan.
Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent
consultant in Washington, DC, with support from The Annie E. Casey
Foundation and other organizations. 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 202/484-3067 or
by e-mail at TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this
document to other interested individuals and organizations.
Information provided in Census News Briefs may be quoted without
attribution.
---------------
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)
FHWA RC-TST-PLN
19900 Governors Dr
Olympia Fields, IL 60461
Dear Scott--
Poverty has already been calculated and in included on several CTPP tables. For PERSONS, at the RESIDENCE geography, CTPP2000 includes Table 1-059 Poverty status by Disability Status by Minority Status by Age. The universe is off "persons age 5 and over for whom poverty status has been determined."
"Poverty" is a derived variable based on household size, income, and # of children under age 18, and age (65+ or not).
http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/povdef.html
If you want to define poverty differently than the CB has done, you would have to use the Census PUMS (microdata) file, and be limited to PUMA geography.
Elaine Murakami
FHWA Office of Planning
206-220-4460
-----Original Message-----
From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net]On Behalf Of Scott Ferry
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 8:49 AM
To: CTPP News List Serve
Subject: [CTPP] Calculating Poverty Rate for all persons at residence
Hello,
Could someone please guide me through the process of determining the poverty rate for all persons at residence using the CTPP 2000 data?
Specifically, I need to know the tables and fields that need to be used.
Many thanks,
Scott Ferry
Transportation Planner
Regional Intergovernmental Council
315 D Street
South Charleston, WV 25303
Hello,
Could someone please guide me through the process of determining the poverty rate for all persons at residence using the CTPP 2000 data?
Specifically, I need to know the tables and fields that need to be used.
Many thanks,
Scott Ferry
Transportation Planner
Regional Intergovernmental Council
315 D Street
South Charleston, WV 25303
I received this email from Bob Paddock today, and thought that a reply to the listserv might be useful...
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Paddock [mailto:bob.paddock@metc.state.mn.us]
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 12:14 PM
To: Murakami, Elaine
Subject: TAZs and the 2010 Census
Elaine,
If my question should be addressed to someone other than yourself,
please let me know.
I have been discussing the future of our agency's TAZ system with the
person responsible for our travel demand modeling. Collectively we
have
wondered just how the TAZ system will be utilized for the 2010 Census
and ACS survey data. Since we defined our TAZs in the past based on
Census block aggregations, will such efforts be needed for the year
2010? If so, how will all of this work with the ACS?
Any thoughts on this?
BOB
------------From Elaine------
For purposes of this reply, I will assume that there will be a CTPP-like product from a 5-year accumulation of ACS data.
1. Census Bureau Geography Division is already planning to reserve two TAZ fields for TIGER for 2010 Census. Conceptually, these could be considered as a small "urban" TAZ, and a larger TAZ for statewide planning purposes. However....
2. The sample sizes from the ACS are much smaller than for decennial census due to 2 main reasons:
a. The sample size of 2.5 % per year * 5 years = 12.5% is less than the 16.6% (1:6 h.u. sampling rate) for the decennial census Long Form. (Original design of ACS was 3% per year, so that 3% * 5 years = 15% which is much closer to the 16.6% for LF)
b. The ACS non-response follow-up is a sample of 1 in 3 (generally speaking), but higher in areas with low mail-back returns.
c. Thus, in the ACS test areas, the actual number of unweighted survey records is 50-60% that of the Long Form. This smaller sample size means tabulations for small geographic units is highly variable and much less reliable, and may be subject to data suppression to protect individual confidentialy. This has implications for any TAZ-based tabulation, and has severe implications for any FLOW tabulation. Under the assumption that the CB retains the requirement of 3 unweighted records for FLOW tabulation (same as imposed on the CTPP 2000), we expect that about 40-50% of tract-to-tract flows would be suppressed.
3. What might be some alternatives?
Would people want to define TAZs, based on census blocks, that are closer in size to a census tract?
Would census tracts be sufficient as is?
Would different TAZs be needed: one for Residence only and Workplace only tabulations, and ANOTHER larger TAZ for FLOW tabulation?
Assuming that State DOTs and MPO still want to define TAZs, it would be safe to assume that we would use a GIS-based product similar to TAZ-UP for the CTPP 2000.
One outcome may be that the TAZs in your MPO model are likely to be SMALLER than any geographic area tabulation you get from the ACS. You will have to figure out a way to distribute ACS results to your model's TAZs.
4. CB has a project called the LEHD http://lehd.dsd.census.gov/led/ They have been doing some exploration on generating small area home-to-work flows from this, but although this has characteristics like age, sex, earnings, it doesn't have mode to work, travel time, departure time. Also, multi-site businesses, government employment, and other issues on the workplace geography are still being researched. My personal opinion is that there are probably issues on the residence geography as well, e.g. particularly areas with "transient" populations such as students, snowbirds, and migrant laborers.
5. And, of course, we haven't even discussed the quality of the workplace geocoding, so there are plenty of things beyond TAZ definition that need to be addressed regarding a CTPP from ACS.
If you haven't planned yet to come to the TRB Census conference (May 11-13), now is the time to sign up!
http://www.trb.org/conferences/censusdata/
Elaine Murakami
FHWA Office of Planning
206-220-4460 in Seattle
I will be out of the office starting Sat 03/26/2005 and will not return
until Tue 04/05/2005.
I will respond to your message as soon as I can when I return.
The Census Bureau issued a Federal Register notice on March 18, with responses due on April 8.
http://www.census.gov/cac/www/fr-05-5392.html
The Census Bureau is requesting nominations for members of this committee which will cover the topics of both the 2010 decennial census and the American Community Survey. The CB FR notice includes the language that the planned committee size is 20 members (as opposed to 40 members which was the size of the Census 2000 Advisory Committee). Dave Clawson, representing AASHTO, was a member of the Census 2000 Advisory Committee. At a recent CTPP Working Group meeting, Dave said that AASHTO would like to continue to participate to represent transportation interests, and they are now working on a self-nomination letter. If you would like to submit materials to
accompany the letter, please email him at davidc(a)aashto.org
CENSUS NEWS BRIEF--February 11, 2005
President Sends FY06 Budget to Congress Plus: House Creates New Census
Oversight Panel;
New Commerce Secretary Confirmed
President Bush sent his detailed Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposal to
Congress on February 7, setting in motion the process for funding
federal programs starting October 1, 2005. The budget seeks $877.4
million for the Census Bureau, roughly an 18 percent increase over this
years funding level of $744.8 million. Last year, the President
requested a 30 percent increase for the Census Bureau, but Congress
scaled back the appropriation by $84 million.
In a statement on the Presidents budget, Commerce Secretary Carlos
Gutierrez said the increase requested by the Administration will
support initiatives that will significantly improve the breadth and
quality of the information it collects and provides to the country.
Among these initiatives is the administrating (sic) of the American
Community Survey, modernizing the geographic database information, and
developing and testing plans for the Decennial Census based on only a
short form.
The Administration requested $466.5 million to continue planning the
2010 census, an increase of $74 million (about 19 percent) over the FY05
appropriation of $392.6 million. The Census Bureau would continue
reengineering the census to collect basic demographic data needed to
fulfill constitutional and legal mandates only, implementing the
American Community Survey (ACS) to replace the traditional census long
form, and updating its geographic database (Master Address File and
TIGER digital mapping system) and aligning map features with Global
Positioning System coordinates. In an overview of its budget request,
the Commerce Department noted that the 2010 census program will focus on
reducing operational risk, improving accuracy, providing more relevant
data, and containing cost.
In FY06, the Census Bureau will conduct a major field test in Travis
County, Texas, and on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Preliminary plans for the 2006 field test include testing (1) procedures
to improve census coverage (such as large household follow-up, use of
administrative records, imputation, and residence rule clarifications);
(2) methods for coverage measurement; (3) automated field data
collection using hand-held computers; (4) delivery of questionnaires in
English and Spanish; (5) mailing replacement questionnaires to
unresponsive households; and (6) improved methods to count group
quarters (such as college dorms) and people without a usual home.
The Presidents FY06 budget does not specify the amount of 2010 census
funds to be used for the ACS; however, other Census Bureau documents
indicate a proposed appropriation of roughly $170 million for the
survey. The Administration asked for $165 million to launch the ACS
nationwide in 2005, including $10 million for one-time start-up costs;
it received $146 million (reduced to $144 million after a
government-wide recission). The American Community Survey will continue
nationwide in FY06, with the first estimates for places of 65,000 or
greater population released in the summer of 2006. The Census Bureau
expects to add group quarters to the ACS in 2006; Congress declined to
fund that component of the survey in 2005.
The Administration is seeking $80 million for the MAF/TIGER Enhancements
Program, slightly less than the program received this year. The budget
calls for correcting geographic locations in an additional 700 counties
as part of the multi-year effort to improve TIGER accuracy.
Funding for the decennial census 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 related to
the census, intercensal population estimates, and other cyclical
programs such as the quinquennial (thats every five years, folks!)
Economic Census and Census of Governments. The Presidents budget seeks
$657.4 million for Periodics in FY06, an increase of $109 million over
FY05, including $10.4 million for annual demographic estimates (an
increase of $1.2 million over FY05).
The budget proposes $220 million for Salaries and Expenses (S & E), $24
million more than this years appropriation of $196 million, but the
same amount requested for Fiscal Year 2005. The S & E account covers
ongoing surveys (such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation)
to collect important demographic, economic, and social data.
New Commerce Secretary takes office: Carlos M. Gutierrez was sworn in
this week as the 35th Secretary of Commerce. The U.S. Census Bureau is
part of the Commerce Departments Economic and Statistics
Administration. Born in Havana, Cuba, Secretary Gutierrez is the former
chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Kellogg
Company.
New House panel to oversee census: The House Committee on Government
Reform has created a new Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census to
oversee activities of the Census Bureau in the 109th Congress. The
jurisdiction of the newly-organized panel includes population and
demography generally, including the Census, and the Bureau of Economic
Analysis, as well as unfunded mandates, grant management reform,
brownfields clean-up and redevelopment, and oversight of housing and
urban development.
Second-term Representative Michael R. Turner (R-OH-3rd) will chair the
subcommittee. Chairman Turner is a former mayor of Dayton and a lawyer
by profession. According to the congressmans biography, his wife, Lori
Turner, is a professional marketer and is the sole proprietor of
Dayton-based Turner Marketing. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO-1st), from St.
Louis, is the ranking minority member on the subcommittee; he held that
position on the previous subcommittee with jurisdiction over the census.
The next Census News Brief will provide complete information on
membership of the House and Senate committees responsible for overseeing
activities of and appropriating funds for the Census Bureau.
Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent
consultant in Washington, DC, with support from The Annie E. Casey
Foundation and other organizations. 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 202/484-3067 or
by e-mail 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 RC-TST-PLN
19900 Governors Dr
Olympia Fields, IL 60461
This came out in today's (2/9/2005) edition of The Onion, America's Finest News Source.
Happy Lunar New Year to All.
http://www.theonion.com/
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Census Bureau: 9,000 To 15,000 People Work At Census Bureau
WASHINGTON, DC*According to 2004 figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau, between 9,000 and 15,000 people work at the Census Bureau. "It is difficult to obtain an accurate figure on Census Bureau employees, because workers frequently move from department to department," U.S. Census director Charles Kincannon said. "Also, many supervisors failed to return the mail-in forms that asked them to list how many employees they have." Kincannon warned all census-bureau employees to take the census-bureau census more seriously, under penalty of law.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Reminder Posters Due Jan. 21 TRB Census Data for Transportation
Planning Conference
Proposals are due Jan. 21, 2005. See the Call at
http://www.trb.org/conferences/censusdata/.....
Posters are sought for a May 11-13, 2005 Transportation Research Board
(TRB) conference in Irvine, CA on applications of Census 2000, CTPP2000,
and the American Community Survey (ACS) data. The posters will be part
of a conference, Census Data for Transportation Planning: Preparing for
the Future which will (a) assess transportation use of the decennial
census and (b) review the potential for ACS as a replacement for
the decennial census long form for the transportation planning
community needs.
In preparing posters, authors should explicitly address the following
questions:
1 What census data were used
2 How the data were used
3 What value was achieved
4 What problems or issues were encountered with the data
The Conference preliminary program can be found at
http://www.trb.org/conferences/censusdata/. Should you have any
questions please contact Tom Palmerlee, tpalmerlee(a)nas.edu,
(202)334-2907 or Brian Canepa, bcanepa(a)nas.edu, (202)334-2966.
--
Ed Christopher
Resource Center Planning Team
Federal Highway Administration
19900 Governors Drive
Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461
708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell)
708-283-3501 (F)
Check out the latest version of the "status report" newsletter to find
out.
http://www.TRBcensus.com/newsltr/sr0105.pdf
Included in this 12 page "new years issue" is a collection of articles
relating to the use of the CTPP around the country as well as some tips
for organizing your CTPP data files. For those having difficulty with
their data or who have special needs the last page contains a wealth of
URLs and contacts.
As always, the past newsletters and other related information can be
found at
http://www.TRBcensus.com/
--
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)
FHWA RC-TST-PLN
19900 Governors Dr
Olympia Fields, IL 60461