The TAZ Verification program to verify the updated TAZ layer in the TIGER
database has been completed. 278 agencies responded on-time to accept or
revise the new TAZ layer for 1454 counties. A database of agency and county
information has been placed on the CTPP website for your reference. To access
the file, please visit:
http://www.mcs.com/~berwyned/census/tazinfo.html
or alternately:
http://members.tripod.com/~TRBstate/ctpp/tazv0717.pdf
*Thank you* for your participation and on-time response. We are sure your
contributions will help in a timely delivery of CTPP 2000.
If you have any questions, please call me at 202-366-5021 (e-mail:
ctpp(a)fhwa.dot.gov)
Nanda Srinivasan
Congress deleted the line item for the Nationwide Personal Transportation
Survey (NPTS). FHWA is working on their response.
I think many of us do not realize how instrumental the NPTS is to a lot of
what we do. The NPTS is the only source of travel-characteristic data for the
nation, allowing us to track trends since 1969 when the first survey was done.
NPTS data was used to develop the household trip generation rates in the
update of the old NCHRP 187, published as the NCHRP 365, *Travel Estimation
Techniques for Urban Planning*. Many, many areas use it for bench-marking
their locally collected data. It offers comparative data for any area to see
the similarities and differences to regional and national trends.
A number of States and MPOs use the NPTS data as a source of default values
when no other data is available, especially for smaller population groups such
as elderly drivers. State-wide models are being developed using the NPTS data
to fill in rural areas or smaller towns and cities.
The web site (http://www-cta.ornl.gov/npts/) was a real step forward to make
accessing the data easy, and is a good resource for special studies and topic
papers, such as the one on trip chaining.
The 2000 survey would have been a valuable tool to address contemporary
transportation needs and topics because of the extension of the previous data
as well as the addition of new data items directed to emerging issues.
I received some disturbing information today indicating that the NPTS data
collection planned for this fall will not be occurring. I was told the
funding for the program has been or will be cut from the FY 2001 DOT
budget. Has anyone else heard this? If so can you confirm that it is
true? Is FHWA cutting the funding or is it being cut by congress.
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.
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
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@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@ccmc.org> or
202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to
colleagues and other interested individuals.
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