[CTPP] Census 2000 Initiative News Alert

From: Census2000(a)ccmc.org Final Mail Response of 65% Equals 1990 Rate: Plus: Stakeholders Voice Support for Long Form Data; Census Advisory Committees Meet; and more. Sixty-five percent of households filled out their census forms during the first phase of Census 2000, the Census Bureau reported at a news conference on April 19. The mail response rate, which includes households that returned a form by mail, or provided their answers over the Internet or by telephone, equals the 1990 rate and exceeds the bureau's projected response of 61 percent. Beginning on April 27, about 500,000 census enumerators will visit the more than 43 million households that did not yet answer the census. The 'non-response follow-up' phase is scheduled to run through early July. Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt called the response rate "a serious achievement; it is news to celebrate." Until 2000, mail response rates had declined every decade since the 1970 census, the first to rely primarily on mailed questionnaires. The rate was 78 percent in 1970, 75 percent in 1980, and 65 percent in 1990. "The country is saying that democracy is about obligation as well as benefits, about responsibility as well as rights," the director observed. He gave credit to more than 100,000 local government, community, civic, religious, and business "partners" who worked to promote Census 2000. The Census Bureau challenged local governments to exceed their 1990 mail response rates by five percent. About 15 percent met their 'Plus 5' targets, although no states did. Dr. Prewitt also said the difference in the mail response rate for households that received a short form and households that received a long form was 12 percent. He declined to speculate on whether public criticism of the long form questions contributed to the lower return rate for those forms. 66.6 percent of short form households have answered the census, compared to 54.1 percent of long form households. The differential is about twice the gap at the same point in the 1990 census. The mail response figure does not include 'Be Counted' forms that were available in public places for people who did not receive or misplaced a questionnaire at their home, or who believe they were left off the form completed by someone else in their household. Census takers must visit the address provided on a Be Counted form to verify its existence and confirm the number of residents. The final mail-back rate also does not reflect the count in remote areas, where the absence of accurate address lists requires enumerators to record the location of housing units and interview the residents in person. This 'list/enumerate' procedure is scheduled to conclude at the end of April. A spokesperson for Rep. Dan Miller, who heads the House Census Subcommittee, said the chairman was pleased with the Census Bureau's success in stemming the decline in the response rate. The congressman also is concerned, his spokesperson said, that plans for the door-to-door operation do not focus enough attention on historically 'hard-to-count' areas. Rep. Miller said the bureau should target any savings it realizes from exceeding its projected mail response rate at improving the count of population groups that have been missed at higher rates in the past. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the Census Subcommittee's senior Democrat, praised the Census Bureau for its "outstanding achievement" and also noted that the mail-back rate for Manhattan was five percent above the borough's 1990 rate. She urged people who did not respond during the mail phase to cooperate with enumerators during the "most critical and labor intensive phase" of the census. The mail response rate, which reflects the portion of all housing units that return a questionnaire, differs from the mail return rate, which is the percent of occupied housing units mailing back forms. However, it is the response rate that affects both the cost estimates and the scope of the fieldwork, since the Census Bureau does not know whether an unresponsive housing unit is occupied or vacant until an enumerator visits. The mail return rate, calculated after the census is finished, is a truer measure of public cooperation. Like the overall response rate, the return rate from occupied housing units has dropped substantially since 1970, from 87 percent then to 74 percent in 1990. Final mail response rates for states, cities, American Indian reservations, and other governmental units are posted on the Census Bureau's web site as www.census.gov <http://www.census.gov> (click on "Initial Response Rates"). Stakeholders continue support for long form data: Civic and business stakeholders moved to counter public criticism of the census long form by some members of Congress and conservative activists. Last week, the Census Bureau's five race and ethnic advisory committees, and a majority of members of the Commerce Secretary's 2000 Census Advisory Committee, issued a joint statement reaffirming their support for the collection of demographic and socio-economic information on the long form. These data, they said, are needed "to [assist] the vulnerable in our population" and are "critical to the government's decision-making about our economy and our work-life." Advisory committee members urged residents who did not mail back a census form to cooperate fully when enumerators visit and to answer all questions on the short and long forms. In Congress, legislators appointed to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the fiscal year 2001 budget resolution, agreed to drop from the final bill non-binding language on census data collection approved earlier by the Senate. The Senate amendment, offered by Sen. Robert Smith (R-NH), suggested that no one should be prosecuted, fined, or "harassed" for failing to answer census questions on "race, national origin, living conditions, personal habits or mental and/or physical condition." Rep. Dan Miller had written to House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, urging the conferees to strike the census provision because it was not related to budget issues. Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY), joined by 52 Representatives and 13 Senators, sent a letter to Census Bureau Director Prewitt expressing support for the collection of data on the long form. The legislators, Rep. Maloney said in a written statement, would help "spread the message... that the census long form is used to collect vitally important information" about the needs of communities. Census advisory panels hold joint meeting: The Census Bureau's professional association and race/ethnic advisory committees, and the 2000 Census Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Commerce, met jointly on April 14 to review the status of census operations. Senior bureau officials discussed the progress of the mail phase, Telephone Questionnaire Assistance and Be Counted activities, recruitment efforts, and special enumeration operations, as well as plans for enumerator visits to unresponsive households and the 'cooperation' phase of the advertising campaign. Compared to the same point in the 1990 census, they said, the 2000 census was more successful: they had achieved their hiring goals on time, the public was more aware of the census, and mail response rates were on target. Bureau staff also reported that Questionnaire Assistance Centers would close after April 14; the count of people in 'group quarters' (such as college dormitories, nursing homes, and military barracks) would run through April 23; the bureau had started telephone follow-up for households whose completed forms did not provide demographic information about all of the listed residents (called 'coverage edit'); the final phase of the general advertising and promotion campaign would run until mid-to-late May, with all new ads showing the identification badge enumerators would wear; and after May, the bureau would develop radio ads targeting communities where follow-up visits were proceeding slowly. Census Bureau and federal agency staff also briefed advisory committee members on plans to tabulate and report data on race and Hispanic origin. (See the March 13 Census 2000 Initiative News Alert for a detailed summary of the tabulation policy. New guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/bulletins/index.html Several participants expressed concern about the inadequate supply of foreign language Be Counted forms in many areas. Robert Shapiro, Commerce Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, acknowledged that demand for forms in certain languages exceeded the bureau's expectations. The bureau would boost advertising in affected communities, he said, to encourage telephone response for those who had not yet found an opportunity to be counted. The telephone assistance lines (1-800-471-9424) will remain open through early June. Be Counted forms could not be photocopied because the data processing equipment could only scan original questionnaires. Dr. Prewitt, addressing committee members at the end of the day, called Census 2000 the best to date operationally. "All big systems worked," he said, adding that some components "at the edge" had not worked as well as the Bureau had hoped. He cautioned that the early operational successes would not necessarily translate to a "more accurate" count. Dr. Prewitt also shared his concerns about the lower mail-back rate for long forms and the criticism of long form questions generated initially by some radio talk show hosts. Many national leaders, the director said, failed to capitalize on the opportunity to discuss two important concepts: the role of information in today's society, and civic engagement and responsibility at the dawn of a new century. He gave local elected and civic leaders credit for reaffirming the need for long form data in light of the public controversy. Commerce Secretary William Daley has appointed four new organizations to his Census 2000 advisory panel: the AFL-CIO, the American Foundation for the Blind, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund (NALEO). The Census Bureau also has increased the number of race and ethnic advisory committees from four to five, replacing the original committee on the Asian and Pacific Islander populations with the Advisory Committee on the Asian Population and the Advisory Committee on the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Populations, to reflect changes in the standard federal race categories. Another joint meeting of the advisory committees is scheduled for July 28. State legislative activities update: On April 9, Virginia Governor James Gilmore III (R) signed into law a bill (House Bill 1486) that requires the use of 'unadjusted' census numbers for redrawing congressional, state legislative, and local political district boundaries. Because Virginia is one of 16 states covered in whole or part by section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the new law (now called Chapter 884) must be approved either by the U.S. Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before it can take effect. In mid-April, Virginia's Attorney General announced that the state would attempt to bypass the Department of Justice approval process through legal action filed with the U.S. District Court. Opponents of Virginia's law, including civil rights groups, indicated that they would move to block the move in court. 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 . 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.