04-4144. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DOC has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).

Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.

Title: Generic Clearance for MAF & TIGER Update Activities.

Form Number(s): Will vary by activity.

Agency Approval Number: 0607-0809.

Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.

Burden: 360 hours.

Number of Respondents: 10,800.

Avg Hours Per Response: Will vary by activity.

Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau requests approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension of the generic clearance for a number of activities it plans to conduct to update its Master Address File (MAF) and maintain the linkage between the MAF and the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) database of address ranges and associated geographic information. The Census Bureau plans to use the MAF for post-Census 2000 evaluations, various pre-2010 census tests, and as a sampling frame for the American Community Survey and our other demographic current surveys. In the past, the Census Bureau has built a new address list for each decennial census. The MAF built during Census 2000 is meant to be kept current thereafter, eliminating the need to build a completely new address list for future censuses and surveys. The TIGER is a geographic system that maps the entire country in Census Blocks with applicable address range of living quarter location information. Linking MAF and TIGER allows us to assign each address to the appropriate Census Block, produce maps as needed and publish results at the appropriate level of geographic detail.

The generic clearance for the past three years has proved to be very beneficial to the Census Bureau. The generic clearance allowed us to focus our limited resources on actual operational planning and development of procedures. This extension will be especially beneficial over the upcoming three years by allowing us to focus on the other work involved in evaluating Census 2000, testing new procedures for 2010, and keeping the MAF current.

We will follow the protocol of past generic clearances: We will send a letter to OMB at least two weeks before the planned start of each activity that gives more exact details, examples of forms, and final estimates of respondent burden. We also will file a year-end summary with OMB after the close of each fiscal year giving results of each activity conducted.

All activities described above directly support the Census Bureau's efforts to update the MAF and the TIGER database on a regular basis so that they will be available for use in conducting and evaluating statistical programs the Census Bureau undertakes on a monthly, annual or periodic basis.

Affected Public: Individuals or households; State, local, or Tribal governments.

Frequency: Onetime.

Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.

Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., sections 141 and 193.

OMB Desk Officer: Susan Schechter, [phone].

Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance Officer, [phone], Department of Commerce, room 6625, 14th and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at [e-mail]).

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to Susan Schechter, OMB Desk Officer either by fax [phone]) or e-mail ([e-mail]).

Dated: February 20, 2004.

Madeleine Clayton,

Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.