Submission Notice Comments' Summary

Comments Received on American Community Survey (ACS) Federal Register Notices 2015-09741 and 2015-13061

June 29, 2015

Note: The Census Bureau is working to minimize burden for ACS respondents while still allowing the survey to be responsive to emergent issues, keeping content current, and maintaining high quality data. A newly published plan describing upcoming research and testing is now available at: census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/operations-and-administration/2015-16-survey-enhancements.html.

No.	Date	Who	Organization	Organization Type	Marital History	Field of Degree	Content Review Methodology	Flush Toilet or Other Comment
	4/29/2015	Tran Bang	Automated message	Unknown				none
	5/1/2015	Tran Bang	Automated message	Unknown				none
	5/11/2015	Elizabeth Frankenberg	Duke University	Academia	Retain	Retain
	5/13/2015	Christopher Collard	Utah Foundation	Non Profit	Retain marital history questions
	5/13/2015	Molly Martin	Pennsylvania State University	Academia	Include marital history each year
	5/13/2015	Sean Higgins	Tulane University	Academia	Include marital history each year
	5/13/2015	Benjamin Jenkins	Jenkins Rehabilitation Consultants, LLC	Business	Retain			Retain disability questions
	5/13/2015	Ethan Sharygin	California Department of Finance	Government	Retain yearly	Retain yearly
	5/13/2015	Eva Dziadula	Notre Dame	Academia	Retain yearly
	5/13/2015	Christopher Collard	Utah Foundation	Non Profit	Retain
	5/13/2015	Spencer James	Brigham Young University	Academia	Retain yearly
	5/13/2015	Maritza Moreno	n/a	Individual	Retain yearly	Retain yearly
	5/19/2015	Guillermina “Willie” Jasso	NY University on behalf of Census Scientific Advisory Committee	Census Advisory	Retain	Retain	Deeply flawed	Add Parental Place of Birth
	5/19/2015	Emaido Edem	Illinois Wesleyan University	Academia	Retain
	5/20/2015	Curtis Simon	Clemson University	Academia	Include marital history each year for all respondents
	5/20/2015	Jason Ward	University of Illinois - Chicago	Academia	Include marital history each year	Retain
	5/20/2015	Mark Sandler	SRA Research Group, Inc.	Business	Retain marital status and marital history
	5/20/2015	Guy Michaels	London School of Economics, UK	Academia	Retain demographic questions for all ACS respondents in IPUMS	Retain demographic questions for all ACS respondents in IPUMS
	5/20/2015	Jim Gajewski	n/a	Individual	Retain			Don’t remove anything
	5/20/2015	Ann Meier	University of Minnesota	Academia	Retain yearly	Retain yearly
	5/20/2015	Todd Pugatch	Oregon State University	Academia	Retain yearly
	5/21/2015	Jaclyn Wong	University of Chicago	Academia	Include marital history each year for all respondents
	5/21/2015	Wendy Diane Manning	Bowling Green State University	Academia	Retain yearly
	5/21/2015	Sonia Oreffice	University of Surrey	Academia	Retain			Methodological concerns
	5/21/2015	Jeff Camp	Ed100	Non Profit	Retain yearly			Include stakeholders in process
	5/22/2015	John Nerge	City of Brooklyn Park	Government	Retain yearly to full sample	Retain yearly with full sample
	5/26/2015	Steven Ruggles	Minnesota Population Center Population Association of America	Non Profit	Include marital history each year for all respondents	Retain	Deeply flawed
	5/26/2015	Katherine Gallagher Robbins	National Women’s Law Center	Non Profit	Include marital history each year	Retain
	5/26/2015	Mary Jo Hoeksema	Population Association of America	Non Profit	Retain	Retain	Include non-federal group in process	Form a standing non-federal group to advise on ACS content; reduce in-person contact attempts; keep survey mandatory
	5/26/2015	Billy Smith	Montana State University	Academia	Retain yearly	Retain yearly
	5/27/2015	Joe Hayes	Public Policy Institute of California	Non Profit	Include marital history each year for all respondents
	6/16/2015	Kyle Miller	-no affiliation given-	Individual				Retain Flush Toilet question
	6/16/2015	Kyle Miller	-no affiliation given-					[Duplicate comment]
	6/17/2015	Terry Ao Minnis	Asian Americans Advancing Justice	Non Profit				Concerns over Administrative Records use and review process for Computer Usage & Internet questions
	6/17/2015	Terry Ao Mannis	Asian Americans Advancing Justice					[Duplicate comment]
	6/26/2015	Lance George	Housing Assistance Council	Non Profit				Retain flush toilet question; concern that there would be an 8% undercount in homes lacking adequate plumbing1
	6/28/2015	Jean Public	None given	Individual				Zero out the survey
	6/29/2015	Mary Jo Heoksema	Population Association of America	Non Profit				Adds to previous letter received 5/26/2015; use field, not just cognitive, testing; include non-federal groups in process; concern over periodic inclusion or of a smaller subset due to unavailability for small geographies

SUMMARY

Topic Mentioned	6/16 Batch	6/25 Batch	6/29 Batch	Total
Retain Marital History Question -Ask it Each Year -Ask all Respondents	13	16	0	29
Retain Undergraduate Field of Degree Question	6	7	0	13
Revise Content Review Methodology	3	2	1	6
Retain Flush Toilet	1	0	1	2
Other	3	3	2	8
Total Comments:	26	28	4	58
Total Commenters:	16	17	3	36
Type of Commenter
Academia	6	9	0	15
Business	1	1	0	2
Census Advisory	1	0	0	1
Government	0	2*	0	2
Nonprofit	5	3	2	10
Individual	1	2	1	4
Unknown	2	0	0	2
	16	17	3	36

*Reflects 1 state and 1 city government.

1 The Census Bureau acknowledges there would be an undercount. See report, “Plumbing and Kitchen Facilities in Housing Units,” published at: http://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2015/acs/2015_Raglin_01.html.

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