PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR STEVEN DILLINGHAM DIRECTOR U S CENSUS BUREAU U S DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Before the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Commerce Justice and Science U S House of Representatives 30 April 2019 Chairman Serrano Ranking Member Aderholt and Members of the Subcommittee thank you for inviting me to be with you today I want to start with appreciation for your strong support of the work of Census Bureau We are deeply grateful for the support of the Congress for the last two years in providing the budget for the 2020 Census We—including the career leadership with whom I am privileged to serve—are highly confident our funding in place for Fiscal Year 2019 and the budget request for 2020 supports the operations for a complete and accurate count of all persons living in the United States of America The FY 2020 budget request totals of $7 2 billion in total resources including $1 billion in funds carried over from prior years an increase of $3 3 billion 88 percent over FY 2019 Highlights include  $6 3 billion for the 2020 Census  $83 3 million for the Census Enterprise Data Collection and Processing CEDCaP program an integrated and standardized data collection and processing system  $64 9 million to transform our data dissemination systems  $139 6 million to continue implementation and begin data releases from the reengineered 2017 Economic Census and the 2017 Census of Governments and  $561 0 million to continue collection of the monthly quarterly and annual data on our economy and society – including Principal Economic Indicators data from the American Community Survey and releases from dozens of other economic demographic and geographic programs 1 Of course our top priority for FY 2020 is a complete and accurate decennial census count One important thing the subcommittee addressed in our previous appropriations is the certainty of funding In FY 2018 you provided advanced funding of $1 billion The advanced funding allowed us to continue our work on the decennial census during the funding lapse and I thank you for that The timing of funding is key to maintaining our schedule as we move into FY 2020 To remain on schedule we must have certainty regarding the FY 2020 appropriation at the beginning of the fiscal year I am excited about where we are right now less than a year from Census Day 2020 We are on schedule on budget on message and on course to complete the biggest and best census ever Our mission is to count every person living in the United States once only once and in the right place With your continued help I am confident that we will accomplish our mission We continue to experience key successes making us confident that our budget will support a complete and accurate 2020 Census We have made a number of dramatic improvements and innovations since 2010 including  Better technologies and improved processes for canvassing neighborhoods to develop complete and updated address listings  New options for responding – by internet phone or paper  More language assistance than ever before  Expanded and efficient customer assistance phone centers  More partners and specialists to reach hard-to-count populations  Better technologies and efficient processes for census takers  Sophisticated greatly expanded media campaign with new ways to reach people and communities including hard-to-count populations and  Advanced IT security safeguards and privacy protections to ensure that the confidentiality is not compromised These successes and our time-tested operations have increased our confidence we can conduct a complete and accurate census within the budget request 2 2018 End-to-End Test I would like to go over highlights of our successful End-to-End Census Test in Providence County Rhode Island our last operational test before 2020 operations In that dress rehearsal we successfully tested and deployed the operations and systems necessary to support census operations This was a significant accomplishment and we learned a lot The productivity of census takers was 1 56 cases per hour up by nearly 50 percent from 1 05 cases per hour in 2010 This efficiency was higher than anticipated and we are adjusting our assumptions accordingly Another important learning from the Nonresponse Followup operation concerns the removal of vacant and nonexistent housing units using data already provided to the government what we call administrative records We discovered that a significant proportion of these housing units turned out to be occupied So we have added an onsite visit to all of them prior to their removal from the NRFU workload in the 2020 Census Census enumerators will examine each to ensure that no one is living there If they appear to be occupied they will be visited during the NRFU operation Self-response also exceeded our projections More than half of all households 52 3 percent responded to the test on their own surpassing the projected rate 49 3 percent by 3 percentage points It is important to note that this response rate came without the motivation of an advertising campaign increasing our confidence that an estimated self-response rate of 60 5 percent in 2020 is a very realistic projection as we will have a more robust communications effort than in 2010 We also noticed that during initial visits in the Nonresponse Followup Operation self-response increased when enumerators left notices of visit New technology introduced for the 2020 Census lets us immediately remove late self-responding households from the Nonresponse Followup workload for the first time The result is reduction in unnecessary household visits which are expensive for the Census Bureau and frustrating to households that have already responded All three modes of self-response were successfully deployed Of those who self-responded 61 2 percent chose the internet 31 3 percent chose traditional paper forms and 7 5 percent chose to respond over the phone in line with projections The internet self-response and phone response are among the many innovations for 2020 compared to 2010 when we had a 100 percent paper-based operation and this is consistent with our projections and experience in tests earlier in the decade 3 We successfully automated the processes for recruiting hiring and training Also we automated daily payroll and expenses on a handheld instrument—saving time and money over the paper forms manual processing and in-person meetings necessary in 2010 Our enumeration devices worked well Enumerators were able to conduct interviews and have their work assigned remotely eliminating the need for paper assignments delivered daily through in-person meetings As households self-responded they were removed from the master list automatically reducing unnecessary visits Our routing system helped enumerators achieve the higher productivity rate another innovation over prior paper lists and maps used in 2010 Most importantly information obtained in interviews was kept safe and securely encrypted at all stages On March 29 we completed the final step of the test by producing the prototype of the redistricting files based on the test enumeration of Providence County We look forward to input from states and other stakeholders as we finalize the design of the 2020 redistricting files Privacy Protections Confidentiality is a core part of the Census Bureau’s culture and privacy safeguards are reinforced across all of our statistical programs and activities Title 13 of the U S Code is straightforward and provides strong protections proven over numerous decades Title 13 requires responses to Census Bureau surveys and censuses to be confidential and used only for statistical purposes All staff working with confidential information at the Census Bureau take a lifetime oath to protect the privacy and confidentiality of respondent information We do not and will not share confidential information with law enforcement or any other agency Unlawful disclosure is a federal crime punishable by a $250 000 fine or five years in prison or both We take every precaution to ensure that individual responses will not be released or revealed and we are adopting cutting-edge methodologies to protect the 2020 Census The Census Bureau has adopted disclosure avoidance methods that are the gold standard for modern privacy protection in computer science and cryptography We are resolved to use modern technology and methods to protect the privacy and confidentiality of every respondent All of the data and publications of the 4 2020 Census will be protected because it is imperative above all else that we ensure the trust of the American people We have a comprehensive approach to maintaining data security To complete our mission the American public must trust that we are able to protect the data they provide We are working closely with the Department of Homeland Security the tech industry and the intelligence community to defend our systems We test all systems for security well before they are deployed We have layering and advanced tools to defend against threats We encrypt the data at every stage—on our devices in transit and at rest in our system Our security team continuously monitors our systems scanning for more than 100 000 potential vulnerabilities each month with more added as potential new threats emerge We have plans and procedures in place to respond immediately to existing or perceived threats Focus in 2019 Preparation This year we are focusing on final preparations for the 2020 Census In-Field Address Canvassing the first field operation will begin in August We will send out staff to verify around 35 percent of the addresses in the country Our in-field address canvassing activities are designed to discover hidden housing units and those units whose status could not be clearly determined from in-office satellite imagery The rest have already been verified over the decade with in-office review of satellite imagery data from the US Postal Service and other data sources We also had great input from local and state governments in the Local Update of Census Addresses LUCA program Submissions to LUCA covered 95 5 percent of the population and 95 7 percent of the housing units For 2010 LUCA covered only 93 5 percent of the population and 92 9 percent of the housing units These updates will give us the most accurate and complete address list ever Also this year we are focused on systems readiness We know from the 2018 test that our systems worked well and integrated effectively We are continuing to prepare the 52 systems necessary for 35 operations by performing robust testing for security and functionality Along with the successful deployment in the 2018 test we have successfully tested the internet self-response system to handle well beyond current projections of concurrent respondents we expect at any given time and we have the ability to quickly scale up even further to prevent delays if needed 5 2020 Communications and Partnership Campaign We have used extensive research to guide our communications and partnership planning The Census Barriers Attitudes and Motivators Study CBAMS survey with a sample size of 50 000 and 42 focus groups examined communication challenges This is far more robust than the 4 000 telephone interviews that were conducted in the research phase of the 2010 Census VMLY R—the communications contractor for the 2020 Census—has assembled a diverse team of firms representing the worldwide leaders in advertising media buying opinion research strategic communications and multicultural subcontractors who are unrivaled leaders in reaching their audiences They are now using the information from CBAMS to develop the messaging that will drive the campaign Creative treatments and messaging are now being tested in focus groups and an online survey The team also produced and tested our tagline for the 2020 Census “Shape your Future Start Here ” It has been incorporated into our logo for the campaign and this will help ensure a consistent look and feel across all components of the advertising and promotional work we are doing Partnership is a critical part of our outreach campaign We are aggressively recruiting partners to be trusted voices in their communities and at a national level to help motivate people to respond We are hiring 1 501 Partnership Specialists at the local levels compared to 800 in 2010 and they will be establishing 300 000 partnerships at the local and regional level focusing on diverse racial ethnic religious and other communities In the states we have near full participation in our program to form state complete count committees which has been a major focus for the 2020 Census building on lessons learned about their effectiveness in 2010 We also got an earlier start on our National Partnership Program securing more than 180 national partners and allies to date Key organizations include the American Library Association Boys and Girls Clubs of America the Annie Casey Foundation the National Association of Latino Elected Officials the National Urban League and the National Chambers of Commerce Our integrated partnership team also includes a Census Open Innovation Labs team looking at the best ways to connect technology data government and local organizations to help communities reach a complete and accurate count Our advertising team is currently conducting 122 additional focus groups across the nation to finalize our advertising and messages for the robust advertising campaign We are finalizing the planning for our 6 media buys at the national and local level The same expert multicultural agencies designing advertisements and messaging to motivate hard to count populations to self-respond to the Census are assisting with the media buy for their audiences Everything about our communications campaign is rigorously researched and tested and relies on feedback from the hard-to-count populations and audiences we need to reach Reaching the Hard-to-Count Our comprehensive plans include specific efforts to reach hard-to-count populations Our entire communications effort focuses on motivating everyone—especially the hard-to-count—to respond to the census Our research underlying the communications efforts are stronger than ever For example the Census Barriers and Motivators Study CBAMS included a sample of 50 000 with a 39 percent response rate and 42 focus groups well beyond the scope of the 2010 research that only reached 4 000 respondents via telephone and included no focus groups According to our research people in hard-to-count communities may have questions about whether responding to the census will make a difference in their lives Also public knowledge about the scope and purpose of the census needs to be expanded Some people have concerns about data confidentiality and privacy Accordingly our advertising team is developing messaging to emphasize the safety of answering the census and the tangible benefits for local communities We will emphasize that we will not share responses with anyone including law enforcement Our message will connect participation in the census to support and resources for local communities and will educate the public on its purpose and process It is very important for everyone living in the United States of America to know that responding to the 2020 Census is SAFE EASY and IMPORTANT We have made a number of improvements since 2010 to address past experiences in undercounting children particularly children under the age of 5 Our outreach efforts will emphasize including young children Messaging about the importance of including all children living in a household will be woven throughout the communications campaign and the Census Bureau will partner with as many education and childcare-related organizations as possible to explore new opportunities to reach families teachers 7 and more The Statistics in Schools program will focus on improving statistical literacy and will inform students their families teachers and other members of the community about the 2020 Census Our sincere desire to reach hard to count populations goes far beyond what we say in our 2020 communications campaign It goes into how we actually conduct 2020 Census operations For example to ensure we count young children we will train our census takers to ask specific questions about children when conducting interviews They will ask households to make sure that all children are included and we will train them to cover foster children children living with grandparents and other living situations For rural and other hard-to-count areas we have plans for areas that do not have adequate broadband access Using data from the American Community Survey and the Federal Communications Commission we identify areas with low Internet access as well as households that are not likely to use the Internet like the elderly and we will include a paper questionnaire in our first mailing for these areas Every non-responding household will receive another paper questionnaire on the fourth mailing There is also a telephone option anyone can choose In areas lacking access to or demand for Internet services without well-established mailing addresses linked to locations PO boxes rural routes etc we will hand deliver questionnaires and make sure we know where to follow up if the households do not respond For American Indian and Alaska Native communities the Census Bureau conducted 17 tribal consultations with federal and state recognized tribal governments to discuss planning operations and communications for the 2020 Census Also we will hire locally to have enumerators who understand the community and we have tribal partnership specialists working with tribal nations to appoint tribal government liaisons and to form tribal complete count committees We also have specific operations to count persons experiencing homelessness We work with shelters soup kitchens and other organizations to count the people they serve and we send enumerators to outdoor areas where people may be staying 8 We have more language assistance than ever before People can respond on the Internet and over the phone in English and 12 non-English languages covering more than 99 percent of households and 87 percent of those with limited English proficiency This is an increase from the five languages offered for paper response in 2010 Language guides and additional support materials will be provided in 59 languages Bilingual Spanish-English paper questionnaires will be mailed to areas with large numbers of Spanish speaking households There will be advertising partnership and promotional materials in English and the 12 non-English languages at a minimum In areas affected by natural disasters the Census Bureau converts its enumeration operations to “Update Leave ” where Census Bureau employees deliver questionnaire packages by hand This enables residents to respond to the Census in any of our three modes—by Internet by phone or by mail We update address locations and information and for those who do not respond follow up to collect data in our Non-Response Operation The Update Leave operation will ensure a complete count in Puerto Rico as well as areas most affected by the fires in California and by Hurricane Michael in Florida If an area experiences a natural disaster between now and the 2020 Census we will adapt our plans to make sure those areas are completely and accurately counted In addition the 2020 Census has an entire operation called “Enumeration at Transitory Locations” to count individuals who do not have a usual home elsewhere and are living in transitory locations – hotels motels areas with FEMA trailers and so on Finally during our peak operations in 2020 we quickly will be able to allocate resources by tracking selfresponses in real time and identifying wherever self-response rates may be falling below targets Closing I’m also pleased to be testifying next to the Government Accountability Office We have been working closely with GAO throughout the decade and their contributions have been instrumental in our preparations for the 2020 Census I met recently with Comptroller General Eugene Dodaro and his key staff including those with us today to discuss our placement on the High Risk list which recognizes the scope complexity and importance of the 2020 Census We talked through the Census Bureau’s commitment to GAO’s five key components of a healthy program and the improvements we have made 9 in areas of vulnerability cited by GAO Lifecycle Cost Estimation Operational Innovation and Cyber Security Systems Readiness While there is still work to be done we have closed 73 of the 97 recommendations made by GAO throughout the decade and action plans are in place for all recommendations We appreciate the hard work that GAO continues to do to ensure a successful 2020 Census and believe that we have a strong and constructive relationship With all of this we could use your help in sharing the message across America that the 2020 Census is safe easy and important It is easy because for the first time you can self-respond online by phone or on paper through the mail These new options create new efficiencies relieve burdens and reassure people that assistance is but a phone call away It is safe because we are using latest and best technologies and practices to protect data confidentiality For the 2020 Census like all of our statistical programs we will follow the strict federal law protecting the personal information of respondents That is simply how we do business in the Census Bureau – no exceptions Success is a full accurate secure account of every person living in the United States This is essential because the count is used to apportion the House of Representatives to allocate hundreds of billions in federal state and local funding and to guide critical decisions by communities government at all levels the business community and many others Congress and this subcommittee are critical and valued partners to ensure we can accomplish the mission and I look forward to our continued work together Thank you and I will be happy to answer your questions 10