Aug 17 -- The Census Bureau invites comments by October 16, 2023 regarding the proposed data collection for the Household Pulse Survey under the High-Frequency Surveys Program.
The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment on the proposed data collection for the Household Pulse Survey under the High-Frequency Surveys Program, prior to the submission of the information collection request (ICR) to OMB for approval. The Household Pulse Survey was launched on April 23, 2020 with approval from the Office of Management and Budget to continue data collection through October 31, 2023 (OMB No. 0607–1013). The Department of Commerce has decided to continue the Household Pulse Survey after October 31, 2023.
The High-Frequency Surveys Program was established as a natural progression from the creation of the Household Pulse Survey. High-frequency surveys are designed to develop and deploy data collection instruments quickly and for data to be released in near real-time. The Census Bureau developed the Household Pulse Survey as an experimental endeavor in cooperation with five other federal agencies. The survey was designed to produce near real-time data in a time of urgent and acute need to inform federal and state action. Changes in the measures over time provided insight into individuals' experiences on social and economic dimensions during the period of the Covid–19 pandemic. It has evolved to include content on other emergent social and economic issues facing households. This survey, conducted under the auspices of the Census Bureau's Experimental Data Series (
https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products.html), is designed to supplement the federal statistical system's traditional benchmark data products with a new data source that provides relevant and timely information based on a high-quality sample frame, data integration, and cooperative expertise.
To date, question domains contributed by the Census Bureau (Census), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB); the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) and Food and Nutrition Service (FNS); the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS); the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA/MCHB); the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES); the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS); the Department of Defense (DOD); the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD); the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA); the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) and Domestic Policy Council (DPC); the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB); the Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (HHS/ASPE); and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have sought to measure employment status, spending, food security, housing, health, natural disasters, vaccine receipt, COVID–19 diagnosis and treatment, shortage of critical products, disability, income, and childcare arrangements.
In the future, the HPS platform will be used to measure social and economic effects of current events, whether they be health events, natural disaster events, or other social or economic events facing the nation or a significant portion of the nation.
The Census Bureau will conduct this information collection online using Qualtrics as the data collection platform. Qualtrics provides the necessary agility to deploy the Household Pulse Survey quickly and securely. It operates in the Gov Cloud, is FedRAMP authorized at the moderate level, and has an Authority to Operate from the Census Bureau to collect personally identifiable and Title-protected data.
The Census Bureau will sample approximately 1,100,000 housing units for each period of data collection. If approved, the survey will be administered starting on or around November 15, 2023. Households will be contacted via email and SMS message (with the possibility of mailed invitations) and asked to complete approximately 50 questions on topics such as employment status, spending, food security, housing, health, natural disasters, vaccine receipt, COVID–19 diagnosis and treatment, shortage of critical products, disability, income, and childcare arrangements. The time for survey participants to complete the survey is approximately 20 minutes. As methods develop and questionnaire topics change, the Census Bureau will notify the public via Federal Register notices.
Survey estimates will be produced by weighting the results to various demographic controls from auxiliary sources like the Census Bureau official population estimates and the American Community Survey. Source and accuracy documentation will provide details about the methods and quality of the survey estimates for each data collection cycle.
Household Pulse Survey:
https://www.census.gov/householdpulsedata
The Census Bureau indicates that the draft data collection instruments and technical documentation are "currently going through the review process internally at Census and not yet ready to be shared externally." AEAStat asked Census "Can you say what changes, if any, Census plans to note in this ICR relative to the one about to end?"
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-17681