Decennial Census: Additional Information for Hearing Record on the Initial Results of the Census Dress Rehearsal

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO responded to requests for additional information on the 2000 Census following the testimony GAO presented before the Senate Committee on Governmenal Affairs on July 30, 1998, focusing on: (1) whether the Bureau of the Census is on track for achieving a 67 percent mail response rate; (2) the success of the Bureau's outreach program, the Bureau's expectations of its Complete Count Committees (CCC), and the lessons learned during its dress rehearsal; (3) whether the Bureau should extend its data collection efforts for nonresponse followup (NRFU) beyond six weeks; (4) the Bureau's efforts to hire and promote more community outreach specialists; (5) whether the Bureau should raise its budget to provide more staff support and printed materials to its CCCs; and (6) whether the established approach towards census taking has exhausted its potential for counting the population cost-effectively.