Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Census Bureau Director Testifies On 2020 Survey 20240714

Campaigns with social media and undercut risks. The Senate Homeland security and Governmental Affairs Committee Hearing is one hour and 45 minutes. I want to welcome our witnesses and im hoping the separation between the witnesses doesnt indicate anything here. I will enter the record and get right to the Ranking Member to the witness testimony. Thank you mr. Chairman. The 2,020t 2,020th and this wile as a roadmap for the next decade determining how billions of dollars of federal resources and congressional representation will be divided among the states and the results of this we all undoubtedly impact every community in america and every person must be counted. The account isnt just about understanding how many people live in our country, this is about ensuring that the Community Across america has access to the resources that they need to grow and succeed. These resources to combating the Opioid Crisis and other health emergencies. First responders and Disaster Relief agencies where they direct Emergency Response efforts. Local businesses also use the data to help decide where to invest in factories and stores and in my home state of michigan, 29 billion in annual federal name is on the line. For every person not counted, michigan stands to los lose as h as 1,800, funds that could be invested in Healthcare Infrastructure or public education. Thats why its important we get the mosthatwe get the most thord accurate count possible. Its taken the bureau ten years of careful planning and preparation to make the census successful, but there is still much more work to be done. The census begins in january of 2020 in remote alaska and then in march everywhere else. Between now and then, the bureau has to finalize its Communications Campaign and conduct Robust Community outreach and perform final testing for dozens of critical it systems. As outlined in the constitution, the purpose of the census is to count every person in the country, but given the chaos and confusion the administration has generated as a result of the effort to include in an tested the citizenship question, the bureau has significant work to do to restore public trust in the census and to ensure that the Response Rates do not decline as a result. We make sure everyone is able to respond to the census, though the new online forum in whatever way they get including people without internet access, people in minority communities and rural areas and those who live on reservations. From the fair representation to the effective use of taxpayer dollars they have a personal stake in the results of the 2020 census villacorta working with you to see that the count is accurate and costeffective and is scheduled. Thank you mr. Chairman and handed to eacandto each of the. If you could all stand to raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . The first witnesses the honorable steve billingha stevem formerly of the statistics and bureau transportation statistics. We are more ready than ever to conduct a complete and accurate account. We think the presiden thank thee attorney general and commerce secretary for developing the path forward to protecting the confidentiality. We also think the partners in every stage numbering in the thousands and send hundreds of thousands. I will highlight the road ahead and increased readiness. The census first count will begin in less than six months in the remote areas of alaska. Its one shared by the experienced professionals at the Census Bureau that we have in place a plan to conduct the census it is the alevel highperformance phase. Regarding the executive order, they are definitely reviewing it. First step means implementation and we develop upon the issuance such as planning the interagency working group. The message of the 2020 census is clear it is easy and important. Its easy to cause an improvement to the technology. People may complete the census anytime and anywhere. We have internet, phone and paper response options. The language can reach 99. 6 of the population. We will have th the enumeratorso follow up with those that are late in responding. This will be the first census ever where we expect most to submit their data electronically and efficiently. The census data remains secure, confidentiality protected. Stringent laws and penalties of imprisonment and supply. And please take a lifetime vote to protect confidentiality and the Census Bureau sets the highest standards and maintains a culture and practice of protecting the confidential data. It will not be shared with any agency or anyone. Its more important than ever as the Ranking Member just described the census data is needed for the redistricting is used for federal, state and local government for the policies and allocations for billions of dollars for programs and services reaching millions including the 29 million that you mentioned, Ranking Member. Its used daily by people making decisions that affect business, communities and quality of life. Some recent innovations include new technologies for enhancing, new options to reach the populations. More phone centers to provide a system, doubling up to work with the communities and new technology support. These and other innovations and time sensitive operations have increased our confidence that we will deliver a complete and accurate account on time and on budget. Its to reach across the community. I continued to visit across the country. They are in all states and ive seen the partners reaching people in the communities and better ways. We are making improvements by working with others ranging from pediatricians to the Public Schools and dedicated efforts including but not of a nation which is west virginia. We have plans to reach the homeless and others. Everyone, partner specialists from the community and we get integrated researchbased with messaging that resonates with the first committee. Cybersecurity is paramount. We have a well designed and tested Cyber Security program. Data is encrypted at every stage and we work closely with the department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Committee and Industry Experts to identify and respond to threats. We manage risks, assist with oversight and test for security, functionality and scalability. External oversight and accountability and support our valued. First the bureau is committed to assisting the kennedy and others in addressing matters of interest is concerned that are deeply appreciated. Second, we appreciate the work of the Accountability Office and the department of the Inspector General i discussed the 2020 census being on the highrisk list. We are committed to the program. Third, we appreciate the Financial Support we received on the bipartisan space from congress. Certainty is needed throughout the 2020 census. We appreciate the support and all forms. Recently they spread interest in working with us to promote safety. Commerce components expressed the desire to help as well as with other federal agencies including the department of health and human services. We thank the members of congress and others are assisting with the recruitment. It is easy, safe and important as we enter the highintensity press the goals are a we are on budget, systems are safe and secure. We are following the business practicebusinesspractices and te and in the right position doing the right thing. I am confident we are more ready than ever. The fines time is now, the dutys ours and work remains to be done but we remain on track. Thank you for your support, and i look forward to your questions. The next witnesses over from the u. S. Government Accountability Office and they will be sharing testimony, so we have mr. Robert director of Strategic Issues for the u. S. Government Accountability Office in his role he receives a portfolio of work aimed at improving the federal statistical system. The second witness is mr. Nicholas who serves as the director odirector of informatin technology and cybersecurity with gao. He manages audit teams that provide privacy and Data Protection reviews across all the major federal agencies. Chairman johnson, gao is pleased to be here today to discuss the Census Bureaus readiness for the 2020 headcount. As you know in recent years, weve identified a number of operational cybersecurity and other challenges that raised serious concerns about the bureaus ability to conduct a costeffective integration. In february, 2017, we added the 2020 census to the gao list of favorite Government Programs and it remains in the highrisk list today. My remarks this afternoon will focus on the two such challenges of implementing Design Innovations aimed at controlling costs and developing reliable cost estimates but better account for the risks and inform the budget estimates. My colleague will then discuss the challenges the bureau bases in implementing anbasisin implee critical it systems. The bottom line is as they grow short, the bureau has made important progress towards mitigating some of the risks facing the census and we are encouraged by the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau leadership commitment to carrying out a costeffective enumeration. Still, the bureau estimates the census may cost as much as 15. 6 billion, 3 billiondollar increase over the bureaus original estimate, and significant uncertainties lie ahead. For example, with respect to Design Innovations to help control costs while maintaining accuracy, the bureau will use new procedures and technologies for 2020 including use of automated Data Collection methods and administrative records and the place of Data Collected by the enumerators, verify and most addresses using aerial imagery and other in Office Procedures rather than by going door to door so that its done in the past enumerations. Anenumeration. And allowing households the options of responding the census of the internet. They also introduce new risks in part because they have not been used extensively if at all in the prior enumerations they function as planned however citing the budgetary uncertainties, the bureau scaleback operational tests in 2017 and 2018. Without significant testing across the range of geographic location, housing types, living arrangements and the demographic groups come operational problems can go undiscovered and the opportunity to refine procedures and systems could be lost. Another risk factor is that liability of the lifecycle cost estimate in august of 2018, we found although the bureau had taken steps to improve its cost estimation process compared to prior versions, it still needed to limit the system to track and report variances between actual and estimated cost of elements. The bureau released an updated version of the estimate last night and we plan to review it for any changes as well as the extent to which the bureau implemented the open recommendation. In short, while the bureau intod the department of commerce have taken important steps to keep preparations for ontrack, additional steps are needed. For example, as of june, 2019, we have made 160 recommendations with relation to the census. Commerce generally agreed with his recommendations and generally has taken actions to address many of them. The bureau has implemented 74 of the recommendations and 31 remain open. Going forward to help ensure the costeffective headcount in the months ahead, continued leadership attention and strong congressional oversight will be needed to help ensure the bureau continues to implement the recommendations and the key components of the systems work as required and that the operations stay on schedule and management functions follow leading the practices. This concludes my prepared remarks and i will now turn it over to my colleague who will discuss the risks facing the bureaus cyber efforts. Thank you for inviting us to discuss the efforts to prepare for the 2020 census. As robert mentioned the most recent report highlighted a number of it related challenges facing the bureau and these include the systems readiness and cybersecurity. The bottom line is that the challenges still remain today and we believe its important for the bureau to overcome them prior to the census. Starting with systems readiness, the bureau plans to rely heavily for the 2020 census including as it plans to produce over the course of the operations over the course of the operational deliveries the bureau has delivered the first group of systems to support early hiring and training and in the next few months we will see key testing and production deadlines for many additional systems. However, our ongoing work is determined at the bureau is at risk of not meeting the key milestones for the five upcoming operational deliveries. These include deliveries in support of internets response and innovation the bureau intends to rely on the nine systems have to have their Security Systems reassessed with the Development Work prior to the 2020 census and five systems are still awaiting that initial authorization. Id like to note that we have been encouraged to bureau is coordinating closely with the department of Homeland Security on cyber issues. Dhs has provided the assistance through the Cyber Threat Intelligence and information sharing and through conducting management and vulnerability assessments among other activities. All of these internal and external assessment efforts including recent evaluations performed by the Commerce Department office of the Inspector General are vital especially since the majority of the bureau systems that will support 2020 operations contain personally identifiable information. The end of the day however they will only be as valuable as the correct actions the bureau takes in response to them. We recently made two recommendations to the bureau calling for the management retention in this area. The first golfer t call for theo address the security to do list in a timely manner and second calls for the bureau to establish a more formal process for tracking and completing actions in response to the dhs assessments. If fully implemented the bureau will be better positioned to ensure that assessments will result in high priority improvements to the cybersecurity poster. In summary we are running short on time for the census operations begin. Moving forward will be critical for the bureau to devote enough attention and effort to completing the it System Development activities and implementing cybersecurity improvement in a timely and prioritized way. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I want to thank all the witnesses. Just real quickly, you sounded confident, which i like to hear, there are still issues and concerns. Would you like to start off by addressing some of the issues raised in the testimony . I think we do agree with the recommendations that they say we are making progress and at the same time, one of the things we are doing at the Census Bureau, your concern generally, representative, potential risk and we are engaged in the Risk Management in all sorts of ways with our it systems and cybersecurity and operations as well. So in general, what i would like to say is we are managing the risk. There are many parts to this operation and we have a great team in place implementing and managing the risk. There will be risks throughout the Census Bureau and there were also be risks in the Census Bureau continually. They are helpful because it reinforces the need for the Risk Management so in general, let me say that we agree that there are risks and we are managing those risks and making progress and we will continue to make progress. I would like to get a response out of the gao. In laying out these issues, you will never mitigate all the risks. You cant eliminate all of them or manage all of them. Are you fairly confident since the bureau is managing the risks we will be able to move forward and have an accurate census . What is your level of confidence . I think it is encouraging that the bureau has agreed with the recommendations that we have made and they have been focused on the process improvements. So, that is to say that we have acknowledged in the prior reports the establishment of a Risk Management framework of the bureau, some particularly with cybersecurity. We have seen the bureau takes any actions to assess highest risk areas and take action for them. The process improvements are aimed at recognizing the fact that there is limited time until census day, limited resources, so the importance of ensuring that the priority is placed on the highest most critical for the abilities and improvements that are needed. What concerned should the committee has about the success of the census in 2020 . Should we have a high level of confidence . Not saying that its going to be perfect, but are we facing any kind of disaster that you are concerned about . The testing into th and the s that they are taking to correct from the cybersecurity issues continue to monitor the census preparations and how the census is going live and look to see if it stays on schedule. All of these operations need to take place when they are supposed to. Because of the statutory deadlines there is no opportunity for the reset, due over. I think that if the Census Bureau gives the Response Rate, a decent Response Rate and that there is no cybersecurity incident or it shortfall, i think that this Census Bureau would be sufficient for the headcount. So its still a lot of work that needs to be done Going Forward on the census. One of the things that will drive the cost effectiveness will be the success of the soft response. In order to promote that, what is the Census Bureau doing and do you have th planned Promotion Campaign advertising on how much you will be spending . [inaudible] this is going to be the largest Outreach Campaign to Census Bureau has ever conducted about a half a Million Dollars outreach Media Campaign the message is consistent with what i summarized and particular stress to say its important we stress the safety factor, confidentiality is protect and u and we have a history of protecting and everything in place to protect the data. Its important that everyone realized the paper options still exist, but in addition to that, we now have the Internet Option and the telephone option and in 2018 actually most people responded by internet. I am not saying the same demographic exists everywhere, but that is the instance where we conduct the test without publicity, without media or outreach and 80 of the people responding. Thats one of the features the public needs to understand and take advantage of and also to make the discussion its important even though there are areas where the collectivity may be an issue of policy than telephone coverage. At the same time, these options allow us to go into the communities. They dont have to come to our office they can respond by phone and they can do it on the internet and see the important new developments that will make a world of difference. Its more cost effective, saves the taxpayer dollars and its far more efficient. The public has obviously gotten much more used to it. The online does represent the standpoint we have the capacity to handle it, and we saw that with healthcare. Gov to system wasnt set up to handle the response. So, do we have the capacity to deliver that as well as the trips to cybersecurity would be the portal to the public could certainly get into the Census Bureau. Do we have the firewalls within the portal as well. Yes, mr. Chairman, i believe so. I think the bureau is taking the right steps towards ensuring that they have the bandwidth that can handle the potential spike. They are taking efforts to secure the systems as well. Two quick points on this, theres a lot of work left to do and testing not only o on the specific systems to make sure that they worked together and also to have a backup plan so the Disaster Recovery plan as well. We are waiting to get more details on the plans with respect to. Thank you, senator peters. Thank you mr. Chairman. I just want to expand on the issue of hard to count and the fact we are relying so much on the internet initial become and i know you went through all of the steps that would be available in other options that would be available, but the question that may be more specific so i get a better sense of this because we have 800,000 people who are considered hard to count and many of them dont have access to the internet, certainly have broadband issues. How do you follow up with folks who dont have that access and when will you know they dont have access and how do you reach out in person and how do they know they need to do it by phone or mail it still seems to be very person intensive type of process and to identify who doesnt have access to the internet. Help me walk through the proce process. Let me give you the example weve met with the local leaders and others. Its not in any way that anyone would disagree with. Theres a lot of wonderful things. They lost a million possibly since 1950. That was over 1. 8 Million People. Its more than 140 square miles. Some of those neighborhoods what we did in detroit is with the committee and the partnerships that we have the went around on a sunday morning and went detroit is in about seven districts and the Census Community they have community sensors etc. We can take the technology into those areas and we are working with the partners in the day city of detroit for working together the Partnership Specialists we can go right into those communities. Ive seen the homes that are destroyed but we can reach them better than ever. I will mention one thing in the area that we doubled the number of specialists working directly with the communities to identify the needs and responds. The committee asked us if we received additional funding what would we do, what would be our priority. We developed a potential plan that is not in our budget. Its a 90. 5 million figure where we would take the recruiters and allow them to continue by going into the communities and increase the workforce by 5,000, so it helps when working with our partners we do take the technology into the count and we will also tailoring this to the ethnic groups and different groups etc. Reminding people. It is still a problem com, but e changing household structure, if children are living with relatives or others they sometimes dont put them down. We need to make sure we are counting all of the children of the Safety Foundation and others. We are working with all sorts of groups to make sure all people are accounted. The people who know those communities the best are the organizations that you mentioned, the churches in particular that are closely connected and a lot of ways they are the heart and soul of the communities and their assistance is going to be essential. I know youve been making Great Strides but it sounds as if that will continue to be a central focus of consensus Going Forward. The are still in the process and one of the things i want to mentiomention as we is we have e capability on the website all jurisdictions to monitor the soap response while the census is going on. So electronically, on the website we can see what the Response Rate is. The other issue that we have to deal with is trust or its not going to be accurate. Unfortunately Many Americans mistrust of government generally into the bureau must focus its Public Communications and outreach to build that kind of trust. They have a negative Public Perception of the census as one of the top risks. I think you talked about in your opening comments as well but at an increased cost as well and there are many folks would see the chaos and is adding to mistrust as well. My question to you is do you believe there is a significant Public Perception risk that the bureau must deal with and counteract and 2019 this year, what should they be doing . s been absolutely there is a Public Perception risk. We have all seen the public dialogue. Certainly not created an environment, but i think as importantly, the Census Bureaus study when they look at areas and attitude and motivators to participate in the census that is exactly what they came up with. They did a survey of around 50,000 people. They also conducted focus groups and some of the top three barriers relate to trust and that is what the Census Bureau needs to overcome so for example, there is concerns over data privacy and confidentiali confidentiality. The concerns fear repercussions if you participate in the census, something bad will happen to you. And then the third factor is distrust of all levels of government. So, even without the Current Issues going on in the world, theres still always been this layer of difficulty and a distrust of the government and so that if something went apart or ship specialists go out and hit the street when they Start Talking to constituents, i think that is one of the greatest functions they provide because they are the trusted voice in the community. And they can reach out to people in their community. We have seen in the past that they do a fantastic job of that. So, that is kind of going to be the challenge Going Forward. Given the recent instance you mentioned weve seen an increase of confusion related to some of the chaos. Should they be taking action now . At an elevated level because of what has happened . I think so, and i think one of the things that has us concerned is the rate of hiring in the Partnership Specialists. Their goal was to hire 1500 per or should specialists by the end of june. And theyve made offers to 813 have now come on board. I think it is 1510. With 782 are in the queue and the full complement of the partnerships will not come on board until as late as septemb september 1 so they are already behind the curve. And as you mentioned it is a very laborintensive operation when you think 15 or Partnership Specialists, it does sound like a lot but when you think of it in terms of the populations, they want to reach nationwide to the goal of 300,000 partnershi partnerships. If you think of the number of counties, it is roughly two Partnership Specialists per county. On top of that, they are also doing clerical as well. So, they definitely have their work cut out for them and they are already starting a little bit behind the curve. One of the things looking out for is the extent which they are hiring at that pace to get everybody on board quickly, get everybody up to speed, maintain those people and i would say if the money i money as they are cy having additional Partnership Specialists would certainly help the case. Thank you. I want to run through about 100 questions. I have several here let me get concise answers. Companies were the breakdown of what you anticipate your email connection or reminders, webbased reminders, phone calls, how will peopl people, ws your first estimate besides paper towel people will fill out the census forms . [inaudible] logging into a site. What do you estimate still [inaudible] its close to 7 . That is getting a number, punching it in. [inaudible] whether they get advice or they can get the information right there on the phone through the person that will record it for them. So on the phone or the computer logging into these templates saying this is my address and this is who i am filling out the form or going onto the phone calling somebody in. Exactly. When does it actually bailout to you . About 20 of the jurisdictions where there is little connectivitlowconnectivie form with the first mailing there is a total of five if we dont hear from you you will receive the five. The first would start in march. Every week you are going to get a mailing if we dont hear back from you. The fourth would be when you get the actual forms of theirs and encouragement you can do that on the internet or by phone. Online or on the phone then there is another reminder sometimes when they received a reminder that they will still do it and there is an overlap between that and what we call the nonresponse followup. Its the phrase we use in the agency, that there is sometimes when the first goes through the door at the nonresponse followup we would like to talk to you about the census they will go online. Let me ask this question i dont need an answer i just want to be able to draw this out there for years ive asked the question april 1, april 15 is also another large event that happens nationwide every single year not every ten years it would be nice if it was every ten, that every single april 15 is also a nationwide event. We have about 140 Million People that do a filing theres 127 million electronically but seems like a unique opportunity for the census and for the irs to cooperate together once every ten years. Its a pretty big catch to have by april 15 and then to go chase after that. Tell me why that wouldnt work. Senator, im not here to tell you why it wouldnt work that im here to fill you whether it will work and how it can work. That is the question of if wf we dont start setting that up now they are not going to get there. We spent how much of the census, what is your estimate . Connected as close to 15 million. The total lifecycle cost. My hope is that we can gather a significant number of people by combining their irs filing and census filing we can deal with a lot of personnel issues on that every ten years. I dont understand why we cannot do that. I would bring it to you to say we know right now the fire that is in front of you is next year but as you discuss and two after action reports, i would love for someone to get into the conversation could these be combined. Let me tell you this at this point the different permutations are ways that might be achieved and have yet to be explored and analyzed, but i have been informed that there have been some conversations with private tax preparer Services Already for example they could have the link at the end of the electronic form to the census and that would be maybe a starting point for the goal that you mentioned. There is a straightforward way to be able to do this. People are used to electronically filing on their taxes and then we could gather all the census information at the same time. Let me ask a question about hiring that was brought up and its actually one of my questions in the 2010, hiring temporary workers is much easier because the Unemployment Rate was so high in 2010. Our Unemployment Rate is historically low right now, some of the lowest in 50 years. We have millions more job openings than people to fill it. How is that going for you . So far we have been pleasantly surprised. One of the reasons we hire people on a temporary basis and so we are really not the 60 unemployment pool isnt perhaps even our primary tool i would have to study that, but we are getting very tight rac free t areas retired. They look forward to these jobs and in terms of the applicant pool, we actually have extended offers to more than 1000 or should specialists. Because so much is going to be done by web based and on the phone this next time which would help us with efficiency it also brings up the opportunity for phishing scams for people to put up fake sites and say this is the census and does h to seek as all of your information what are we doing at this level to help get information out to say this is official and this is not as if Somebody Just fishing for information. That would be one of the things that would be part of the Outreach Campaign and social Media Campaign and we are also working with the agencies so we are alerted whenever there is a fake website or fishing activity we get alerted if we take immediate action. Our it into cyber folks are working on that every day. Thank you. Welcome, to all of you and thank you for your hard work. In New Hampshire were recently reminded how every level of government has to prepare against Cyber Attacks in order to make sure the Government Operations remain calm. A few weeks ago the government experienced a cyber attack that took their systems offline. However, they had prepared for the cyber attack scenario ahead of time. They were able to implement the continuity of Operations Plan in this case by reverting to pen and paper allowing the government to continue its functions. While the government operates on a different scale to be sure in the 2020 census, this Event Highlights an important lesson on resiliency at all levels of government. So, because the Census Bureau done to improve the resiliency of the 2020 census . Does the Census Bureau have the continuity of Operations Plan, should the online questionnaire suffered a cyber tech . Senator, we do have a continuity of Operations Plan. The Cyber Attacks primarily mitigate any damage, soviet built in safeguards that parts of the system can immediately be closed down and any issues that we experienced can be contained so thats part of the mitigation strategy. We do not as yet have a plan that the entire system if it was to go down with specificity and we are looking at what these options might be, but we are very carefully working on it wont save the more realistic, but the more probable threats that can occur both in preventing and containing them when they do occur and we are following best practices working closely with the intelligence agencies, dhs and private sector as well and we have relationshipas we have relatione sector will help us to identify these threats when they might occur so we will be looking at the entire range and we do have the continuity of operations and area, but i would like to examine more carefully catastrophic scenario that you might see including two. I would like to follow up with that in the past is any questions arose about the data, there was a paper trail and obviously now with this online portal to Census Bureau needs other mechanisms for keeping the records so in the event of a cyber incident, is part of your plan to go back or i guess the question is how would you go back and validate the responses if you find the informatio infon collected onlinthatis collectedn potentially compromised . Some of the specifics i would like to get back to you with we have redundancies built into the system into his information stored for example on the cloud as well as at the facility could so, we do have redundancies built in but i would rather discuss those with you and your staff. I would look forward to that and discussing it with gao because i think again just having the planning in place and really thinking this through is going to be critically important. I want to move onto another topicon to anothertopic, we have of the hard to count populatio populations. Its obviously very important as we talk about the tunic short of the census is accessible to everyone. This is particularly important for individuals with experience disabilities idisabilities and e additional barriers to successfully complete a traditional census for him and o be counted or go online if you are not able to type it presents its own typpresented some type f challenges. In addition, because it doesnt ask about the discipline to become it is impossible to measure the people with that experience disabilities similar to the east that maybe other hard to count populations. Can you explain how the Census Bureau plans to address this particular concern including any targeted outreach to individuals that experience disabilities and how individual parcels responding may receive assistance to complete their census when the form is not accessible . We do a lot of that through our partnerships and we will be partnering with organizations that have this as a primary interest to reaching the populations and those with other forms of disabilities, we also to some extent our backup is the enumeration. When we do the enumeration come if they are not able to submit either electronically or by phone or paper and we come knocking on the door, they could be in a grea Group Facility for example or they could be in an individuals residence we will find a way to get those people to be able to answer the census. I would compare it to a rare language even though we are going to have assistance in many different languages, there are communities ive heard of where theres less than 200 people may be in this country that speaks that language and what we do is we reach out to the universities and we find that special talent that we need and we would do that with people that suffer from visual disabilities and other physical disabilities as well, and we do have mechanisms by which and the enumeration we can reach those hard to get groups to count and we would have ways of getting that special assistance to them. That is reassuring to hear and it will be important because i think nobody doubts the intentions here or the desire to reach those that need assistance. If you can be transparent about where your partnerships are in the there are a lot of people who in the Disability Community would be very willing to make sure that they are bolstering the partnerships so i look forward to further discussion about that. Let me clear fight we already have some of those per airships and we will be putting our partnerships on the website and make sure that the public is aware of that. Thank you so much. Let me ask the strategies related to counting in rural areas in particular portions of my state of missouri, super instant almost 550,000 people have considered hard to count thats almost 9 of my state. What happens in those areas where you not only have a population where they have nontraditional mailing addresses and so forth but also limited internet access, so for instance from 2013 to 2017 over 20 of the households either had no internet description were only a dialup subscription what is the strategy . We have a multifaceted strategy particularly in the hard to count areas. One is that we have already studied the nation in those areas that have limited connectivity. For 20 of the nation as i mentioned, we are going to mail out the questionnaire in the first instance to them but also one of the things in the time i didnt have to address talking about the Partnership Specialist fopartnershipsspecialist for thp specialists are our connection to the community. We envision more than 300,000 partnerships that can range from a local barbershop to the National Organization and we have the complete committees the last time i looked we had a 2500 complete account committees already. Every state has a complete count committee with the exception of two and we hope that they will come on board soon but there are local governments, and they have the populations of the local governments have many complete account committees. The Partnership Specialists are our connector to the complete account committees, to the various groups of other nonprofits, the service organizations, but for us across the country, and i must confess to you we could not conduct the census without the assistance of the people helping us. What we want to do is have that Multiplier Effect through the partnership and in addition to that we have the outreach Media Campaign and some listen to the radio more than they watch tv and Different Things like that so we have to be able to do that and provide the media that reaches them best and then assuming we have a Multiplier Effect either with partners specialist assistants were using for Community Groups he can take the technology to them. I went to one jurisdiction in new mexico, very workable area and the senator from new mexico went with me. That was an extreme example of a hard to count area and thats why we went there and we determined to get Self Reporting the only mechanisms we saw at the time of the local Grocery Store and service station as well as the church. This was a community that didnt want people coming in and there were all sorts of barriers to people coming in. They didnt trust the government so when we solve that we were working with our Partnership Specialists and we need efforts at the Grocery Store and efforts with the local churches. That is an extreme example. Im not sure that that is in misery that there are hard to reach areas and we will work with local officials and groups to make sure that we reach them. That is helpful. Let me ask about the natural nal disasters and the accuracy of the counting when you have flooding and tornadoes that displaced people sometimes for long periods of time. Both natural disasters take my state and particularly had a devastating effect and we have lots of people who are displaced in the state. How do you tackle that and account for the displacement . That can pose a lot of challenges and we are working on that. Presently we are working on that with puerto rico and other residents in puerto rico. We are doing that in mexico city, the Northern Area in florida where a hurricane had a devastating impact. And we are giving it in california where the fires had burned out some of the housing areas totally. We work with the communities. There are areas there sometimes with the local jurisdictions we are working particularly with florida right now they came to my office, the delegation wantinpublicationwanting to seee moved out. We would like to have them counted where they were. That poses a problem for us. But what we do is we work with them. They come back at census time and they are living there and they are established. We can count on them but at the same time we are also informed for example that working crews are coming there for two or three years to help pull back the area. Its whoever is living in the jurisdiction so we will find out what is best and we look forward to your state and other states to plan. In my Opening Statement i referred to the ongoing cooperation and oversights that we have been conducting with the Census Bureau and government Accountability Office. Over the course of the last couple of years with that communication collaboration, my confidence has certainly grown that we have some disaster on our hands and this is pretty well handed. One of the things i would like the gao and mr. Billingha Steven Dillingham this isnt the first rodeo. They are not reinventing the community partnerships. This has been in place decade after decade and just went back to these tried and true methods as well as using and trying to implement technology, this would improve dramatically since 2010 when lets face it, that didnt work very well. So, i do want to obviously have the Committee Hearing pointing out the difficulties so that we remain diligent and stay on top of things, but i also think that its important to communicate to the public that we do have things in a manageable situation and i dont think anybody should be panicking. I will ask him a wrong in his assessment . I think we would agree with that. They have a very strong management team. As yo he said this is not the ft rodeo. Its the second, third, may the fourth in some cases. Cases. A lot of experience going into the census. There will be some glitches. It happens all the time. Having all the experienc that en the management team, they will be able to address it quickly and that is what has happened in the past. And i think this is something that doctor Steven Dillingham mentioned in his Opening Statement. How they work with the oversight organizations and this is actually my third census. I started this in 2000. I think the tone is much different. It starts to change on the 2010 census and we are seeing that continue into the 2,020th in this. Much greater willingness to work with oversight folks and actually we put the gao Census Bureau on the highrisk list. They are embracing being on the highrisk list. Its a cry for help and we need the resources. They are working with us. We share our best practices and a range of different areas from cost estimation for scheduling to the it management. Doctor Steven Dillingham met with the head of our organization. We meet with him on a monthly basis to share information with adversaries really on the same side here in favor of a good census. So i would agree with you 100 . You go back to 2010. I wasnt around, but the stories that you hear of the implementation of technology we spend 3 billion is a total disaster but kind of thinking that we were talking about cell phones and blackberries. Both in terms of the devices, technology, the software as well as the public ability to use. Does anybody want to kind of come. Contrast that or is anybod orden a position to do so . The important point as you know better than anyone, they had cybersecurity on the highrisk list since 1997. I dont think that is going anywhere anytime soon. The risks of continued to grow. In many ways innovation and the bureau has pursued over the last decaddecade are consensualdecady to in short the accurate count and to get a good Response Rates so we are encouraged by the efforts. Self response portal and other things. What are the most significant cyber risk . I think on the internet they are creating any of the risk. I would say based on dhs assessments, the bureau internal assessments, those done by recommendations we make, i believe the bureau has a good sense of what those risks are. Where we have felt like better attention needs to be made by management is ensuring they prioritized the rest. Some can be very specific break a system that needs a patch will have to be patched. Others will be longerterm. Some adjustments need to be made within the program and they identify a new Security Risk exists. That will take more time. But from my perspective i think that focus of ensuring that it knows what the parties are, communicate not only to the leadership i think thats essential. What do you think is the greatest cyber risk or risks you are dealing with 2020 surface . I am not sure what the greatest risk is but i want to endorse the comment just me and the need for us to evaluate and prioritize the risk. This is a day in age where you dont know, i must confess watching Television Last night and that experts on tv discussing the ongoing cyber war between nations. There are certain things that may be unpredictable and that is one of the reasons that we always identify the risk, prioritize and risk registries strongly endorsing. So we can continue to evaluate. As we get indicators of what the risk may be from the Intelligence Agency or others we can act on it quickly. You have a priority list and will you remain flexible to emerging risks . That is correct. We have an overall risk registry of 29 major risk categories but we have when you get down to the numbers, we scan for 100,000 risks every month. In the last year there are different types of risks. But in the last year icing figures where we have responded to approximately 150,000 risks. Many of those are it risks that can be quickly resolved, some others we have a process and we call it planning and a plan of action that we put together and establish the milestone. They look at the milestones and remind us of not meeting them, but were doing that ourselves as well. We are always managing the risks with the best information, the most knowledge and the most expertise and i think some of the best new tools ever. And the testimony they were talking about the Computer System for hiring process. We spoke over the phone about where you are in terms of hiring the people in your quite optimistic about that. You want to talk about Computer System and in general about where the bureau is in terms of hiring customer. Sure, one of the evaluations that we have this type, people can apply online and were advertising and we ask you and others to advertise that back. Go to our website, 2020 senses backslash. Gov. I am pleased to tell you when i looked at the figures this morning we had 600,000 people that have applied for jobs. We are in the process of hiring 60000 of those to be blisters or canvassers. That is a monumental timesaver, cost saver way of doing business. However 600,000 applied online customer. That is correct. Hiring is operating 600,000 applications. Out of that youre only going to hire a tenth of that . It is not all 600 for that series of jobs. Im told maybe 400,000 or half were. We had about five or six potential applicants for each job. When we get to the enumeration and were close to half a Million People we would like to have 2. 5 Million People in the database and we are hoping we will keep that in the the fall when its time to engage the next hiring peak. Theres your staff have that website . If i was not under the lights i would remember. 2020census. Gov jobs. Everything going on to the Census Bureau overall website. You mention one other thing starting the line of questioning about the importance of the experience in the depth and the partnerships in the teams deep consensus. An email this morning, there was two people i was commending for working on the seventh census. Some of our senior staff have multiple censuses and many have four. When we hire the people, the Partnership Specialist, and i go to columbus South Carolina in the Partnership Specialist has purchased their own beautiful red blazers and brought in with 2020 census and ready to go to work again. It is very encouraging and very motivational and when they cook the cakes with the 2020 census. These people look forward every ten years to coming back in working on this. Are we hiring second graders seven decades ago. Its a little bit deceiving. You can subtract ten years, there are couple was six years. Commend them for us. Thank them for their service. Lets talk about promoting online with Self Reporting. I think that is huge. In Self Reporting to the mailer as well. Exactly what is a census game plan there in terms of advertising and messages. The overall message for the Campaign Issue per future, start here. That will be connected with the link to the 2020 senses where you can apply by internet and is a reminder throughout the campaign to help shape your future and start here. Many instances you can link directly in the home the link in the advertisement and others it may be on the air in which they would repeat the website to go to. There is going to be tremendous, we have again one of the Largest Campaign contractors in this area and we have subcontractors for all the populations at least large groups of them. And we think people will go directly to that. One city i was doing, they were putting in wifi in the buses in the city was saying we could put advertising in the buses and people can enter the senses on the way to work. Let me make a suggestion. Help the government save money, selfreport. Absolutely. That would resonate with me. Absolutely. That is a hidden message and maybe should be more visible. I like very overt messages even when it comes to saving the government money. I approve that message. Ass every now and then people say thank you very much for being here. And thank you for the good work you and your colleagues are always doing. As well as the census folks. This brings back like deja vu ten years ago when we were with other folks sitting at the table. We go through these and ask a lot of questions. And please to hear that progress has been made in appearing to be made on technology. In more better and accurate results for less money and itll be much appreciated. Not every day in every week but people say what keeps me up every night. , what keeps you up at night, and what are the couple things we can do here in the congress to make sure you get a better night sleep . Thank you so much, i know what a great supporter you are. We very much appreciate that, we have had some conversation with regard to security and other things and we appreciate your interest in that. The thing that keeps me up at night is making sure all the pieces are in place and we stay on schedule, ontime and on budget. That is the overall Business Plan in a neck excellent plan over a decade and that is really all pieces of it that keep us up at night. As far support in congress, i want to think the congress for the demonstrated support both financial and otherwise. One of the things and we pointed out during this hearing we have to communicate this message to a much wider group, congress is wellpositioned to do that. We have to deliver for example, toolkit to every member of congress on how they might work with their partners and others to get the job done. We have seen members of congress and braces, we have seen healthy competition. I know for example the mayor in milwaukee was telling us when we were there that he had a friendly back with the mayor of minneapolis print to see who could get the highest self Response Rate. We had members of congress say we published a partnership with and they say i have all these partners i am working with and i may be head of the census caucus but a look at my neighboring congresswoman and friend in that list is shorter. So im going to nudge them and say we need a competition. You need to catch up with me. What ever the mechanisms are, spreading the word and the message that it is safe and easy and important and i think or wellpositioned and we have a definite path forward and i think getting the message out, some people would speculate that even the attention that may be considered attention of disagreements on the senses could in fact come beneficial because people know now that the senses is very important. They will engage in helping us reach everyone. Thank you. We will be looking for the toolkit i understand earlier this week, i understand that within dhs department of Homeland Security, cis have a partner. They partnered with the Census Bureau to prioritize the cybersecurity of the 2020 census. One of the tools the dhs has helped manage agency is the department of einstein system. I mentioned this to you, einstein one cabling first. One basically says Security Guard car has gone through or vehicle has gone through. Einstein to set a car of interest has gone through. Einstein theory says a carpenters has gone through and stop that car. But like you say, can you give us an overview of how the einstein system starting with einstein one, and kim jongnam, einstein theory has been implemented and collected by bureau if at all. I love your analogy on how that works. Einstein one, two and three. And einstein has been mentioned publicly but what i would like to do is have my team come and speak with you and your staff. We visited dhs offices and we made sure everyone had the proper clearances so im not quite sure what the boundaries of the discussion might be. Its a sensitive topic and id be glad to talk about. Maybe when i come they can bring another toolkit will have someonsome to gift to someone e. One of the major goals that my staff and i hope to achieve with this hearing is having both the senses to help us identify those milestones or benchmarks if you will. That we the congress at this moment need to monitor so we need to know whether reese the senses remains on track for the 2020 count. And what are some of the benchmarks . Give us an example of a couple. Will know whether the senses remains on track for the 2020 count. We will certainly keep you updated. We will at any time. We will Tax Information to you. We are pleased to say we are on track and we want to remain on track. What are some of the benchmarks and milestones we ought to be mindful. With respect with the challenges that we highlighted previously on the system readiness site, the next six months are pretty critical, we have 16 operational deliveries, nine are going to have critical milestones themselves from an it perspective. About 12 of those will be in the midst of testing. There is still a lot of work to ensure not only the systems have been developed but scalable to perform to work as intended. On the cybersecurity side we still maintain recommendation and encouraged of implementation recommendation that helps to formalize the good feedback that theyre getting from dhs. I reviewed all the reports the dhs produced and i think its a good recommendation and we would like to see how the bureau intends to address the recommendations had on work to have other activities that may compensate for areas where dhs had finding. One more if i can. One of the concerns i had is ensuring senses numerators are properly identified. In that the public can trace the public showing up at the house is the Census Bureau employee. What can i do to trust and identify that someone bringing unusual is who they say they are. We totally agree with you on that. I met with the international chief of police and we have plans and process. One of the options we are looking at is every Police Department across the nation has a roll call in the morning and we are thinking of videos that we can share with local police and remind their officers. I had a police chief, a police chief as i recall in the state of georgia who specifically mentioned that we went to hard to count area, high crime, and he said we need to know exactly your credentials, what they look like so we can make sure. We discussed this with the office of Inspector General. She agreed, we have the mind joint letter coming from the ig as well as a Census Bureau as we go after Law Enforcement and the topic. Text for baby. I think it might have been a brainstorm for johnson johnson. We use in delaware to try to make sure parents are bringing the children for doctor appointments. A lot of the folks signed up on medicaid, we have a lot of absentees and people equipment and ochoa. We have done for years is text for baby, and we have the phone number of the parent and they get text messages. Saying one week from today is appointment for your child, three days, tomorrow. It actually works. I would like to say find out what works, tomorrow that pretext for baby works in this regard and it might be one more idea, one virtual in your toolbox that you want to take about. Technology is a wonderful thing. I appreciate you pointing out the security issue of strangers walking up and knocking on the doors and making sure the American Public understands that this is a census worker. And with the controversy that has been strong in this particular census. I am worried that if particular senators will come back and ask questions. I would like to give the director of little chance to layout basics and those of us involved kind of understand. But lets layout basics. Starting with the laws in place to protect this information. This is not used for other than purposes of what the tent of the senses is. I want you to cover that first pre title 13 when Congress Passed those provisions back in the 1950s it made it a very serious federal crime, five years in prison and a quarter of a Million Dollars and find anyone who violates confidentiality. So the law in itself has a lot of befitted. Anofficials have been convictedf such a crime. Senses goals to enumerate the count everyone in the country. Citizen and noncitizen. Talk about the purpose. How we choose, what it could be used for. The data we collected is very simple. It is in title 13 as well in the recent executive order by the president recognizes it and puts it straightforward and front center. The uses are for statistical purposes. There is no Law Enforcement purpose whatsoever that this data can be used for. At the end of the day the Census Bureau produces aggregate statistics and we produce aggregate numbers. That is a product. So we collect data and data comes in we analyze it and a number comes out. This number is not a personally identifiable information data, number. It is group aggregate statistics and we are embarked and we mentioned to members of congress and some additional protection that looking toward the future with enhanced computer capabilities and the matching of data with public and privat prie data set with large Computer Systems, we are putting in place an additional safeguard so that will not be an option for people in the future prayed. The numbers are used to portion and again, a reform to inform congress in terms of Public Policy but very specifically use the Law Enforcement. Were talking about no form of one person, not local, not stay in not federal. Again, reinforce the point. That is correct. Again at the end of the day, public numbers, whatever numbers go out, the entire country can use for internationally they can use the data in it will be aggregate data that you cannot violates of his confidentiality and other personal data from the indigo is out and we dont have any other information sharing arrangement or understanding into the public can look at the data and use it for policymaking, decisionmaking but it is not used for Law Enforcement or any other purpose of that type. I think that is important point to reinforce. To make the same point, have you ever seen in your inspections of the census department, have you ever seen this information that is being used. The Census Bureau goes to great links to maintain the privacy and confidential under confidentiality of information. It extends it has access to other agencies and information but other agencies cannot access the information. There is a lot of other safeguards as well. And its meant that every person that works on the census, gao and others take an oath not to disclose the data. That is a lifelong oath as well. We undergo training every single year end if i dont take the training the bureau is quick to say that you havent take this training. Even in terms of where the Census Bureau locates its area since his office it goes to Great Lengths not to put them in buildings where other Law Enforcement agencies, to show the distance between the Census Bureau and other agencies. Finally once a data is released theres a whole smorgasbord of things that the Census Bureau takes craig that the data does not get disclosed. If you get down to low levels of geography and might, you can look at some of the biggest houses on the block and the circumstances. You might be able to trace that back. But the Census Bureau does go through and add noises to the database. So its not possible to find information on the household. We are really impressed. To summarize, the law is clear, the law is strong in the culture within the Census Bureau reinforces the law and this is a oneway street information comes in and no information is released and not used by Law Enforcement for whatsoever. It uses are for the title 15. It is a cultural thing too. Again we want to provide that because we want a full accounting. Thank you so much mr. Chairman. Indian country is a special place. The treatment of his personal for me. The Navajo Nation in arizona has property rate of 30 which is more than twice as high as the rest of the savers are. In the Household Income on the nation is only 27389 per year. Some members of the nation are guaranteed by treaty that a benefits healthcare and education. Arizona has more Bureau Education schools than any other state. They have an Elementary School thats been under federal government control since 2002 and only 20 of students going to graduate high school. That is compared to 72 of American Institute nationwide. In 2018, the school only had one permanent teacher and one special education teacher. For all nine grades. I know personally the positive impact that a good education can have on someones life. This information makes this undercount of American Indians in the native population even more worrisome. As they depend on an accurate count to receive the funding they are owed for education. In 2010 this population suffered a 4. 88 according to the gao. In 2016 it was announced there would be to Indian Country in preparation for the census. These test were to measure proposed travel enrollment questions and according from census material to test the integration of systems and operations were census visit household up to the list and addresses and count the people at the address. The operation will occurs in areas where there is a low likelihood. These test were canceled. The question of banded due to budgetary uncertainty. What were the impacts of instituting the update of indian countries without previous taxi. If i can, ill start generally, you are exactly correct the Navajo Nation is very hard to come population. I went to a portion of the Navajo Nation in new mexico and i know it stretches across to rezone all the way to the grand canyon and as i mentioned in my Opening Statement is the size of west virginia. I have seen and i written through areas along with the Vice President of the Navajo Nation who i could not have been more impressed with his dedication and motivation making sure everyone is counted. We actually went down some of the dirt roads and some of the rural areas where theres no plumbing, sometimes no electricity. And sometimes not accessible by vehicle. Ive seen and i went to home were only the navajo language was spoken. They were building beside the home other structures for other members of the family that needed to be counted. We need to make sure that everyone is counted once they reached the home. I did hear from the individual that not only are they having problems with Internet Connectivity but they said they had to go stand on top of the doghouse with their cell phone to get coverage in the area. I have seen these challenges and we have talked with the officials particularly in the chapter of the Navajo Nation that was nearest west of albuquerque. And i will say, it was a broadband provider that had the cable on the nearby land and in that particular instance it appeared that they would have their facilities connected in time for the census. Which it would be a mammoth improvement is whether courts and all functions were. Back to the 2016 task that was canceled. That predates me by several years, however, i understand for budgetary reasons they were. But i would not, my understanding of those tasks, they were multifaceted. One was in fact with the populations that they were looking at there was other issues with regard to enrollment into the tribal population and i know there was some native american organizations and maybe tribes that was not an interest area of theirs in others it was. In addition it was testing the operation and my understanding was by a large reaching them in a very tough geographic location. And sometimes, members of the tribe especially for the enrollment purpose, they may live in albuquerque during the week and go back and forth with her relatives so they were being counted outside the reservation. That was a concern also. But i will say, we have tested our system and our systems were working and we have learned even though we did not test in those jurisdictions, it still leaves the issue on reaching them. What we are doing with their Partnership Program as we are hiring people from the tribe that can reach them or work with them in one instance, it was the one that i visited we had an it person from the tribe who was assisting the tribe with these options. In some cases, it may be that if they cannot establish connectivity with a telephone or through the internet with the computer then we help they will mail back the forms and will provide the language assistance. Even if that does not happen we sent the enumerators out. That is no simple task. Ive heard stories about that. One of the numerators walks 5 miles through the desert when her car broke down. I want to commend these enumerators but say its a mammoth job to reach some of these populations. I supervise with you, i am not sure of any disadvantage as a result of the particular test being canceled at the time. But we will work with you and make sure that in your state we do Everything Possible to our Partnership Programs, outreach programs as well and the mailing options and in those instances as i mentioned earlier, we send out the questionnaire and the very first mailing if they have low Internet Connectivity in the area. We will do everything we can and we want to work with you and your local officials, state officials, tribal officials, to make sure everyone is counted. Thank you for the answer. This is important as you mentioned the Navajo Nation. Many residents lacking address. So its especially difficult for the census to identify the households. Of course as you alluded to the nonresponse followup is incredibly important in these remote areas. I will take your word and ask that we work closely together as we head into the census and as you noted it is the largest nation in all the indian countries. Unfortunately it is had barely been no census corporation and returned in the past years. It is important to us. They discussed unusual respondent behavior and fears of how the government may use the information that is collected. One document that i reviewed showed they requested Additional Support to help overcome some of this mistrust in communities and particularly communities of color in years out of. How is assessors bureau addressing the issues by field staff in the area of concern around us. In requesting additional staffing. What are you doing to ensure that American Indians in the alaska natives are reached carefully and that their concerns around mistrust of the government use of information is delayed before the census occurs . Again, thats an excellent question. You reference our focus groups and it sounded like the research you are referring to was a product of the focus group activities. We have had more than 120 focus groups across the country including with native americans. Those have been very important. The direct intent of those groups are for purposes of our Media Campaign, how best can we reach him and in some instances like new mexico we find radio versus tv. If they have a vehicle typically have a radio. Sometimes they rely on the radio. Thats the best mechanism. The Outreach Campaign will have that but will have special material, its integrated with the Partnership Specialist. We will hire specialist from the communities and tribes and also the distribution of our material will be extremely important. I know when i was in the navajo country, we went to the Health Centers and they recognized the importance of the facility when people come for Health Services that also can be a place where they can be informed about the census and we would have the capability of sharing the census information, either by phone, internet or by the hard copy. That we could set up a census through Partnership Specialist. There are many different race we will try to reach the hard to count community but we look forward to working with you and probably the most important one i would say in many ways is the trust of voices. Both in the media and partnership in the complete count committees, i do think i do know there are complete count committees and i will discover what particular one in the Navajo Nation, may have several. But to the mechanisms we have tested voices. And when the Authority Figures in the trust of voices in those communities expressed their support for the census as well as the important and easiness to respond. I think we will achieve a lot of progress. Thank you. Thank you. Senator rosen. I appreciate you bringing this hearing. Thank you for the witnesses to be here today. I want to continue on on the language assistance before i go into some other areas. Last week i joined some of my colleagues and sending a letter requesting that the Census Bureau provide additional Language Options for the internet self response and census questionnaire. Including the support services would enter immigrant communities like cambodia, vietnam, including the Large Community in Southern Nevada can actively participate in the census and be counted. As we know in these letters sometimes these communities face challenges because of refugee experiences. Intergenerational poverty, and tremotrauma of the vietnam war. I am wondering if you had a chance to review the letter and the plan that offers assistance and self response in these languages . I am aware of a series of letters that touch on this topic. I will certainly get back to you very soon with regard to your letter. We have 59 languages that we provide assistance to. We go through the Customer Service phone centers. We have english plus 12 additional languages which would not encompass the one that you mention. Then we have a list, we go through the languages prayed the percentage population we are able to reach with these in which assistant is 99. 6 . That is still not enough. We have the a numerators that will be knocking on the doors but we would appreciate Self Reporting ahead of time. In those areas and the language you mentioned i am assuming a beat in an urban area or las vegas or whatever. We are Partnership Specialist there that will identify the need and they will link up with a local university or whoever can assist in the effort. In terms of actually changing, it is probably unlikely at this point that we can actually change our systematic way of reaching them. But we can find a way. Thank you. I want to move on to the it and cyber staffing. Today they released a report detailing the action there to take to address the key risks for a successful census. Under the category of cybersecurity. It is noted at the end of may and 2019 the bureau had over 330 corrective actions from the security assessment that need to be addressed. Out of the 330, 217 were considered highrisk or very high risk. Of the 217, 104 recommendations were delayed. Due to technical challenges or resource constraints. I want to ask a little bit about resource constraints. Was it a financial issue or manpower issue, number one. I follow questions. With regard to the specific 330. I mentioned in my Opening Statement that Risk Management is the way we do business and we have a continuing list of those risks and right now in order to address this, do you need financial or duty manpower help . And with the manpower, i have one important question. I would say actually, neither of the two are the driving force. Because we continuously and we will have 300 or perhaps more risks, they change every day. Risks come off and risks go on. The person has to correct. There has to be some manpower weve had this discussion internally. We will never be at 0. I understand you are never at 0. But in order to be determined, these highrisk we have a timeline of when we have to start and when we have to end. So understanding we will never be a 0 and always making corrective action, i wrote Computer Software for a living. I get it. My point is, the tasks that need to be done as far as manpower, are they consecutive tasks or concurrent task, is during more people the issue, is that the matter of trying to test it concurrently, how can we help you be sure that you meet and correct the high issues with the resources that you need, there is a very specific begin and end date. It is not an ongoing thing that we always have and maintain every Software System in the world. We have resolved 150,000 risks. The 300, which of all varieties we continuously work on. You feel confident you need no more resources . We have a good team in place, we could always use a few more but i cannot say that the process and having those risks are necessary the product of that. We have talents and we do have openings and some of the it areas that would always we are working to fill those now but i cannot say its a direct product of a current budget need so it is not because of a lack of funding its attracting the talent in getting the right people in the right place doing the right things and we are working them so we can always do better, we can work harder but we are working the risk. Will determine for this and theres things to do, as we prepare not just for census that happens every ten years, but for things that happen every year, the resources, the manpower, having that in place, understanding the needs and how we can help position people to be in that place is really important. That is why i was asking. I agree with you. We are making progress. We want to make more progress into a pastor. I tell you, if there was a direct resource need, i would identify it to you. But i cannot say i attribute that at this time that its a resource need that is causing this risk. Its really what we call a Risk Appetite, the language used by tao. You have to assess the risk each and every day as an individual or as an organization or as a program. For example, if i get on a motorcycle, i have to decide to i want my apparel and helmet on, others may not but i require that. Its a Risk Appetite and we do want to make sure we lower the risks, we are working to lower those in if we identify this as a result of lack of resources we will work with the committee. Please let us know. Its very important that we get it right. Thank you, senator. Before i turn over for final questions. I want to acknowledge a group of young men who just joined in the hearing room. These are 33 candidates to become greenbrae. Theyre looking as clean as a going to look in the next 30 days, tomorrow they start an intense field exercise after lb awarded the greenbrae. I apologize those and i hope youll stick around after the hearing to enter a couple questions. These gentlemen are the best of the best and the finest among us. I cannot thank you enough for your service. Well talk to after the hearing. Senator peters. Thank you, mr. Chairman and i want to wish my best as well to the future greenbrae. We wish you all the best, the greenbraes have an agreeable history of service to our country and we are confident you will continue to carry on the tradition in the years ahead in your service. Godspeed to each and everyone of you. A question for you, many folks including census experts but other folks are concerned there is bad actors who will attempt to discourage people from dissipating in the census and likely lucy information campaigns but after social media and other outlets. We have obviously seen misinformation campaigns and a variety of contexts around the world. It is reasonable to expect that we will likely see in this round particular given the fact that trust is an important aspect of census collection. My question to you, what are you doing to combat disinformation campaigns that will be used and to mislead the public and specifically are you working with platforms like facebook and twitter anticipation of this. What can we expect out of the Census Bureau . It is an excellent topic in question. We are working with a group and some other groups. We are working with the private sector as well. We do have collaborative relationships in place where they will share information with us as we need it and also working with the intelligence agencies and particularly dhs. With a group devoted to this topic and they are doing both, planning for prevention as well as response to these types of activities and i do think regretfully we are in the age where as you accurately point out, this is a potential vulnerability and a threat. We are planning for, we are thinking of ways to help prevent it. And we are working with the best people with the most knowledge in the public and private sector on that. Even on those sectors it is something that they constantly work on and are worried about and we are making plans in coronation with them to respond to it to mitigate it if it should occur. I appreciate that. I like to have a further discussion. I be glad to. To look into details. This is an issue we are working on the Homeland Security committee. The book chairman and i serve on the Armed Services committee and these are issues we have to address. I look forward to working with your staff and getting a better sense of how you plan to handle. As these things materialize reactions that you are engaged in would be very helpful to monitor. Senator peters, i want to take your witnesses. Thank you for your testimony. And taking the time, thank you for your professionalism. I leave this hearing feeling a lot better about the census. There may not be risks but they are being pretty wellmanaged and thought about and thats a first step in managing risk is understanding and try to mitigate. With that it will be 15 days until july 31 for this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] today marks 50 years since astronaut Neil Armstrong and buzz aldrin began their historic flight to the moon. Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space center carried supplies, scientific equipment and tools for collecting samples on the lunar surface. All week we are covering event related to the 50th anniversary of apollo 11. 2020 democratic president ial candidate Amy Klobuchar spoke at the National Press club about what her priorities would be in her first 100 days as president. Good morning again everybody and welcome to the national prescott. I am still allison fitzgerald. I am a respondent at npr news. We have a Great Program this money. We invite you to follow along on twitter at press club d. C. With the mpc