Transcripts For CSPAN3 U.S. Census Bureau Director Testifies On 2020 Survey 20240714

It has taken the bureau ten years of careful planning and preparation to make this 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 and between now and then the bureau has to finalize its communications campaign, conduct Robust Community outreach, finish hiring trusted local staff and perform final testing for dozens of critical i. T. Systems. As outlined in our constitution, the purpose of the census is to count every person in the country, but given the chaos and the confusion and the administration has generated as a result to include an untested 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 need to make sure that everyone is able to respond to the census though the new online form or in whatever way they can including people without good internet access. People in minority communities and in rural areas and those who live on reservations from fair representation in congress to the effective use of taxpayer dollars, each and every american has a personal stake in the results of the 2020 census. I look forward to working with you to make sure the count is accurate and that it is Cost Effective and is on schedule. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you to each of our witnesses. It is the tradition of the committee so if you would stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony youll give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing, but the truth so help you god . Please be seated. Our first witness is the honorable steve dillingham. Mr. Dillingham currently serves as director of the u. S. Census bureau and previously he was with the bureau of statistics and bureau of transportation statistics. Mr. Dillingham . And the 2020 census. We appreciate your continuing interest and your strong support. The census clock is ticking and we are more ready than ever to conduct a complete and accurate count. We thank the president and the attorney general barr and commerce secretary ross for developing the path forward for enhancing the nations data and protecting confidentiality and we also thank our 2020 census partner numbering in the thousands and soon to be hundreds of thousands and i will highlight the road ahead and our increased readiness. The census first count will begin in six months in remote areas of alaska. The nationwide count commences in just nine months, march 2020. It is my opinion, one shared by professionals at the Census Bureau, that we have in place a plan to conduct the census accompanied by the plan to execute it and we now enter the alevel highperformance execution phase. Regarding the president s executive order we are carefully reviewing it. First steps include implementation and we began that upon issuance such as planning an interagency working group. And we will update the secretary and this committee on our progress. The message of the 2020 census is clear. It is easy, safe and important. It is easy because of improvements in new technologies and people may complete the census any time anywhere, we have internet, phone and paper selfresponse options. Our language assistance can reach 99. 6 of the population. We will have trained enumerators to follow up with those who are late in responding. This will be the first census ever where we expect most people to submit their data electronically and efficiently. The census is safe. Census dat da data remains secure and stringent laws with criminal penalties of of imprisonment. Employees take a lifetime oath to protect confidentiality and the census takes the highest standards of protecting confidential data. It will not be shared with any agency or anyone. The census is more important than ever as the Ranking Member just described, census data is needed for aportionment and redistricting. It is used for federal, state and local governments to develop policies and allocate billions of dollars for programs and services reaching millions including the 29 billion that you mentioned in your statement, Ranking Member. It is used daily by people in making decisions that affect business, communities and quality of life. Some recent innovations include new technologies for enhancing address canvassing and hard to count populations, a doubling of Partnership Specialists to work with communities and new technologies to support censustaking processes. These and other nguyen investigations and timetested operations have increased our confidence that we will deliver a complete and accurate count on time and on budget. Our priority is to reach hard to count communities. I continue to visit hard to count communities across the country. They exist in all states. I have seen local partners reaching people in those communities in better ways. Counting children has been a perennial challenge. We are making improvements by working with others ranging from pediatricians to the public schools. We have dedicated efforts to reach American Indian and alaska native communities including the Navajo Nation roughly the size of west virginia. We have plans to reach the homeless and others. Everyone must be counted and Partnership Specialists from local communities with different backgrounds help this process and we also have an integrated Research Base and Outreach Campaign that resonate with diverse communities. Cybersecurity is paramount. We have a welldesigned and tested cybersecurity program. Data is encrypted at every stage. We work closely with the department of Homeland Security and the Intelligence Community and Industry Experts to identify and respond to threats. We manage risk, assist with oversight and test systems for security, functionality and scalability. External oversight and accountability and support are valued. First, the bureau is committed to assisting this committee and others in congress and addressing matters of interest or concern, oversight is deeply appreciated. Second, we appreciate the work of the Government Accountability office and the departments Inspector General in our preparations. I discussed the 2020 sense us of being gao high risk with the comptroller general. I discussed the 2020 census of being gao high risk with the comptroller general. The designation is appropriate in light of the scope, complexity and importance of the nations. We are committed to they from except program and the office of Inspector General to discuss issues, concerns and to see advice. Third, we appreciate the Financial Support that we received from congress. We appreciate your support from all sources. Recently the i. G. Expressed her interest in working with us to promote the safety of personnel. Commerce components have expressed a desire to work as well as have other agencies including the department of health and Human Services and the peace corps. We thank members of congress and others who are assisting with our hiring recruitment and who serve as trusted voices. The 2020 census is clear. It is easy, safe and important. As we enter the highintensity sprint, goals are being met. We are on budget, our systems are safe and secure. We are following best Business Practices and have the right people in the right positions doing the right things. I am confident that we are more ready than ever. Canvassing begins next month. The time is now, the duty is ours and while much work remains to be done we remain on track to achieve and accurate count. Thank you for your support and i look forward to your questions. Country women or citizens of we thank the president and the attorney general barr and commerce secretary ross for developing the path forward for enhancing the nations data and protecting confidentiality and we also thank our 2020 census partner numbering in the thousands and soon to be hundreds of thousands and i will highlight the road ahead and our increased readiness. Chairman johnson gao is pleased to be here today to discuss the census for the 2020 head count. As you know, in recent years, we have identified a number of operational, i. T. , cybersecurity and other challenges that raise serious concerns about the bureaus ability to conduct a Cost Effective enumeration. In february 2017 we added the 2020 census to gaos list of highrisk Government Programs and it remains in our highrisk list today. My remarks this afternoon will focus two such challenges and implementing Design Innovations aimed at controlling costs and developing reliable cost estimates that better account for risks and inform annual budget estimates. My colleague, nick marinos will then discuss the challenges the bureau faces in implementing and securing critical i. T. Systems. The bottom line is that as a countdown to census day grows short, the bureau has made progress towards mitigating some of the risks facing the census and we are encouraged by the Commerce Department and the Census Bureaus leadership commitment by the Cost Effective enumeration. Still, the census may cost as much as 15. 6 billion, a 3 billion increase over the bureaus original estimate and significant uncertainties lie ahead. For example, with respect to the Design Innovations, to help control costs while maintaining accuracy, the bureau will use new procedures and technology for 2020 including greater use of automated Data Collection methods, administrative records in terms of Data Collected by enumerators and verifying aerial imagery and other procedures rather than by going door to door as done in past numerations and allowing households the option of responding via the internet. These innovations show promise for controlling costs and they also introduce new risks in part because theyve not been used extensively, if at all, in prior enumerations. As a result, testing is essential to ensure that key i. T. Systems and operations will function as planned. However, citing budgetary uncertainty, the bureau scaled back operational tests in 2017 and 2018. Without significant testing across a range of geographic locations, housing types, living arrangements and demographic groups, operational problems can go undiscovered and the opportunity to refine procedures and systems can be lost. Another risk factor is the reliability of the bureaus 2020 life cycle cost estimate. In august 2018 we found that although the bureau had taken steps to improve its cost estimation process compared to prior versions, it still needed to implement a system to track and report variances between actual and estimated cost elements. The bureau released an updated version of the cost estimate last night. We plan to review it for any changes as well as the extent to which the bureau implemented our open recommendations. In short, while the bureau and department of commerce have taken important steps to keep preparations on track, additional steps are needed. For example, as of june 2019, weve made 106 recommendations related to the 2020 census. Commerce has generally agreed with these recommendations and has generally taken actions to address many of them. The bureau has implemented 74 of the recommendations and 31 remain open. Going forward, to help ensure a Cost Effective head count, in the months ahead, continued leadership any strong oversight is needed to be sure that the bureau continued to implement our recommendations, that key components and systems work as required, that the operations stay on schedule and management functions follow leading practices. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn it over to my colleague nick marinos who will discuss the risks facing the i. T. Cyber and cyber efforts. Mr. Marinos . Thank you for inviting gao to discuss the bureaus efforts to prepare for the 2020 census. As robert mentioned our most recent highrisk report highlighted a number of i. T. Related challenges facing the bureau. These included i. T. Systems readiness and cybersecurity. The bottom line is that these challenges still remain today and we believe its important for the bureau to overcome them prior to the 2020 census. Starting with systems readiness, the bureau plans to rely heavily on i. T. For the 2020 census including the 52 systems it plans to produce over the course of multiple stages of census operations. And many of these systems will be deployed multiple times in order to add needed functionality over the course of 16 operational deliveries. The bureau has delivered the first group of systems to support early hiring of training and in the next few months well see key testing and production deadlines for many additional systems. However, our ongoing work has determined that the bureau is at risk of not meeting key i. T. Milestones for five upcoming operational deliveries. These include deliveries of internet selfresponse, something the bureau relies on for a significant portion of the census and recruiting and hiring for peak operations which includes hiring hundreds of thousands of temporary employees to assist in counting the population. The bureau needs to closely monitor the schedule risks in order to ensure that theyre all delivered on time. Regarding cybersecurity, the bureau is working hard to assess security controls and gain the proper sign off to ensure that each system is ready for operations. Although a large majority of the 52 systems have received at least an initial authorization to operate, significant work remains. According to the bureau, nine systems will have to have their security controls reassessed to account for Additional Development work prior to the 2020 census and five systems are still awaiting that initial authorization. Id like to note that weve been encouraged that the bureau is coordinate closely with the department of home land security on cyber issues. Dhs has provided this assistance through Cyber Threat Intelligence and information sharing and through conducting incident management and vulnerability assessments among other activities. All of these internal and external assessment efforts including recent evaluation performed by the Commerce Departments office of the Inspector General are vital especially since the majority of the systems that will support 2020 operations contain personally identifiable information. At the end of the day, however, they will only be as valuable as the corrective actions the bureau takes in response to them. We recently made two recommendations to the bureau calling for management attention in this area. The first call for the bureau to address the security to do list in a timelier manner and to establish a more formal process for tracking and completing actions in response to dhs assessments. The bureau reported that it is working to implement the recommendations. If fully implemented, the bureau will be better positioned to ensure that the assessments will have improvements to the cybersecurity posture. In summary, we are running short on time before key census operations begin. Moving forward, it will be critical for the bureau to devote enough attention and effort to completing i. T. System Development Activities and implementing cybersecurity improvements in a timely and prioritized way. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I want to thank all of the witnesses. Mr. Dillingham, just real quickly, you sounded pretty confident which i like to hear. There are still issues and concerns. Would you start off by just addressing some of the issues raised by gao in the testimony . I think we do agree and we agree with the recommendations and they say were making progress, and the faster we make progress the better. At the same time, one of the things that were doing at the Census Bureau, your concerns generally represent potential risks and were engaged in Risk Management at the bureau and all sort of ways with our i. T. Systems and with our cybersecurity and with our operations, as well. So in general what i would like to say we are managing the risks. This is a mammoth operation. There are many parts to this operation and we have a great team in place and were making a lot of progress in managing our risks. There will be risks throughout the census the 2020 census and there will be risks in the Census Bureau continuing. As a matter of fact, i think the guidance from gao is very helpful because it really reinforces the need for Risk Management. So in general, let me say that we agree that there are risks and we are managing those risks and were making progress and we will continue to make progress. Id like to just get a response out of gao. Youre obviously laying out these issues. Youre never going to mitigate all risks. Are you fairly confident that we will be able to move forward and have an accurate census . Whats your level of confidence . I think its encouraging that the bureau has agreed with the recommendations weve made. Our recommendations have been focused on process improvements. We have acknowledged the establishment of a Risk Management. In particular, with respect to Cyber Security, weve seen the bureau take many actions to assess what are the highest risk areas and take actions for them. Our process improvements are really aimed at recognizing the fact that theres limited time until census day, limited resources. So the importance of really ensuring that priority is placed on the highest and most critical vulnerabilities and improvements that are needed. What level of concern should this committee have about the success of the census in 2020 . Not saying its going to be perfect. Are we facing any kind of disasters youre concerned about . I always say trust but verify and look for some key indicators out there. I think as nick said its look for the testing and the actions they are taking to correct some of the i. T. And Cyber Security issues, continue to monitor the census preparations and how the census is going live, look to see if the census stays on schedule. All these key operations need to take place when theyre supposed to. Because of immutable statutory deadlines theres no opportunity for resets, doofs. I think if the Census Bureau gets a decent Response Rate and that theres no Cyber Security incident or i. T. Shortfall, i think the Census Bureau will be positioned for a Cost Effective head count. I dont think were looking at disaster but theres still a lot of work to be done Going Forward. One of the things that will drive Cost Effectiveness will be the success of the online selfresponse. In order to promote that, what is the Census Bureau doing . Do you have a planned Promotion Campaign . We have all of the above and more. This is going to be the largest out Reach Campaign the Census Bureau has ever conducted, about a outreach. Media campaign. That will be television. It will be radio. It will be print. It will be social need, et cetera. And the messages were presenting are consistent with what i had just summarized as easy, safe and important. And were going to particularly stress the safe. I think its very important that we stress the safety factor that your data is protected. Confidentiality is protected. We have a history of protection. We got the laws rg everything in place, to protect the data. But at the same time, using the new options we have, its very important that everyone realize the paper option still exists. But in addition to that, we now have the Internet Option and the telephone option. And in the 2018 endtoend test, actually most people responded by internet. Im not saying that that same demographic exists everywhere, but that was an instance where we conducted the test without publicity, without media. And without outreach. And we got over 50 of the people responding on the internet. So thats one of the i think one of the features that the public needs to understand and take advantage of. It also may get into the discussion of reaching the hard to count. Its very important with the hard to count even though there are rural areas and tribal areas where connectivity may be an issue, or definitely an issue, as well as even telephone coverage at times. At the same time, these options allow us to take the technology to go into those communities and reach the hard to count. They dont have to come to our area office to get assistance. They can get it by phone. They can respond by phone. And yes, they can do it on the internet. These are two important new developments that i think will make a world of difference. Its more Cost Effective. It saves the taxpayer dollars. And its far more efficient. The internet has progressed a lot since the last census. The public has obviously gotten much more used to it. To me, the online does represent the risk from a standpoint do we have the capacity to handle it . At least we saw that with the healthcare. Gov. The system just simply wasnt set up to handle the initial response. So thats all i ask gao, do we have the capacity, are you confident about that . As well as in terms of Cyber Security. That will be the portal that the public can certainly get into the Census Bureau. Do we have the firewalls within that portal as well . Yes, mr. Chairman, i believe so. Think the bureau is taking the right steps toward ensuring that they have the bandwidth that can handle a potential spike in a number of respondents that may come through on the internet. Theyre taking efforts to secure their systems as well. Two quick points on this are going if be though, theres a lot of work still left to do. A lot of testing not only on specific systems but to make sure that those systems work well together. Then also to have a backup plan. A Disaster Recovery plan as well. Were waiting to get more details from the bureau on plans with respect to that. Thank you. Senator peters. Hey, mr. Chairman, i just want to expand on the issue of hard to count and the fact that were relying so much on the internet initially. I know you went through all of the steps that will be available. The other options that will be available. But the question is, maybe be more specific so i get a better sense of this, because in michigan we have 800,000 people who are considered hard to count. Many of them dont have access to the internet. Certainly not broadband issues. How do you follow up with folks who dont have that access, but when will you know they dont have access, how do you then reach out in person . How are they going to know theyre going to need to do it by phone or by mail . It still seems to be a very personintensive type of process and you have to identify who doesnt have access to the internet. How are you actually doing that . Help me, walk through the process as to how were going to ensure this, please. Senator, let me give you the example of detroit. Yeah. Weve been to detroit. We met with the local leaders, some members of congress and others. Im using detroit, i dont mean it in any way that may be that anyone would disagree with in detroit. Theres a lot of wonderful things going on with revitalization. Absolutely. However, detroit has lost a million population since 1950. Each decennial census their population has gone down. They were at over 1. 8 Million People and are now at just over 800,000. Its a very large geographical area of more than 140 square miles. So some of those neighborhoods are the hardtocount neighborhoods. Right. So what we did in detroit is with the complete count committees and the partnerships that we have in detroit, i went out to view those hard to count and we rode around on a sunday morning and we went to the civic centers, and detroit has divided its city into about seven districts and theyre reinvigorating a sense of community. They have community centers, et cetera. They have the churches are still very vibrant even though the populations have dropped. We can take the technologies into thaez arose areas. Were working with the partners in the stcity of detroit. Working together, our Partnership Specialists and these support groups and partners which are many in detroit, we can go right into those hardtocount communities. Ive seen the boarded up houses. Ive seen the homes that were destroyed. We know theres homeless populations there. We can reach them better than ever. Now, i will mention one thing. In this area. That we are double the number of Partnership Specialists who we see working directly with those communities can identify these needs and respond. The Appropriations Committee asked us if we received additional funding, what would we do . What would be our priority . Especially in rendering additional assistance. And we developed a potential plan that is not in our budget. Its a 90. 5 million figure to it where we would take our recruiters, our temporary employees, and we would allow them to continue by helping our Partnership Specialists and going into those communities and that would increase the workforce by 5,000. So its not the federal presence that makes the difference but the federal presence helps. So when working with our partners in those jurisdictions, we do take the technology to the hard to count and we also will be in our commercials tailoring it to the hardtocount groups, to ethnic groups, to different age groups, et cetera, and reminding people, please, always count your children. Counting of children, im amazed, it has been a problem since 1850. It is still a problem. Were not sure of all the dynam dynamics, but the changing household structure in our modern life and other things, people if children are living with relatives or others, they sometimes dont put them down. We need to make sure we count all the children. Were partnering with the foundation and others. Pediatricians. Were working with all sorts of groups to make sure that all people are counted. Well, im pleased to hear your Partnership Approach because thats absolutely critical. The people who know those communities the best are a number of the organizations that you mentioned. The churches, in particular, that are closely connected and a lot of ways are the heart and soul of those communities. Those assistance is going to be essential. I know youve been making Great Strides in detroit and other urban areas. That sounds as if it will continue to be a focus of the census Going Forward. Yes. We are still in the process. One of the things i want to mention is we have the capability on our website so the public and all jurisdictions across the country can monitor their selfresponse while the census is going on so we can target those hardtocount areas. Electronical electronically, its on our website. You can find the tracks and see what the Response Rate is on a daily basis. Great. Great. The other issue we have to deal with is trust, obviously in the census, or its not going to be accurate. Unfortunately, Many Americans mistrust government just generally, and the bureau must focus its Public Communications and outreach to build that kind of trust. Mr. Goldenkoff, the bureau and the gao have identified negative Public Perception of the census as one of the top risks. I think youve talked about that in some of your opening comments as well. That could increase cost as well. There are many folks that think some of the chaos weve been seeing lately regarding questions on the census is adding to the 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 in 2019, this year . And what should they be doing . Absolutely. Theres definitely a Public Perception risk. Weve all seen the public dialogue of late. You know, certainly, its not created an environment. I think more, as importantly, its the Census Bureaus own study when they looked at barriers and attitudes and motivators to participate in the census. Thats exactly what they came up with. They did a survey of around 50,000 people. They also conducted focus groups. Some of the top three barriers relate to trust and thats what needs to what the Census Bureau needs to overcome. So, for example, theres concerns over data privacy and confidentiality. There are concerns, fear of repercussi repercussions, that if you participate in the census, something bad will happen to you. And then the third factor is distrust of all levels of government. And so even without the Current Issues going on in the world, still, there has always has been this layer of difficulty and distrust of the government. Thats something, when the Partnership Specialists go out and we hit the street, when they Start Talking to constituents, thats i think one of the greatest functions that they provide because they are the trusted voice in the community. And they can reach out to people in their community. And weve seen in past censuses that they do a fantastic job of that. And so thats kind of going to be the challenge Going Forward. Given the recent incidents, you mentioned weve seen increase of confusion related to some of the chaos weve seen. Should they be taking action now . I think the Census Bureau is doing that. At an elevated level because of whats happening. I think so. I think one of the things that has us concerned is the hiring, rate of hiring of the Partnership Specialists. Their goal was to hire 1,500 Partnership Specialists by, i believe, lthe end of june, and theyve made hiring offers to 813 now have come on board out of that. I think its 1,510 is the precise number. 782 are in the queue. The full complement of specialists wont come on board until as late as september 1st. Theyre already behind the curve. As you mentioned this is a laborintensive operation. 1,500 specialists does sound like a lot. If you think of the number of counties there are in the country, its roughly two Partnership Specialists per county. On top of that, theyre also doing clerical chores, too, as well. So they definitely have their work cut out for them and theyre already starting a little bit behind the curve. One of the things well be looking at Going Forward is the extent to which theyre able to hire at that pace, get everybody onboard quickly, get up to speed, retain those people and i would say, you know, if the money is there, certainly having additional Partnership Specialists would certainly help the case. Thank you. Dr. Dillingham, im going to run through about 100 questions with you, so were going to hustle through several here. Let me get some concise answers. Talk me through the breakdown of what you anticipate your email connections or reminders, webbased reminders, phone calls, how will people whats your first estimate, besides paper, of how people will actually fill out their census forms . Senator, filling out is really the experience we have would be the rhode island experience where a little over 50 replied by internet. This is webbased, them logging into a site . I cant say that im just saying, what do you estimate . Still logging into a site, is it an app that theyre downloading . It could be that financially, we dont really have a good estimate. The telephone usage there was much lower than we might think. Close to 7 by telephone. And then and thats getting a number, punching it in and saying, talking to someone, or its all punching if theyre punching in, filling in the forms by their smartphone, we call that internet, and if the phone assistance center, thats another proposition where they can get advice for filling it out on the internet or they can give the information trite there on the phone to the person who will record it for them. Let me review. On your phone or computer, actually logging into a certain place saying this is my address, this is who i am, filling out the form or going on the phone, actually calling in and talking someone through. Exactly. Okay. If that doesnt work, youre actually getting a physical form. When is a form physically mailed to you . For about 20 of the jurisdictions where there is low connectivity, we will send the form out with the first mailing. Theres a total of five mailings. If we dont hear from you, youre going to receive five first mailing starts when . The first mailing would start in march. And they would they really exact days, but every week, youre going to get a mailing. If we dont hear back from you. And the fourth mailing usually would be when you get the actual form, so there is an encouragement. You can go do it on the internet or by phone. Go online or go on the phone, do it, do it, do it, if you havent by the fourth time, youre going to get a form and say, can you fill this out and send it back in . Thats correct. After that, someone physically then theres another reminder. Sometimes when they receive their reminder, they will still do it and theres an overlap between that and what we call the nonresponse followup. Nrfu is the phraseology we use within a great one. The agency. But theres sometimes, too, when the person first goes to the door in the nonresponse followup and puts a notice on the door, hey, wed like to talk to you about the census, they will get online. Fill it out. And they will let me ask this question. I dont need an answer for it. I want to drop this out for you and gao. For you i asked the question, april president 1the 1st is cen us. April the 15th is another event that happens nationwide, every single year. It would be nice if it was every ten. Its every single april 15th. Theres a nationwide event. We have about 140 Million People that do a filing with the irs. 127 million of those were electronically. Round numbers. Around 140 million file it. 127 million electronically. That seems like a unique opportunity for census and for irs to cooperate together once every ten years to see if the census information couldnt be added to their irs form and to get a very large group, 127 million households is a pretty big catch, to have by april the 15th, and then to go chase after that. Tell me why that wouldnt work. Senator, im not here to tell you why it wouldnt work, but i would tell you were here to explore whether it will work and how it could work. Obviously, theres a 2030 question. If we dont start setting that up now, were not going to get there. We spent how much on the census this year . Whats your estimate . Its close to 15 billion for the total lifecycle cost. My hope is if we can gather a significant number of week by combining their irs filing and their census filing, we can do with a lot of personnel issues on that every ten years. I dont understand why we couldnt do that. I only bring that to you, i know right now the fire thats in front of you is next year. Yes, sir. But as you discuss and do afteraction reports, id love for someone to get into the conversation, could those two be combined . Senator, let me tell you this at this point. The different permutations or ways that might be achieved are yet to be explored or analyzed. But i have been informed that there have been some conversations with private Taxpayer Services already, for example, that they could have the link at the end of the electronic form to the census. Right. And that would be maybe a starting point for getting to the goal that you mentioned. Right. Theres a pretty straightforward way to be able to do this. Again, theres a tremendous number of people that are used to electronically filing on their taxes and we could gather all that census information the same time. Let me ask your information about hiring. Brought up by gao. 2010 hiring temporary workers for the census was much easier because our 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 we have people to fill it. Hows that going for you . Just hiring and finding temporary workers. Senator, so far, weve been pleasantly surprised. One of the reason is we hire people on a temporary basis. And so were really not the unemployment pool is not our perhaps, not even our primary pool. I would have to study that. Were getting retirees. Were getting people that already work time. Were getting uber drivers and different people that work parttime jobs and look forward to these jobs. In terms of the complicaapplica actually, we have extended offers to more than 1,600 Partnership Specialists. Right. So were waiting to see how soon to get the rest of the information. Let me ask you one more question. Sure. Because so much is going to be done by wreebbased and on t phone this next time, good, that will help us tremendously with efficiency, it also opens up opportunity for phishing scams. For people to put up fake sites and say this is the census site, email out to their blast list, do robo calls out to individuals, say give us all your information, were the census. What are we doing on the census level to help get information to people out to say this is official and this is not . This is Somebody Just phishing for your information. Certainly. That will be one of the things that will be part of our Outreach Campaign. Part of our seeshl maocial medi campaign. Also working with the agencies to address that. So were alerted whenever theres a fake website or a phishing activity. Were alerted and take immediate action. Our i. T. And our cyber folks are working on that every day. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Senator hassan. Thank you. Welcome to all of you and thank you so much for your hard work. Dr. Dillingham, in New Hampshire we were recently reminded of how every level of government has to prepare against Cyber Attacks in order to make sure the Government Operations remain constant. Just a few weeks ago the straford county government experienced a cyber attack that took their systems offline. However, the Stratford County government prepared for a cyber attack scenario ahead of time. They were able to implement a continuity of Operations Plan in this case by reverting to pen and paper. Allowing the government to continue its essential functions. While this New Hampshire countylevel government operates on a different stalcale, to be sure, than the 2020 census, this Event Highlights an important lesson on resiliency at all levels of government. So, dr. Dillingham, what has the sewn suss bureau done to improve the resiliency of the 20 20 census . Does the Census Bureau have a continuity of Operations Plan should the online questionnaire suffer a cyber attack . Senator, we do have a continuity of Operations Plan. The Cyber Attacks primarily our planning is to mitigate any damage. So we have builtin safeguards that the systems, parts of our system can immediately be closed down. Okay. And any issues that we experience can be contained. So thats part of our mitigation strategy. We do not, as yet, have a plan that the entire system, if it was to go down, with specificity, and were looking at what these dramatic options might be. But we are very carefully working on the i wont say the more realistic but the more probable threats that can occur in both preventing them and containing them when they do occur. And were following the best practices and working closely with the intelligence agencies, dhs, and the private sector as well. We have relationships with them so even the private sector will help us to identify these threats when they might occur. So we will be looking at the entire range. We do have a continuity of operations scenario, but i would like to examine more carefully the catastrophic scenario that you might be alluding to. Well then and id like to follow up with that and with gao on that. Just, in the past, if any questions arose about the integrity of census data, there was a paper trail of all census reports. Yeah. And, obviously, now with this online portal and systems, the Census Bureau needs other mechanisms for keeping these records. So in the event of a cyber incident, is part of your plan to go back i guess the question is how would you go back and validate census responses if you find that the information you collected online has been potentially compromised . Senator, some specifics id like get back to you with. But we do have redundancies built into our system and we do have information stored, for example, on the cloud as well as at a facility. So we do have redundancies built in but id rather discuss those maybe 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 real thinking this through is going to be critically important. Toipt mo i want to move on to one other topic. We have talked about some the hardtocount population. Its obviously very important as we talk about that to make sure that the census is accessible to everyone. This is particularly important for individuals who experience disabilities, who may face additional barriers to successfully complete a traditional census form and be counted or go online. If youre not able to type, that presents its own kind of challenges. In addition, because the census does not ask about disability, its impossible to measure an undercount of people who experience disabilities, similar to undercounts that may be calculated for other hardtocount populations. So, doctor, can you explain how the Census Bureau plans to address this particular concern including any targeted outreach to individuals who experience disabilities, and how individuals who are selfresponding may receive assistance to complete their census form when that form is not accessible . Senator, we do a lot of that through our partnerships and we will be partnering with organizations that have as a primary interest and as a side interest reaching the populations, the disabled and those with other forms of disabilities. We also to some extent, our backup is the enumeration. Now, when we do the enumeration, if theyre not able to submit either electronically or by phone or by paper, and we come knocking on the doors, they could be in a group facility, for example. Right. Or they could be an individuals residence. We will find a way to get those people to be able to answer the census. Id compare it to a very rare language. Even though were going to have assistance in many different languages, there are communities that ive heard of where theres less than 200 people maybe in this country that speak that language. What we do is reach out to the community, to the universities. We find the special talent that we need. We would do that with people who suffer from visual disabilities and other physical disabilities as well and reach out. We do have mechanisms by which in the enumeration we can reach those very hard groups to count and we have ways of getting the special assistance to them. Well, that is reassuring to hear, and i think what will be important because i think no one doubts the census intentions here or desire to reach all these communities and people who might need this kind of assistance. I think to the degree you all can be transparent about where your partnerships are, there are a lot of people in the Disability Community who would be very willing to make sure that theyre bolstering those partnerships, too. So id look forward to further discussion about that. Thank you. Senator, let me just clarify. We already have some of those partnerships. Im sure you do. We will be putting our partnerships on the website and the internet and make sure the public is aware of that. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Dillingham, let me ask you about the strategies related to counting for the census counting in rural areas. Particularly portions of my state of missouri. So, for instance, almost 550,000 people in missouri are considered hard to count. Thats almost 9 of my state. What happens in those areas in multiple counties, by the way. What happen the in those areas where you not only have a rural population where maybe the mail theyre nontraditional mailing addresses and so forth, but you also have limited internet access. So, for instance, from 2013 to 2017, over 20 of missouris households either had no internet subscription or only a dialup subscription. Whats the strategy for counting there . Senator, we have a multifa s ceted strategy particularly in the rural hardtocount areas. One is that we have already studied the nation in those areas that have limited connectivity. And for the 20 of the nation as i mentioned, were going to mail out the questionnaire in the first instance to them. But we also you know, in one of the things that i in the time i didnt have to address in talking about the Partnership Specialists, the Partnership Specialists are really our connection to the community. The community, we envision more than 300,000 partnerships. It can range from the local barbershop to a national organization. And we have the complete count committees. The last i looked, i think we have 2,500 complete count committees already. Every state has a complete count committee with the exception of two and we hope theyll come on board soon. But they are local governments. And they have rural populations, but their local governments have many complete count committees. We could not conduct this census without the assistance of our partnerships and the people that are helping us. So what we want to do is have that multipliers effect through our Partnership Specialists but in addition to that, we have the outreach media campaign. In a lot of the rural areas that i have learned by visiting them, some listen to the radio more than they watch tv and Different Things like that. We have to be able to do that and provide the media that reaches them best. And then assuming we have this multipliers effect with either Partnership Specialist assistance or using the community groups, we can take the technology to them. I went to one jurisdiction in new mexico, very rural area. The senator went with me. That was an extreme example of a hardtocount area. Thats why we went there. We determined to get selfreporting. The only two mechanisms we saw at the time was 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 did not trust the government. And so when we saw that, we are working with our Partnership Specialists. We need efforts at the Grocery Store, we need efforts with the local churches. That is an extreme example. Im not sure if that is in missouri. I know there are hardtoreach areas of missouri. We will work with the local officials and we will work with the groups to make sure we reach them. Thank you very much. Thats very helpful. Let me ask you about the effect of natural disasters and accuracy in census counting. When you have flooding or tornadoes that displace people sometimes for a long period of time from their homes, both of those natural disasters have hit my state and particularly devastating effect. We have lots of people who are displaced in the state. How do you tackle that and account for this displacement . That can pose a lot of challenges and were working on that presently. Were working on that with puerto rico. Were doing an update lead. Were actually going to every residence in puerto rico. Were doing that in mexico city, Northern Area of florida where the hurricane had devastating impacts, and were doing it in california where the fires had burned out some housing areas totally. So we work with those communities. There are issues there, and sometimes with the local jurisdictions, were working particularly with florida right now. They came to my office. A delegation. You know, they say, hey, these people have moved out. Wed like to have them counted where they were. That poses a problem for us. But what we do is we work with them. Any that come back at census time and are living there and reestablished, we can count them. But at the same time were also informed, for example, that working crews are coming there for two or three years to help build back the area. You count the working crews. Its whoevers living in that jurisdiction. So well work with those communities and find out whats best. And we look forward to in your state and other states in working with you on planning that. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. In my written Opening Statement, i referred to the ongoing cooperation and oversight that weve been conducting with the Census Bureau and Government Accountability office. And over the course of the last couple years through that communication, to that collaboration, my confidence has certainly grown that we dont have some disaster on our hands here. I think one of the things id like both gao and mr. Dillingham to comment on this. But this isnt the Census Bureaus first rodeo. Theyre not reinventing the wheel. You talk about community partnerships. This has been in place decade after decade. Youre just going back to these tried and true methods as well as using and trying to implement technology. Its improved dramatically since 2010 when, lets face it, that didnt work too well. So, again, i do want to, obviously, have this Committee Hearing to point out the difficulties so we remain diligent and we stay on top of things but i also think its important to communicate to the public that, you know, we do have things in a manageable situation and i dont think anybody should be panicking. Can ill ask gao, am i wrong in this assessment . No. I think we would agree with that. The Census Bureau has a very strong Management Team. As you say, this is not their first rodeo. This is their second, third, maybe fourth rodeos in some cases. A lot of experience going into the decennial census. There will be some glitches. It happens all the time with something this massive. There are a lot of moving parts. But having all that experience, the Management Team there, the hope is that they will be able to address it quickly. Thats whats happened in the past. And so not to panic. I think, and this is something that dr. Dillingham mentioned, in his Opening Statement, how they work with the Oversight Organization s. This is actually my third census. I started this in 2000. I think the tone is much different. It started to change in the 2010 census. Continue into the 2020 census. Much greater willingness to work with the oversight folks. Gao put the 2020 census on its high risk list. Theyre not being defensive about it. Theyre actually embracing theyre embracing being on the high risk list. Theyre saying this is a cry for help. We need the resources. Theyre working with us. We share our best practices in a range of different management areas, everything from cost estimation to scheduling to i. T. Management. Dr. Dillingham met with the head of our organization. We meet with dr. Dillingham on a monthly basis just to share information. Were not adversaries on this. Were really all on the same side here in favor of a good census. So, agree with you 100 . Its a i think one of the concerns as you go back to 2010, i wasnt around, but the stories you hear of the implementation of technology. We spent 3 billion and it was a total disaster. Think back ten years ago, we were talking about flip phones and back berer be back berries,. As well as the publics ability to use. Does anybody want i think thats a really important point. As you know, gao has had Cyber Security on its high risk list since 1997. I dont think thats going anywhere any time soon. The risks have continued to grow. The innovations the bureau has pursued over the last decade are essential to ensure an accurate count and get a good response wait. We are encouraged by those efforts. I think one thing id come back to that you mentioned in the Opening Statement as well is were very encouraged by the bureaus effort to reach out to others to gain assistance. In particular with dhs, many of the assessments that dhs have done have been voluntary ones. Ones that the bureau sought out that assessment by dhs. Were very encouraged by that effort. I dont want to tip anybodys hands here, but in your mind do you have a list of priority risks when it comes to Cyber Security . I mean, is it that online, you know, selfresponse portal . Are there other things . I mean, what are the most significant cyber risks . I think the reliance on the internet are creating many of those risks, but i would say that based on dhs assessments, the bureaus own internal assessments, those done by the i. G. And recommendations weve made, believe the bureau has a good sense of what those risks are. I think where we have sort of felt like better attention needs to be made by management is on ensuring that they prioritize those risks. Some of those risks are going to be very specific, so a system that needs a patch is going to have to get patched. Others are going to be longer term. So if some adjustments need to be made within a program, needs to hire more individuals because they identify a new Security Risk exists, those are going to take more time. But i think from our perspective, i think that focus of ensuring that the bureau, itself, knows what the priorities are, communicates it not only to Bureau Leadership but to department leadership, i think thats whats essential. Dr. Dillingham, what do you think is the greater cyber risk or risks that youre dealing here in the 2020 census . Mr. Chairman, i am not sure what the greatest is, but i want to endorse the comments just made in the need for us to continuously evaluate and prioritize the risk. This is a day and age where you dont know i must confess watching Television Last night and they had experts on tv discussing the ongoing cyber war between nations. There are certain things that may be unpredictable. Thats one of the reasons that we always we identify the risks, we prioritize them. We have the risk registries that gao strongly endorses. So that we can continuously evaluate. And if we get indicators as to what the risks may be from the Intelligence Agency or others, we can act on it quickly. So i cant say so you have a priority list but also youre going to remain flexible to emerging risks. Thats correct. With the 2020 census, 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. And in the last year, you know, there are different types of risk, but in the last year ive seen figures where we have responded to approximately 150,000 risks. Now, many of those are really i. T. Risks that can be quickly resolved. Some oothers, we have a process. We call it planning, a plan of action we put together and we establish the milestones. Gao looks at our milestones and they remind us if were not meeting our milestones, but were doing that ourselves as well. So were always managing the risk with the best information, the most knowledge, and the most expertise and i think some of the best new tools ever. In gaos testimony, they were talking about the Computer System for the hiring process. We spoke over the phone about where you are in terms of hiring the people. You were actually quite optimistic about that. You want to talk about the Computer System, but you also want to talk in general about where the bureau is in terms of its hiring . Sure. One of the innovations, important innovations, we have this time, is people can apply online. And were advertising that whan we ask you and others to advertise that fact. Go to our website, 2020 census . Gov well lot you get that later. I am pleased to tell you when i looked at the figures this morning, we had 600,000 people have applied for jobs. Now, were in the process of hiring 60,000 of those to be called what we call listers or canvassers. That is a monumental time saver, cost saver, way of doing business. Youre saying 600,000 have applied online . That is correct. Obviously, that hiring portal is up, its operating. Its already accepted 600,000 applications. Out of that, youre only going to hire a tenth of that . Well, it is not all 600,000 for that series of jobs. Im told about maybe 400,000 or half, at least, were. So we had about five or six potential applicants for each job. Now, when we get to the enumeration and we need close to a half Million People, then we would like to have 2. 5 Million People in that database. And were hoping were going to achieve that and going to be working that particularly in the fall when its time to engage that next hiring peak that we will experience. Does your staff have that website that we want to highlight in the hearing yet . If i wasnt under the lights here, i would have remembered. 2020census. Gov jobs. Okay. Sounds good. I would think just kind of going on the Census Bureaus overall website, you ought to mr. Chairman, you had mentioned one other thing in starting that line of questioning about the importance of the experience and the depth and the partnerships. The team is deep at census. An email this morning, there were two people that i was commending for working on their seventh decennial census. And some of our senior staff have multiple decennial censuses. Many of them have four. When we hire the people, the Partnership Specialists, and i go to columbia, zk ssouth carol and the Partnership Specialists have purchased their own beautiful red blazers embroidered with 2020 census, and theyre 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 offevery ten years to c back and work the decennial census. Are we hiring second graders youd think so. Its deceiving. You an ccan subtract ten years. There are a couple with 60 years. Again, commend them for us. Thank them for their service. Lets talk a little bit about reporting that online selfreporting because i think thats huge. And selfreporting through the mailer as well. Exactly what is the census game plan there in terms of advertising, what are your messages . The overall messaging for the campaign is shape your future, start here. That will be connected with the link to the 2020 census where you can reply by internet. So it is a reminder throughout the campaign is help shape your future, start here. So in many instances, you can link directly and that will it will have the link in the advertisement. In others, it may be on the air in which they would repeat the website to go to. But theres going to be tremendous we have one of the, again, one of the Largest Campaign contractors in this area, and we have subcontractors for all the hardtocount populations. Or at least large groups of them. And we think that people will go directly to that. In one city that i was in, they were just putting in wifi in the buses and the city was saying, hey, we can put advertising in the buses and people on their way to work can answer the census. So let me make a suggestion. Okay. Fine. Save your future. Help the government save money, selfreport. Absolutely. Okay. That at least resonates with me. Absolutely. That is sometimes a hidden message and maybe it should be more visible. I like very overt messages particularly when it comes to saving government money. Senator carper . Im tom carper, and i approve that message. [ laughter ] dr. Dillingham, people say first of all, robert, nicholas, thank you very much for being here. Thanks for the good work that you and your colleagues are always doing, as well as to census folks. This brings back almost like deja vu ten years ago when we had other folks sitting at this table and we go through these, ask a lot of questions, and im pleased to hear that Real Progress has been made. Appears to be being made on technology and the technology front, too, to enable us to get a better result, more accurate result, maybe for less money. That would be much appreciated. Dr. Dillingham, people say to me, what keeps me up at night . And what keeps you up at night . Not only that, what are a couple things that keep you up at night . What are a couple things we can do here in the congress to make sure you get a better nights sleep . Senator and thats thank you so much. I know what a great supporter you are of the decennial census as well as the Census Bureau. We very much appreciate that. Weve had some conversations with regard to security and other things and appreciate your keen interest in that. The thing that keeps me up at night is really making sure all the pieces in place and that we stay on schedule, on time, and on budget. Thats the overall Business Plan and its an excellent plan developed over a decade as the chairman mentioned. And so thats really its all pieces of it that keep us up at night. Now, as far as supporting congress, i want to thank the congress for the demonstrated support, both financial and otherwise. But one of the things is and was pointed out during this hearing is we have to communicate this message to a much wider group. Congress is well positioned to do that. We have delivered, for example, just may be helpful, toolkits 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 embrace this. Weve seen some very healthy competitions. I know, for example, the mayor in milwaukee was telling us when we were there that he has a friendly bet was going to enter into a friendly bet with the mayor of minneapolis to see who could get the highest selfResponse Rate. Weve had members of congress say that, oh, we published a partnership list. They say, oh, i got all these partners im working with, and i may be head of the census caucus, but i look at my neighboring congresswoman and friend and that list is shorter so im going to nudge them a little bit and say we need a competition here. You need to catch up with him. Just spreading the word, the message, again, its safe and its easy and its important, i think, and i think were well positioned at this point. We have a definite path forward. And so i think that getting that message out, some people would speculate that even the attention that may be considered attention of disagreements on the census could, in fact, become beneficial because people know now that the census is very important and they will engage in helping us reach everyone. Thank you. Well be looking for the toolkit. Thanks. Thanks for sending it to us. I understand thanks very much for talking to me earlier this week. But i understand that this new entity within dhs, department of Homeland Security, goes by the name, the acronym, cisa, cisa, Cyber Security, infrastructure security, legislation that the chairman and i and others have partnered on. We understand that cisa has partnered with the Census Bureau. Thats correct. To prioritize the Cyber Security posture of the 2020 decennial census. One of the tools that dhs has to help manage agencies Cyber Security risk is something called the departments einstein some. I mentioned this to you, einstein 1 which came along first. I use it like a security guarded gate, vehicles are coming in and outlocation. Einstein 1 says the security vehicle has gone through. Einstein 2 says a car, a vehicle of interest, has gone through. Einstein 3 says a car of interest had gone through. And lets stop that car. But i would id just say, yun gi can you give us an overview of how the einstein systems, starting with einstein 1, einstein 2, einstein 3, have been implemented in securing the information collected by the bureau, if at all . Yeah. Senator, i love your analogy on how that works. Einstein 1, 2, and 3. And einstein has been mentioned publicly, but what id like to do is, perhaps, have my team come and speak with you and your staff on that. It we have visited the dhs offices and we made sure that everyone had the proper clearances and so im not quite sure where the boundaries of the discussion might be. Its a sensitive topic. Id be glad to talk with you about that. Maybe when they come, they can bring another toolkit for us, okay . Never have too many. We have one to gift to somebody else. Yes. One of the major goals that my staff and i hope to achieve with this hearing is having both the census director and gao help us identify those milestones or really benchmarks, if you will, that we in the congress at this moment need to monitor so that we can know whether the census remains on track for the 2020 count. And what are some of those benchmarks or milestones that we need to be monitoring . Just give us an example of a couple. So well know whether the census remains on track for the 2020 count. Thats correct. Okay . We will certainly keep you updated. I know gao will and we will as well at any time. Well pass the information to you and were very pleased to say were on track now and we want to remain on track. Yeah. Let me just ask our other two witnesses, what are some of the benchmarks or milestones we ought to be mindful for in watching . Sure, senator. With respect to the two i. T. Related challenges weve highlighted previously, the next six months are pretty critical. Of those 16 operational deliveries, i think about 9 are going to have some pretty critical from i. T. Perspective. Theres a lot of work in ensuring that not only have these systems been developed, but that their performance is going to work as intended. On the Cyber Security side, i think we still maintain our recommendation. Were encouraged that the bureau is working toward implementing a recommendation that helps to formalize that good feedback that theyre getting from dhs. Ive reviewed all of the reports that dhs has produced for the bureau. I think theyre good recommendations. And so wed just like to see how the bureau intends to either address those recommendations headon or if they have other activities they may actually compensate for areas where dhs had findings. Good, thanks. One more if i could, mr. Dillingham. One of the concerns i have, dr. Dillingham, is ensuring census enumerators are properly identified and the public can trust that the person showing up at their house is, indeed, a credentialed census bower row employee. Give us an idea of what the Census Bureau is doing to ensure that the public can trust and verify that an enumerator knocking on their door, ringing on their doorbell, is who they say they are. Senator, i agree with you out that. We do have some plans in process. One of the plans were looking at is actually every Police Department across the nation has a roll call in the morning. Were even thinking of videos that we can share with the local police and remind their officers, et cetera. But i did have a police chief, actually a police chief, as i recall, in the state of georgia, who specifically mentioned that. We went through a hardtocount area. It happened to be a highcrime area. He said we need to know exactly your credentials, what they look like and so we can make sure. Weve discussed this with the office of Inspector General. She agrees. We actually have in mind a joint letter coming from the i. G. As well as from the Census Bureau that would go out to all the Law Enforcement on that topic. Good. Mr. Chairman, in wisconsin, something called txt, txt, for digit for baby. I think it might have been an idea brainstormed from maybe johnson johnson. We use it in delaware to troyy make sure parents are bringing their children in for doctor appointments. A lot of the folks that are signed up on medicaid, we have lot of absenteeism, people make an appointment dont show up. What weve done in delaware for years now is txt for baby and have the phone number of the parents and they get Text Messages saying one week from today is an appointment for your child, three days, three days, you know, tomorrow, and it actually works. I always like to say, find out what works, do more of that. Txt for baby works. In this regard. It might be one more idea, one more idea in your toolbox you might want to think about. Technology is a wonderful thing. I appreciate you pointing out the security issue of, lets face it, strangers walking up, knocking on the door, making sure the American Public understands this is a census worker here. With the controversies that have been surrounding this particular census, i would because im aware a couple senators are still going to come back from a vote and want to ask some questions. What id like to do is give the director a little chance to just lay out basics. Those of us involved in this, we kind of understand these things. Lets lay out some basics starting with the laws in place to protect this information. Sure. This is not used, you know, for other you know, purposes other than whats it intended within the census. I want you to cover that. Sure. First. Well, senator, 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 in fines for anyone who violates confidentiality. So the law in and of itself has a lot of teeth in it and it has not the theres been no instance since then where the Census Bureau officials have been convicted of such a crime. And, again, census goal is to enumerate, to count everyone in the country. That is correct. Citizen, noncitizen. To count everybody. And, again, talk about that purpose. And exactly how its used, what it can be used for, what it cant be used for. The data we collect is really very simple. And its in title 13 as well. And the recent executive order by the president recognizes it. Puts it straightforward and front and center that the uses are for statistical purposes. Theres no Law Enforcement purpose whatsoever that this data can be used for. So at the end of the day the Census Bureau produces aggregate statistics. We produce aggregate numbers. Thats our product. So we collect data. Data comes in. We analyze it. And a number comes out. The number is not a personally identifiable information data number. Its group aggregate statistics. And we are embarked we mentioned to members of congress in some additional protections that looking toward the future with enhanced computer capabilities and the matching of data with public and private is da datasets, with large Computer Systems, we are putting in some place some additional safeguards so that that will not be an option for people in the future. The numbers are obviously used to apportion house seats. Exactly. To, again, in aggregate form to inform congress in terms of Public Policy. But very specific qually, you s Law Enforcement. Were talking about no form of Law Enforcement. Not local. Not state. Not federal. Not dhs. I mean, so, again, just reinforce that point. That is correct. Again, at the end of the day, public numbers, so whatever numbers go out the entire public can use, internationally they can use the data. It will be aggregate data that you cannot violate someones confidentiality and know their personal data from that. It goes out and we dont have any other informationsharing arrangements or understandings. And so the public can look at the data and use it for policymaking, decisionmaking, but it is not use the for Law Enforcement or any other purpose of that type. So, again, i think thats an important point to reinforce. Im going to go to gao who is taking a look at these things, to make that same point. Have you ever seen in your inspections of the census department, have you Census Bureau have you ever seen this information misused . No, never. The Census Bureau goes to Great Lengths to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the information and it extends from as dr. Dillingham said, its a oneway flow of information. The Census Bureau has access to other agencies information, but other agencies cant access the Census Bureaus information. There are a lot of other structural safeguards as well mentioned that every person who worked on the census, even gao, others, we take an oath not to disclose the data, and thats a lifelong oath as well. We undergo training every single year. If i dont take the training, the bureau is quick to say, hey, you havent taken the data stewardship training. So even in terms of where the Census Bureau locates its area census offices, they go to Great Lengths not to put them in buildings where there are other Law Enforcement agencies, again, to show the distance between the Census Bureau and other agencies. And timely, once the data are released, theres a whole smorgus board of things, steps the Census Bureau takes, so that the data doesnt get accidentally disclosed. If you get down to low levels of geography, it might be you can look at someones house. Its the biggest house on the block there and, you know, under normal circumstances, you might be able to trace that back. But the Census Bureau does go through disclosures. They actually add noise to the database so that its not possible to find information on that household. So were really impressed with what they do. So its to summarize, the law is clear. Yes, sir. The clear is strong. And the culture within the s Census Bureau reinforces exactly that law in terms of this is a oneway street. Information comes in but no person doesnt go out. Its certainly used for the purposes stated in title 13. Thats correct. Excellent summary. As you said, its a cultural thing, too. Thats important. Again, we want to provide that assurance to the public want we want a full counting. Senator sinema . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Dr. Dillingham, Indian Country is a special place. Yes. Treatment of indian populations by the federal government is personal to me. The Navajo Nation in arizona has a poverty rate of 30 , twice as high as the rest of the state of arizona. The Median Household Income on the nation is only 23,389 per year. Members of the nation are guaranteed by treaty benefits such as health care and education. Arizona has more bureau of Indian Education schools than any other state. Lake kavasu, an Elementary School has been under federal government control since 2002 and yet only 20 of students go on to graduate from high school. Thats compared to 72 of American Indian students nationwide. And in 0u 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. In information makes a historic undercount of American Indian and alaskan native populations even more worrisome as they depend on accurate count to receive the funding they are owed for education. In 2010 this population suffered an undercount of 4. 88 , according to the gao. So in 2016 it was announced there would be two toasts on Indian Country in preparation for the census. The tests to measure a proposed tribal enrollment question and quoting from recognize kruns us fop test the systems for update of ee nurmgs where field staff visits household to update the list of addresses and count people at the address. The operation typically occurs in area where we have a low likelihood of mail tlaefr, end quote. These tests were cancelled. And the question abandoned due to budgeary uncertainty. What were the impacts ever instituting the update enumerate program in Indian Country without previous testing . Let me ifky ill start more generally about youre exactly correct that the Navajo Nation is a very hard to count population. And i went to a portion of the Navajo Nation in new mexico. I know it stretches across arizona all the way to the grand canyon. As i mentioned in my Opening Statement its the size much west virginia. So and i have seen and i have ridden through areas along with the Vice President of the Navajo Nation who i could not have been more impressioned with his motivation and dedication to making sure everyone is counted. We went down some of the dirt roads and some rural areas where there is no plunling. Sometimes no electricity. And sometimes not accessible by vehicle. And so i have seen i went to a home in only the navajo language was spoken. They were building beside the home some other structures for other members of the family that needed to be counted. So we need to make sure that everyone is counted. Once they reach that home. But i did hear from that individual also that in the only do they have problem was connectivity Computer Internet connectivity but they said they had to go stand on top of the dog house with the cell phone to get coverage in the area. So i have seen these challenges. And we have talked with the officials, particularly in that chapter of the Navajo Nations that was nearest west of albuquerque. And investigating that, i will say that there was a broad band provider that had the cable actually on the nearby land ready to run it. And in that particular instance it appears that they would have their facilities connected in time for the di krenl sense us. A mammoth improvement where the courts and functions were. Back to the 2016 tasks that were cancelled that predates me by several years. However and i understand that for budgetary reasons they were. But i would not my understanding of those tests they were multifacetted. One was in fact to with the populations that they were looking at there were some other issues with regard to enrollment in the tribal population. And i know that there were some native american organizations and maybe tribes that that wasnt an interest area of theirs. And others it was. In addition to that it was really testing out the operations. And my understanding it was by and large reaching them in this 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 their relatives. So they were being counted outside the reservation. And that was of concern also to the native americans. But i will say that we have tested our systems, and our systems were working. And so we have learned even though we did not test in those jurisdictions but it still leaves the issue on reaching them. So what we are doing with our Partnership Program is we are hiring people from the tribes that can reach them, or that work with them, and and in one instance dsh it was the one i visited we had an i. T. Person from the tribe who was assisting the tribe with these options. In some cases it may be that if they cant establish connectivity with a telephone or through the internet with a computer then we hope they will mail back the forms. And we will provide the language assistance. But even if that doesnt happen we actually send the enumerators out. And that is no simple task. Ive heard some story base that. And one of our enumerates walking five miles through the desert when the car broke down. I want to both commend the enumerates but say its a mammoth job to reach some of the populations. I sympathize with you. Im in the sure if there is any disadvantage as a result of that particular test being cancelled at that time. But we will work with you and make sure that dsh in your state that we do Everything Possible through our Partnership Program our Outreach Program as well as in mailing options in those instance as i mentioned earlier we send out the questionnaire and the very first mailing if they have low Internet Connectivity in the geographic area. We will do everything we can. We want to work with you and your local official, state official, tribal officials, to make sure everyone is counted. Well, thank you for that answer. This is particularly important as you mention the Navajo Nation, many residents in Indian Country lack an an address. Yes. And so it is especially difficult for this Census Bureau to ive those households. And of course as you alauded to the nonresponse follow up is incredibly important in these very remote areas. So i will take you at your word and ask that we work closely together as we head into the census. As you noted the Navajo Nation is the largest nation in all of Indian Country. And unfortunately has had fairly dismal census cooperation and returns in the past year. This is very important to us. Census bureau focus group documents have crust o discussed what they call unusual respondent behavior. And fears of how the government may use the information thats collected next year. One document that i reviewed showed that field staff have requested Additional Support to help overcome some of the mistrust in communities particularly communities of color in arizona. How is the Census Bureau addressing the issues raised by field staff in the areas of concern around distrust and requests for additional staffing, and what are you doing to ensure that American Indians and alaska natives are reached carefully and that their concerns around mistrust of the governments use of the information is allayed before the census occurs . Senator, again, thats again an excellent question. You referenced our focus groups. And it sounded like the research may be that you were referring to was a product of some of the focus group activities. We have had more than 120 focus groups including with native americans across the country. Those have been very important. The direct intent of the focus groups are for purposes of our media campaign. And how best can we reach them . In some instance like new mexico we find its radio versus tv, et cetera. Because if they have a vehicle they typically have a radio. Sometimes they rely on the radio and thats the best mechanism. The Outreach Campaign will have that. But we will have special materials. We will have, again, its integrated with the Partnership Specialists. We will hire specialists from those communities and from those tribes. The also the the distribution of our materials during nerfu will be extremely important. I know when when i was in Navajo Country there we even went to the health centers. And they recognize the importance of that facility when people come for Health Service that is that also could be a place where they can be informed about the census and we would have the capability of sharing the census information either by by phone, internet or by the hard copy that we could set up perhaps a census day through our Partnership Specialists. So there are many different ways we are going to try to reach the hard to count community. But we look forward to work with you. Probably the most important i would say in many ways is the trusted voices. So both in the media and the Partnership Specialists, et cetera, and the complete count committees and i do think the complete i do know that there are complete count committees. And i will discover what particular when the Navajo Nation may have. They may have several. But through the mechanism we have trusted voices. And when the Authority Figures and the trusted voices in those communities express their support for the census as well as the importance and easiness with which to respond, i think we will achieve a lot of progress in that area. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, senator rosen. Appreciate you bringing this hearing. Thank you for all of the witnesses for being here today. I want to continue on a little bit on the language assistance mode before i go into some other areas. So dr. Dillingham last week i joined some of my colleagues in sending a letter requesting that the census bre provide additional Language Options for the internet selfresponse and census questionnaire. Including kumar, had among and lao ensuring people from kboedy, laos. Include including the Large Population in Southern Nevada can actively participate in the census and be counted. As we know sometimes the communities face challenge us because of refugee experiences, intergenerational poverty and trauma faced during the vietnam war. I wonder if you had a chance to review the letter and if there is currently a plan to offer assistance and selfresponse in niece languages. Senator, i will look. 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 do through our Customer Service phone centers we have english plus 12 additional languages which would not encompass the ones you mention. And then we actually have a list where we go down through the 59 languages. And the percentage population that were able to reach with the language assistance is is 96 99. 6 . And that is still not enough. We have the enumerators that ultimately will be knocking on the doors. But we would appreciate selfreporting ahead of time. So in those in those areas and the languages that you mentioned, im assuming maybe its in an urban area, maybe in las vegas or whatever. We have Partnership Specialists there that will identify that need. And any will link up with the local university or whoever can assist in that effort. Okay. In terms of actually changing our its probably unlikely at this point that we can actually change our systematic way of reaching them. We can find a way to get them there. Y he. Thank you. I want to move on a little bit of the i. T. And cyberstafgt. Today the gao released a report detailsing the actions the Census Bureau has to take to the address the key risks for a successful census. Under the category of cybersecurity its noted as at the end of may of 2019 the bureau had over 330 corrective actions from its security assessments that need to be addressed. Out of the 330, 217 were considered high risk or very high risk. Of those 2717104 recommendations were delayed, considered delayed due to technical challenge or resource constraints. So when i want to ask a little bit about resource constraints. Are they a financial issue or manpower issue, number one with which one . Then ill have other follow up questions. Senator, with regard to those specific 330, i mentioned in my Opening Statement that Risk Management is the which we do business. And we have a continuing list of those risks. And right now its in the agency but in order to address these. Yes. Do you need financial help or manpower help . With the manpower i have one important question. Okay. I would say actually neither of the two are the driving force. Because we continuously and we will have three hundred or perhaps more risks. They change every day. Risks come off and risks go on. How can they. Its dynamic. A person has to correct them there has to be man hours associated. We have had the discussions internal. We will never be at zero. No, no i understand youre never at zero. But in order to meet the time line these very high risk things we have a time line of when we have to start and when we have to end. So understanding well never be at zero, always taking corrective action. I wrote Computer Software for a living. I get it. Sure. But my point is the tasks that need to be done as far as manpower is concerned, are they consecutive tasks or concurrent tasks . Is throwing more people at it the issue . Is it a matter of trying to test it concurrently . How can we help you be sure that you meet and correct these heitest issues with the resources that you need . There is a very specific begin and end date its not ongoing rolling thing that we always have when were maintaining Software Systems every Software System in the world. Yes, well, senator we have remedies or resolved 150,000 risks. So the 300 of all varieties we continuously work on. You feel confident you need more missouri more treys resources to address the risk. We have a good team in place. We always could use a few more. But i cant say that the process in having those risks are necessarily the product of that. We have talents and we do have some openings in some of our i. T. Areas that would always be and were working to fill those now. But i cant say its the direct product of a current budget need. So its not because of pennsylvania lack a lack of funding. Its attracting theright people and the right place and doing the right things. We are working them. We can always always do better. We can always work harder but we are working the risks. Do you think and i actually really want to and i dont what im thinking is is we go forward and we have a time line for this. And there is always things to do. As we tie this into our cyberready workforce bills, other things ive swroused we have the ongoing needs. This is one of the reasons that im asking. Because as we prepare not just for a census that happens every ten years, but for things that happen every year, the resources, the manpower, having that in place, understanding those needs and how we can help position people to be in that place, is really important. And so thats why i was asking this question. I agree with you, senator. And we and the gao will testify we are making progress. We want to make more progress and do it faster. But i can tell you that if there was a direct resource need, i would certainly identify it to you. But i cant say attribute that at this time that its a resource need thats causing the risk list. Its really what we call a Risk Appetite is the language used by gao. You have to assess your there are risks each and every day as an individual or as an organization or as a program. For example, if if i get on a motorcycle i have to decide that i want my apparel and my helmet on for me thats ive got to require that. Others may not. But its your Risk Appetite. And we do want to make sure we lower the risks were working to lower the risks. And if we identify this is a result of a lack of resources we will certainly work with the committee and bring. Yeah, please let us know. Because this is very important we get it right. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, senator rosen. Before i turn it over for final questions senator peters i want to acknowledge a dwrup of young men that joined in the hearing room. These are our 33 candidates to become green berrett. Tomorrow start a 30day intense field exercise after which any will be awarded the green ber et. Epihopefully stick around after the hearing to answer questions. These gentleman are the best of the best, finest among us i cant thank you enough for your service and talk to you after the hearing. Senator peters. Well, thank you, mr. Chairman. And also i want to wish my best as well to these future green berets. We wish you the best. The green berets have a incredible history of service to our country. God speed to each and every one of you. Dr. Dillingham, a final question for you, is that many folks including i think some census experts but other folks are very concern that there are bad actors out there that are going to attempt to discourage people from participating in the census. And youre likely to see some disinformation campaigns put out through social media and other outlets. We obviously see misinformation or disinformation campaigns in a variety of contexts around the world. Its likely to expect we are going to see it in this recommend, particularly given the fact that trust is such an important aspect of census collection. So my question to you is, what are you doing to combat intentional disinformation campaigns that will be used to mislead the public and specifically are you working with platforms like facebook and twitter in anticipation of this . What can we expect out of the bureau the Census Bureau. Senator. Its an excellent topic and question. We are working with the groups that you mentioned and some other groups. Were 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. But we are also working as i mentioned with the intelligence agencies, in particular dhs. So we are thinking about it. We have a group getted to just this topic. And devoted to this topic. And they are planning for prevention as well as response to these types of activities. And i do think regretfully were in the age where you accurately point out this is a potential v vulnerability and threat. And we are planning for it and working with the best people and the most knowledge in both the public and private sector on that. But even in knows sectors its something they constantly work on and are worried about. And we are making plans to in coordination with them to respond to it to mitigate it, should it occur. Well, i appreciate that. Id like to have a further discussion. Be glad to with staff and get into specifics. To look into the details. This is a issue we are working on in the Homeland Security committee. Both the char chairman and i work on the Armed Services committee. We are looking forward to working with your staff and better plan how to lanl it. And as these materialize it would be helpful for us to monitor in the oversight capacity. Thank you chairman. Senator peters. Thank you i want to thank you our witnesses. Our witnesses. Thank you for your testimony. Taking the time, thank you for your professionalism. I really do leave this hearing feeling a lot better about the census, again, not that there may not be risk. But i think theyre theyre being pretty well managed and thought about. Thats the first step in managing risk is understanding it and trielg trying to mitigate it. Wiltzius the hearing record remains open for 15 days for the submission of states and questions for the record. The hearing is adjourned. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the house will be in order. For 40 years cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country. So you can make up your own mind. 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