3830 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 10 / Tuesday, January 16, 2001 / Notices

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND

BUDGET

Provisional Guidance on the

Implementation of the 1997 Standards

for Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity

AGENCY: Executive Office of the

President, Office of Management and

Budget (OMB), Office of Information

and Regulatory Affairs.

ACTION: Notice of availability and

request for comments.

SUMMARY: OMB is announcing the

availability of ‘‘Provisional Guidance for

the Implementation of the 1997

Standards for Federal Data on Race and

Ethnicity,’’ and soliciting public

comment on any aspects of the

document for a period of 60 days. The

document is close to 200 pages and thus

is not being reproduced in the Federal

Register. It is available electronically on

the OMB web site at the following

address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

OMB/inforeg/index.html#SP—go to

Data on Race and Ethnicity, or in paper

form from OMB at the address below.

This updated material supercedes and

replaces the draft provisional guidance

that OMB made available on its web site

in February 1999.

DATES: Written comments should be

received by OMB by March 19, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Please send comments to:

Katherine K. Wallman, Chief

Statistician, Office of Management and

Budget, Room 10201 New Executive

Office Building, 725 17th Street, N.W.,

Washington, DC 20503; fax: (202) 395–

7245.

Electronic Availability and Addresses:

This Federal Register Notice is available

electronically from the OMB web site:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/

fedreg/index.html. Federal Register

Notices also are available electronically

from the U.S. Government Printing

Office web site: http://

www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/

aces140.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Suzann Evinger at telephone 202–395–

7315; or E-mail: sevinger@omb.eop.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the

Federal Register for October 30, 1997,

OMB announced ‘‘Standards for

Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting

Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity,’’

which revised the standards originally

adopted in 1977. (See 62 FR 58781—

58790 for background on revisions that

were adopted). This classification

provides a minimum set of five

categories for data on race (American

Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or

African American; Native Hawaiian or

Other Pacific Islander; and White) and

two categories for data on ethnicity

(Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or

Latino). In addition to changes in the

categories and terminology, the 1997

standards require that agencies provide

the opportunity for individuals to

choose more than one racial category if

they wish to reflect multiple racial

heritages.

Since this change in policy that

permits reporting of more than race was

announced, considerable attention has

been given to the question of how data

on multiple race responses would be

tabulated. Federal agencies and other

users of data on race and ethnicity

requested guidance on how to

implement several aspects of the 1997

standards.

OMB issued some preliminary

tabulation guidance as part of the

October 30, 1997 Federal Register

Notice. In addition, for the past several

years the Tabulation Working Group of

the Interagency Committee for the

Review of Standards for Data on Race

and Ethnicity has been considering

tabulation and other implementation

issues and working to develop

additional guidance. This group of

statistical and policy experts drawn

from the Federal agencies that generate

or use data on race and ethnicity

produced draft provisional guidance

that OMB issued on its web site in

February 1999. The provisional

guidance being announced today is a

substantially updated version of the

earlier guidance. It reflects public

comments on the earlier draft as well as

the Tabulation Working Group’s further

research and deliberations on the issues.

The guidance presented in this

document is intended for any Federal

agencies or organizational units that

maintain, collect, or present data on

race and ethnicity for Federal statistical

purposes, program administrative

reporting, or civil rights compliance

reporting. To foster comparability across

data collections carried out by various

agencies, it is useful for those agencies

to report responses of more than one

race using some standardized

tabulations or formats.

The guidance briefly explains why the

tabulation guidelines are needed,

reviews the general guidance issued

when the standards were adopted in

October 1997, and provides information

on the criteria used in developing the

guidelines. The guidance also addresses

a larger set of implementation questions

that have emerged during the working

group’s deliberations. Thus, the

guidance addresses: collecting data on

race and ethnicity using the 1997

standards, including sample questions;

tabulating Census 2000 data as well as

data on race and ethnicity collected in

surveys and from administrative

records; using data on race and ethnicity

in applications such as legislative

redistricting, civil rights monitoring and

enforcement, and population estimates;

and comparing data under the 1997 and

the 1977 standards when conducting

trend analyses. The 1997 standards are

reproduced in Appendix A to the

guidance. Appendix B provides OMB

Bulletin No. 00–02, Guidance on

Aggregation and Allocation of Data on

Race for Use in Civil Rights Monitoring

and Enforcement.’’ Appendix C

provides the full report with tables (85

pages) on how data collected under the

1997 standards might be meaningfully

compared to data collected under the

1977 standards. Including the

appendices, the full document is close

to 200 pages.

This guidance is necessarily

provisional pending the availability of

data from Census 2000 and other data

systems as the 1997 standards are

implemented. The guidance provides a

general framework and is not intended

to cover every specific issue that

agencies will encounter during their

implementation of the 1997 standards.

In some instances, for example, specific

implementation issues are being

addressed through OMB’s review of data

collections under the Paperwork

Reduction Act. This guidance is

expected to be reviewed and refined as

Federal agencies and others gain

experience with data collected under

the 1997 standards and as agencies

address implementation issues in their

respective programs.

Below is the table of contents for the

‘‘Provisional Guidance on the

Implementation of the 1997 Standards

for Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity.’’

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Background

A. Need for Tabulation Guidelines

B. General Guidelines for Tabulating Data on

Race

C. Interpretation of Self-Reported Data on

Race

D. Points of Clarification Regarding the 1997

Standards

E. Criteria Used in Developing the Tabulation

Guidelines

Chapter 2. Collecting Data on Race and

Ethnicity Using the 1997 Standards

A. Developing Procedures for Data Collection

1. Developing and Testing Self-Reported

Race and Ethnicity Questions

2. Developing and Testing Aggregate

Reporting Forms

3. Developing Field Instructions and

Training Procedures

B. Processing Census 2000 Data Using the

1997 Standards

Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 10 / Tuesday, January 16, 2001 / Notices 3831

1. Pre-editing Procedures

2. Within-Household Imputation

3. ‘‘Hot Deck’’ Imputation

4. Substitution

5. Group Quarters Editing

C. Evaluating Census 2000 Data on Race

Chapter 3. Tabulating Data on Race and

Ethnicity Collected Using the 1997 Standards

A. Census 2000 Data

1. Protection of Data Confidentiality

2. Plans for Tabulations by Race and

Ethnicity

3. Overview of Plans for Data Products

4. 100-Percent Data on Population Totals

and Characteristics by Race and

Ethnicity

5. Sample Data on Population

Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity

6. Microdata Files

B. Survey and Administrative Records Data

Chapter 4. Using Data on Race and Ethnicity

Collected Under the 1997 Standards

A. Civil Rights Enforcement and Monitoring

1. Redistricting

2. Equal Employment Opportunity

3. Equal Access to Education

4. Enforcement of Title VI of the Civil

Rights Act of 1964

B. Intercensal Estimates and Vital Records

1. Description of the Intercensal Population

Estimates Program

2. Uses of Population Estimates

3. Methodology for Developing Intercensal

Population Estimates

4. Data Availability

5. Comparability Issues

6. Future Direction

C. Uniform Crime Reporting Program

Chapter 5. Comparing Data Collected Under

the 1997 and the 1977 Standards (Full Report

at Appendix C)

A. Introduction

B. Methods for Bridging

1. Framework

2. Bridge Tabulation Methods

C. Methods of Evaluation

1. Data Sources

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of These

Data Sources

3. Description of New Analyses

D. Examination of the Results with Respect

to the Evaluation Criteria

E. Weighting When Appropriate Population

Controls Are Not Available

F. Strategies for Users

Appendix A. Standards for Maintaining,

Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data

on Race and Ethnicity (October 30, 1997)

Appendix B. OMB Bulletin No. 00–02,

Guidance on Aggregation and Allocation

of Data on Race for Use in Civil Rights

Monitoring and Enforcement (March 9,

2000)

Appendix C. Bridge Report: Tabulation

Options for Trend Analysis

OMB would appreciate receiving views

and comments on any aspects of the

provisional guidance for implementing the

1997 standards for Federal data on race and

ethnicity.

Sally Katzen,

Deputy Director for Management.

[FR Doc. 01–1132 Filed 1–12–01; 8:45 am]

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