All staff, training, infrastructure, systems, and applications are in place for this month’s (August) start of Address Canvassing, the first major operation of the 2018 End-to-End Census Test (pp. 9-14). This operation is being conducted in three locations – the Bluefield-Beckley area of West Virginia; Pierce County, Washington; and Providence, Rhode Island. The Address Canvassing operation will conclude on September 29, 2017, with Quality Control activities concluding the following week. Also for this test, the Paperwork Reduction Act clearance package was delivered to the Office of Management and Budget for peak operations of the 2018 End-to-End Census Test, which will take place next spring and summer in Providence, Rhode Island. Based on the 2020 Census Integrated Master Schedule, through August 31, 2017, 46.6 percent of the 6,448 activities in the 2018 End-to-End Census Test had been completed (pp. 39-40).

For the Census Enterprise Data Collection and Processing (CEDCaP) program (pp. 35), work continues on Increment 21 commitments, covering In-Field Address Canvassing, Self-Response, and Field Enumeration for the 2018 End-to-End Census Test.

For 2020 Census operations, the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Promotional Outreach events continued in August 2017 (pp. 23). A total of 570 promotional presentations have been completed as of August 25, 2017, and another 90 events are scheduled to be completed by November 2017. The Census Bureau completed printing and shipping the LUCA Invitation packages to tribal, state, and local governmental entities. As of August 30, 2017, the Census Bureau had received 6,595 responses. Of those, 3,421 had signed up to participate in the LUCA Operation and 3,174 had declined.

The 2020 Census Redistricting Data Program (RDP) finished processing the 966 counties with changes that had been submitted by June 7, 2017 (pp. 29). The RDP transmitted all 966 county files to Geography Division for insertion into the Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) system. In addition, the RDP confirmed the remaining 2,254 counties in the program universe require no changes. The RDP also finalized the proposed design of the prototype 2020 P.L. 94-171 Redistricting Data File that will be produced from 2018 End-to-End Census Test data. A Federal Register Notice about this design is being prepared. The Census Bureau also awarded a contract to support an enhanced version of the current American Community Survey (ACS) tabulation system to be used for 2020 Census data tabulations.

The 2020 Census In-Office Address Canvassing Interactive Review production continues, and is meeting the expected production goals (pp. 23). The clerks have reviewed 11,155,309 blocks during Interactive Review from the beginning of production in September 2015 through August 31, 2017. They have completed 100 percent of the 11,155,486 total blocks nationally through the first pass of Interactive Review. As of August 31, 2017, 75.2 percent of the blocks were classified as Passive, 18.4 percent were classified as Active, and 5.0 percent were classified as On-Hold.

For the Census Bureau-United States Postal Service (USPS) Partnership effort, development of core program management artifacts continued, including an integrated project plan schedule, common reporting process, risk register, and roles and responsibilities matrix, with a targeted completion of September 2017. Both the USPS and Census Bureau signed a Letter of Intent formalizing the enterprise partnership between the two organizations.

Revised Census Barriers, Attitudes, and Motivators Survey (CBAMS) quantitative and qualitative schedules have been developed by the Integrated Communication Contractor, Young & Rubicam (Y&R) to include a January 2018 start date.

Updates are underway for the next iteration of the 2020 Census Operational Plan, which is expected to be issued by October 2017. Detailed Operational Plans (DOPs) also will be prepared and released for each of the 35 operations that constitute the 2020 Census, and 15 of those DOPs already have been released in the 2020 Census Memorandum Series (available on the Census Bureau website at www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/plan/memo-series.html).

Extensive engagements with stakeholders and oversight also continued (pp. 36-38). The Census Bureau provided comments to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) on their draft evaluation of the 2020 Census in-office address canvassing operation, and provided the Government Accountability Office (GAO) with an action plan in response to their final audit report on the same operation. GAO currently has two 2020 Census audits in progress, and the OIG has four.

Preparations are well underway to host the International Census Forum at the Census Bureau from September 5 ̶ 8, 2017. Participating countries include Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England & Wales, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Preparations also are underway to conduct (and LiveCast on the web) the Fall Census Bureau Scientific Advisory Committee meetings at the Census Bureau from September 14 ̶ 15, 2017.

Some other key program updates include:

• Completed deployment of the Decennial Response File (DRF) 1 on August 14, 2017.
• Completed deployment of the Decennial Response File (DRF) 2 on August 22, 2017.
• Began deployment process of the Census Unedited File (CUF) on August 22, 2017.
• Incorporated feedback from the Paper Data Capture (PDC) Integrated Project Team (IPT) into the lessons learned document and shared the document with the Technical Integrator (TI) PDC team. The TI PDC team is using it as a reference tool as they develop deliverables related to 2018 End-to-End Census Test PDC operational planning.

• Learning Management System (LMS) online training went live on August 1, 2017.
• The 2018 Address Canvassing Operational Assessment study plan was reviewed by the 2020 Census Portfolio Management Governing Board (PMGB) on August 2, 2017.
• Held Operational Readiness Review (ORR) for Release A: Address Canvassing on August 7, 2017.
  Completed Address Canvassing Census Field Supervisor (CFS) classroom training at all three sites on August 10, 2017.
• Held Operational Readiness Review (ORR) for Recruiting Release 2: Field Enumeration on August 21, 2017.
• Delivered Recruiting kits and promotional materials for Peak Operations to the Providence, Rhode Island, Area Census Office (ACO) on August 21, 2017.
• Completed Lister, Census Field Supervisor (CFS), Quality Control (QC) Lister, and QC CFS Selections for Address Canvassing in the Providence, Rhode Island; Beckley, West Virginia; and Seattle, Washington, ACOs.
• Completed Address Canvassing Lister Training at all three sites on August 26, 2017.
• Began In-Field Address Canvassing on August 28, 2017.
  
• Submitted the full Paperwork Reduction Act package for the 2018 End-to-End Census Test to the Office of Management and Budget.
  
• Continued work to realize efficiencies and focus on high-priority components of the Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA) solution due to current budget constraints.
• Finished reviewing and mapping solution requirements to capability requirements that were impacted by the descoping of CQA functionality.
• Baselined the initial CQA Interface Control Documents (ICDs), following the Decennial Technical Integrator’s ICD governance process.
• Continued detailed schedule and requirements discussions with the Office of Information Security to reach agreement on the detailed process steps and schedule dates needed to achieve an Authorization to Operate (ATO) prior to the start of operations.
• Completed the first phase of the CQA system build. This phase focused on base functionality.
• Participated in a Joint Application Development (JAD) session with Systems Engineering and Implementation to finalize 2018 End-to-End Census Test Capability and Non-Functional Requirements.
• Developed a draft Technical Directive to provide support for the Intelligent Mail® Barcode (IMb) Postal Tracking System (IPTS) for the 2018 End-to-End Census Test during multiple sessions with the TI. (See page 12.)
• Translated Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) content for Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA). These FAQs are being translated into all of the 2018 End-to-End Census Test languages that CQA has phone lines to support: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, and Tagalog.
• The Government Publishing Office (GPO) has received and is reviewing bids from the solicitation to acquire the necessary printing and mailing services for the 2018 End-to-End Census Test, with an option for extending through the 2020 Census. An award is planned for September 2017.
• The Decennial Service Center team provided on-site and Service Center IT support for Census Field Supervisor training, IT support documentation to Regional Census Centers and Area Census Offices IT support staff, and received IT support requirements from Address Canvassing operations. Completed draft design of the prototype P.L. 94-171 Redistricting Data File to be produced from the 2018 End-to-End Census Test. Revisions to the file structure to account for the use of a combined race and ethnicity question on the Test and for a proposed group quarters table were presented to external stakeholders for discussion at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The final proposed prototype design is now being prepared for disclosure avoidance review and executive review as well as for publication for comment in the Federal Register.
• Continued development of core program management artifacts for the Census Bureau-United States Postal Service (USPS) Partnership including an integrated project plan, common reporting process, risk register, and roles and responsibilities matrix, with a new targeted completion of September 2017.
• Completed both USPS and Census Bureau signatures on a Letter of Intent formalizing the partnership between the two organizations.

• Published the proposed information collection for the 2020 Census Participant Statistical Area Program on August 14, 2017.
• The LUCA Integrated Project Team’s (IPT) LUCA Promotional Outreach events continued. A total of 570 promotional presentations have been completed as of August 25, 2017 and another 90 promotional events are scheduled to be completed by November 2017. Completed printing and shipping of LUCA Invitation packages on August 9, 2017 to tribal, state, and local governmental entities.
• Completed the 2020 Critical Design Review #2 (CDR #2) on August 28, 2017.
• Participated in multiple sessions with the Technical Integrator (TI) to define requirements around Paper Data Capture (PDC) data needs for the 2020 Census.
• The Redistricting Data Program (RDP) finished processing the 966 counties with changes submitted as of June 7, 2017. This refers to counties received in Block Boundary Suggestion Project verification where the states have indicated they would like modifications performed to the Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) system. The RDP passed all 966 counties to Geography Division for insertion into the MAF/TIGER system. In addition, the RDP has confirmed 2,254 counties as having no changes needed. These combined account for 100 percent of the counties in the program universe.
  
• The Redistricting Data Program (RDP) has finalized the design of the prototype 2020 P.L. 94-171 Redistricting Data File to be produced from the 2018 End-to-End Census Test. This design has begun circulating for disclosure avoidance approval and executive approval prior to submitting it for publication in the Federal Register for public comment.