Work on the 2020 Census Program continues during the lapse in appropriations, which started on December 22. The 2020 Census program (including 2020 Census Enterprise Data Collection and Processing [CEDCaP] work) used carryover funding to continue operations at full capacity. Congress designed the FY2018 appropriation for the 2020 Census to have carryover of approximately one third ($1.056 billion) of the FY2019 President’s Budget request. Throughout the period of the continuing resolution in FY2019, approximately $290 million of carryover has been obligated, leaving $688 million available for the program during the lapse in appropriations. Conservative projections show this funding lasting through February without implementing any slowdowns to 2020 Census operations.

All major contracts for the 2020 Census have now been awarded. The Government Publishing Office (GPO) awarded the 2020 Printing and Mailing Contract to RR Donnelley Inc. on December 28. Per the solicitation, the contract is an indefinite-quantity type with a guaranteed minimum of $250,000 and a maximum amount of $140 million. The solicitation included estimated quantities and the basis of award was RR Donnelley’s total proposed price for those estimated quantities of $114.6 million.

We awarded the 2020 Island Areas Censuses contract to the four local Island Area governments in December. The contract was awarded on December 13 for American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and on December 17 for the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

We continue to build the field infrastructure and recruit and hire staff needed for the offices and early operations. We continued selection activities (fingerprinting and background check) for clerks and office operation supervisors in December. We received recruiting promotional materials for the regional census centers in December. We also continued receiving dual employment waivers from various government agencies.

The 2020 Census Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) operation return phase reached its completion date of December 15. The operation received 8,389 submissions from the 11,550 registered governments (72.6 percent). The responses cover 95.7 percent of the nation’s population and 95.5 percent of the nation’s housing. LUCA provides an opportunity to tribal, state, and local governments to review and comment on the Census Bureau’s residential address list for their jurisdiction before the 2020 Census enumeration begins.