§16 Address information reviewed by States and local governments

Summary

The Secretary must make rules about what address data should look like and how it is organized. States and local governments can send that address information to the Secretary to help build a national address list. The Secretary must also publish a schedule for how the Census Bureau will get, review, and reply to those submissions before the decennial census. The Bureau’s reply must say what it decided about the submitted addresses and why. Those replies are subject to the review process from the 1994 Census Address List Improvement Act (section 3). Local governments can name a census liaison who will get access to the Bureau’s address data for their area (and neighboring areas) to check accuracy. When giving access, the Secretary should explain the liaison’s duties. The Bureau should answer each suggestion the liaison makes, saying whether it accepts it and why. If a smaller local government is inside a larger one and is not independent, the smaller unit names the liaison. The liaison may only use the address data for checking addresses. Definitions: “local unit of general purpose government” — local governments like cities or counties (see section 184(1)); “State” — includes DC, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories or possessions.