Certification process. Upon request, the Census Bureau certifies population and housing counts of standard governmental units to reflect boundary updates, including new incorporations, annexations, mergers, and so forth. The Census Bureau will produce a certificate, that is, a signed statement by a Census Bureau official attesting to the authenticity of the certified Census 2000 population and housing counts to reflect updates to the legal boundaries of governmental units after those in effect for Census 2000. This service will be a permanent process, but one that will be temporarily suspended during future decennial censuses. Typically, the Census Bureau will suspend this service, and direct its resources to the decennial census, for a total of five years—the two years preceding the decennial census, the decennial census year, and the two years following it. The Census Bureau will issue notices in the Federal Register announcing when it suspends and, in turn, resumes, the service.

The Census Bureau charges customers a preset fee for this service according to the amount of work involved in compiling the population and housing counts, as determined by the resources expended to meet customer requirements and the set cost of the product (one certificate). Certification fees may increase somewhat if the customer requests additional original certificates. Each additional certificate costs $35.00. Certification prices are shown in the following table:

[Reserved]

Description of certification types. The Census Bureau will process requests for population certificates for standard governmental units, in accordance with the Census Bureau's annual certification schedule or under an expedited certification arrangement. The boundaries for standard governmental units are regularly and customarily updated between decennial censuses by the Census Bureau's geographic support system. These governmental units include a variety of legally defined general- and special-purpose governmental units, including counties and statistically equivalent entities, minor civil divisions, incorporated places, consolidated cities, federally recognized American Indian reservations, and school districts. A complete list of entities is defined in paragraph (c) of this section.

Annual certification. Annual population and housing certification is available around October 1 of each calendar year to new or existing governmental units that report legal boundary updates in the Census Bureau's annual Boundary and Annexation Survey. In accordance with reporting requirements of this survey, the legally effective dates of the boundary updates may not be later than January 1 of the calendar year. These certifications are available through September of the following year.

The annual certification service also is available to standard governmental units that are not in the Boundary and Annexation Survey of that year. Governmental units electing participation in this service must draft the legal boundary updates upon Census Bureau-supplied maps. The legally effective dates of the boundaries may not be later than January 1 of the calendar year. The Census Bureau must receive the census maps annotated with the legally certified boundaries and associated address ranges by April 1 of the same calendar year. The Census Bureau will determine that the legal boundary updates are acceptable by verifying that the information is complete, legible, and usable, and that the legal boundaries on the maps have been attested by the governmental unit as submitted in accordance with state law or tribal authority.

[Reserved]

Expedited certification. (i) Expedited certification will be available where the customer requests any of the following:

Certification of boundary updates legally effective after January 1 of the current calendar year; or

Certification of boundary updates reported to the Census Bureau after April 1 of the current calendar year; or

Certification of boundary updates by the Census Bureau before October 1 of the current calendar year.

Governmental units electing participation in this service must draft the legal boundary updates upon Census Bureau-supplied maps. To allow sufficient processing time, the Census Bureau must receive acceptable census maps annotated with the legally certified boundaries and associated address ranges no later than three months before the date requested by the customer to receive the population certificate. The Census Bureau will determine that the legal boundary updates are acceptable by verifying that the information is complete, legible, and usable and that the legal boundaries on the maps have been attested as submitted in accordance with state law or tribal authority.

List of standard governmental units. The following is a list of the standard governmental units eligible for the Geographically Updated Population Certification Program:

Federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land entities [tribal government]; this includes a reservation designated as a colony, community, Indian community, Indian village, pueblo, rancheria, reservation, reserve, and village.

Counties and statistically equivalent entities, including the following: counties in 48 states; boroughs, municipalities, and census areas in Alaska [state official]; parishes in Louisiana; and municipios in Puerto Rico.

Minor civil divisions as recognized in Census 2000 in the following 28 states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Incorporated places, including the following: boroughs in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; cities in 49 states and the District of Columbia; cities, boroughs, and municipalities in Alaska; towns in 30 states (excluding towns in New England, New York, and Wisconsin, which are minor civil divisions); and villages in 20 states.

Consolidated cities.

School districts.

Non-standard certifications. Certifications for population and housing counts of non-standard geographic areas or of individual census blocks are not currently available under this program but will be announced under a separate notice at a later date.

Submitting certification requests. Submit requests for certifications on Form BC-1869(EF), Request for Geographically Updated Official Population Certification, to the Census Bureau by fax, (301) 457-4714, or by e-mail, MSO.certify@census.gov. Form BC-1869(EF) will be available on the Census Bureau's Web site at: http://www.census.gov/mso/www/certification/. A letter or e-mail communication requesting the service without Form BC-1869(EF) will be accepted only if it contains the information necessary to complete a Form BC-1869(EF).