13 U.S.C. § 16

(a) The Secretary, to assist efforts to ensure the accuracy of censuses and surveys under this title, shall— (1) publish standards defining the content and structure of address information which States and local units of general purpose government may submit to the Secretary to be used in developing a national address list; (2) (A) develop and publish a timetable for the Bureau to receive, review, and respond to submissions of information under paragraph (1) before the decennial census date; and (B) provide for a response by the Bureau with respect to such submissions in which the Bureau specifies its determinations regarding such information and the reasons for such determinations; and (3) be subject to the review process developed under section 3 of the Census Address List Improvement Act of 1994 relating to responses pursuant to paragraph (2). (b) (1) The Secretary— (A) shall provide officials who are designated as census liaisons by a local unit of general purpose government with access to census address information for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of the address information of the Bureau for census and survey purposes; and (B) together with such access, should provide an explanation of duties and obligations under this title. (2) Access under paragraph (1) shall be limited to address information concerning addresses within the local unit of general purpose government represented by the census liaison or an adjacent local unit of general purpose government. (3) The Bureau should respond to each recommendation made by a census liaison concerning the accuracy of address information, including the determination (and reasons therefor) of the Bureau regarding each such recommendation. (4) For the purposes of paragraph (1), in a case in which a local unit of general purpose government is within another local unit of general purpose government and is not independent of the enclosing unit, the census liaison shall be designated by the local unit of general purpose government which is within the enclosing local unit of general purpose government. (5) A census liaison may not use information made available under paragraph (1) for any purpose other than the purpose specified in paragraph (1). (c) For the purposes of this section— (1) the term “local unit of general purpose government” has the meaning given such term by section 184(1) of this title ; and (2) the term “State” includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.