FIPS PUB 9-1
Supersedes FIPS PUB 9
1969 November 14
1. Name of Standard. Congressional Districts of the United States.
2. Category of Standard. Federal General Data Standard, Representations and Codes.
3. Explanation.
4. Approving Authority. The Secretary of Commerce.
5. Maintenance Agency. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau
of the Census, Geography Division.
Questions concerning specific numeric codes for congressional
districts, or the composition and boundaries of the districts are
to be addressed to the Maintenance
Agency: of the Geography Bureau of the Washington, DC 20233.
Users of this standard who need to be notified of changes that
occur prior to the next publication of the standard must complete
the Change Request Form provided in this publication and send it
to: Standards Processing Coordinator (ADP), National Computer
Systems Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and
Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899. The NIST will issue Change
Notices on an as needed basis.
7. Objectives. The objectives of this standard are to improve the utilization of data resources of the Federal Government and to avoid unnecessary duplication and incompatibilities in the collection, processing, and dissemination of data.
8. Applicability. This standard is prescribed for the collection, processing, and interchange of coded data by Federal agencies, and whenever requirements for such data are imposed by a Federal agency on industry, State or local governments, or the public. Use within agency data systems is encouraged when such use contributes to operational benefits, efficiency, and/or economy.
9. Specifications. Federal Information Processing Standard 9-1 (FIPS9-1), Congressional Districts of the United States, 1990 November 30 (affixed).
10. Implementation Schedule. This standard became effective 1990 November 30. Federal agencies, based on their specific operational requirements, are to develop procedures for implementing this standard by their operating units and personnel.
11. Where to Obtain Copies of the Standard.
1. Name of Standard. Congressional Districts of the United States.
2. Category of Standard. Federal General Data Standard, Representations and Codes.
3. Explanation. Congressional districts are legislatively
defined subdivisions of a State for the purpose of electing
representatives or delegates to the House of Representatives of
the United States Congress. A State or equivalent entity may
comprise a single congressional district or similar
representational area.
This standard provides the structure of numeric codes for
representing congressional districts and similar areas defined
for the various Congresses of the United States. The specific
numeric codes for congressional districts and the composition and
boundaries of the districts are available in publications
identified in part 6. Special Information.
4. Specifications. Two-digit numeric codes are used to
represent the congressional districts of each multi-district
State of the United States; e.g., the First Congressional
District is
identified as "01", the Second Congressional District as "02"
etc.
For a State whose representative is designated "at large"-- for
the 98th-102nd Congresses, this applies to the States of Alaska,
Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming-- for
the 103rd Congress, this applies to the State of Montana -- the
Congressional District is designated as "00".
For an entity with a nonvoting delegate--the District of
Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico (whose delegate is
referred to as a "resident commissioner"), and the Virgin
Islands of the United States--the representational area is
designated as "98".
For those entities with no representation in the Congress--the
Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the several U.S. minor
outlying islands--the area is designated as "99".
5. Qualifications. Congressional district codes are unique within each State and equivalent entity, and for each Congress.
5.1. The congressional districts in different States have the same code; e.g., the First Congressional District of Alabama and of Arizona are both coded "01". Accordingly, in data systems requiring the identification of congressional districts in more than one State, the congressional district code must be preceded by the State numeric code, as prescribed by Federal Information Processing Standard 5; e.g., the First Congressional District of Arizona would be coded "0401", with the first two digits (04) representing the FIPS State numeric code. Data systems concerned with only one State may use only the congressional district code. All single digit congressional districts must have a leading zero.
5.2. The number of representatives allocated to a State, and therefore the number of congressional districts in a State, may change as a result of reapportionment following each Federal decennial census of population. Even without such change, the boundaries of districts may be altered through legislative action by the States or legal action in the courts. Accordingly, where data systems relate to the districts of more than one State and/or Congress, the State and congressional district codes should be followed by a three-digit code to identify each Congress; e.g., the First Congressional District of Arizona for the 95th Congress and the 101st Congress would be coded "0401095" and "0401101," respectively, where the first two digits represent the State, the third and fourth digits identify the congressional district, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh digits designate the number of the Congress. When single and/or two digit codes representing the number of the congress are used in conjunction with this three digit representation, leading zero(s) is required where appropriate.
6. Special Information. Lists and outline maps that
identify the composition and boundaries of each district are
included in a Department of Commerce/Bureau of the Census
publication
entitled Congressional District Atlas. This publication,
which usually is issued after each redistricting of the Congress,
is particularly useful for those who need to identify the
components and/or boundaries of the districts. (This information
is not needed if a user's only interest is that of the code
structure.) Congressional districts also are identified and
mapped in the Congressional Directory, but not with the
detail contained in the Congressional District Atlas;
the directory is published for each congress. Both the atlas and
the directory are available from the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.
Information about previous congressional districts appears in The
Historical Atlas of the United States Congressional
Districts, 1789 - 1983, by Kenneth C. Martis, 1982, The Free
Press, A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, NY
10022.
FIPS PUB 9-1
FEDERAL INFORMATION
PROCESSING STANDARDS PUBLICATION
1990 November 30
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE/National Institute of Standards and
Technology