[Analytical Perspectives]
[Special Analyses and Presentations]
[11. Strengthening Federal Statistics]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
11. STRENGTHENING FEDERAL STATISTICS
Our democracy and economy demand that public and private leaders have
unbiased, relevant, accurate, and timely information on which to base
their decisions. Data on real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Consumer
Price Index (CPI), and the trade deficit, for example, are critical
inputs to monetary, fiscal, trade, and regulatory policy. They also have
a major impact on government spending, budget projections, and the
allocation of Federal funds. Economic data, such as measures of price
change, have as well a significant influence on interest rates and cost-
of-living adjustments that affect every American who runs a business,
saves for retirement, or mortgages a home. Taken together, statistics
produced by the Federal Government on demographic, economic, and social
conditions and trends are essential to inform decisions that are made by
virtually every organization and household.
The U.S. Federal statistical system comprises some 70 agencies that
collect, analyze, and disseminate information for use by governments,
businesses, researchers, and the public. Approximately half of the
funding for the statistical system provides resources for ten agencies
that have statistical activities as their principal mission (see Table
11-1). The remaining funding is spread among some sixty agencies that
carry out statistical activities in conjunction with other missions such
as providing services or enforcing regulations.
Under the aegis of the congressionally-mandated Interagency Council on
Statistical Policy (ICSP), the principal statistical agencies are
extending their collaborative endeavors in order to improve the overall
performance and efficiency of the Federal statistical system. In May
1997, the ICSP unveiled FedStats (www.fedstats.gov), a ``one-stop
shopping'' Internet site for Federal statistics that permits easy access
via an initial point of entry to the wide array of information available
to the public from the 70 agencies. FedStats has been enthusiastically
received both by Web watchers and by more than half a million users of
Federal statistical information.
In July 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family
Statistics issued America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-
Being, presenting in a single document 25 critical indicators concerning
children's behavior, social environment, economic security, education,
and health. The report represents a successful collaboration among the
various Federal agencies that report regularly on aspects of children's
lives. Additional new collaborative initiatives are addressing needs to
improve integration of employer-provided health benefits and other
nonwage compensation data and to identify statistical data requirements
stemming from recent changes in welfare and health policy.
A singularly important initiative to improve the quality and
efficiency of Federal statistical programs is a legislative proposal
that would allow the sharing of confidential data among statistical
agencies under strict safeguards. Passage of this legislation continues
to be a top priority of the Administration.
Despite these accomplishments, rapid changes in our economy and
society, and funding levels that do not enable statistical agencies to
keep pace with them, increasingly threaten the relevance and accuracy of
our Nation's key statistics. The growing inability of our statistical
system to mirror accurately our economy and society will, in turn,
undermine core government activities, such as the accurate allocation of
scarce Federal funds. Fortunately, the most serious shortcomings of our
statistical infrastructure could be substantially mitigated by four
proposals set forth in the Administration's budget. In particular, these
initiatives would:
provide a comprehensive, integrated, and internationally
comparable statistical base for analysis as well as reliable
and timely information on the impact on the U.S. economy of
increasingly integrated world markets (see highlights for the
Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of the Census);
modernize our basic industrial classification to reflect
the structural and technological make-up of our economy and
facilitate economic analyses that cover the entire North
American Free Trade Agreement area (see the NAICS discussions
in the highlights for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the
Bureau of the Census);
improve the timeliness and accuracy of the CPI to permit
more rapid revision in future years, to produce alternative
measures of the change in the cost of living, to reflect more
accurately changes in the quality of goods and services, and
to allow more timely introduction of new goods into the CPI
(see the CPI discussion in the highlights for the Bureau of
Labor Statistics); and
provide new statutory authority for the limited sharing of
confidential statistical information among specific Federal
statistical agencies solely for statistical purposes. The
proposed changes would permit these statistical agencies to
manage information in many important respects as if they were
part of a single agency, thereby increasing the accuracy of
statistical estimates and the efficiency of Federal data
collection.
The following highlights elaborate on the Administration's proposals
to strengthen the programs of the principal Federal statistical
agencies.
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HIGHLIGHTS OF 1999 PROGRAM CHANGES FOR PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
Bureau of Economic Analysis: Funding is requested to update and
improve the data used in estimating GDP and national income and to
continue moving forward on other key initiatives from BEA's Mid-Decade
Strategic Plan for improving its economic accounts. Initiatives would
produce: (1) new and improved measures of output and prices, by
extending BEA's work on quality adjustments; (2) better measures of
investment, savings, and wealth, by developing a comprehensive
accounting for software; and (3) improved measures of international
transactions, by expanding the coverage of rapidly growing international
services and financial instruments.
Bureau of Justice Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) support
local law enforcement agencies' increased participation in the
collection and reporting of hate crime statistics; (2) restore funding
for the annual collection and reporting of detailed data from State and
local governments on employment and expenditures for criminal justice
purposes; and (3) provide for continued collection of police use-of-
force statistics from local law enforcement agencies.
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) continue
revision of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by releasing the revised
housing sample with data for January 1999, and completing the revision
in 2000; (2) initiate improvements in the CPI revision process that
would make it possible to revise the CPI more rapidly, allow BLS to
produce alternative measures of change in the cost of living, improve
the measurement of changes in the quality of goods and services, and
provide a basis to bring new goods into the CPI on a more timely basis;
(3) replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) with the new
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) by continuing the
recoding of each workplace in BLS' establishment list using the new
classification; and (4) develop monthly national data on the number of
job vacancies and labor turnover.
Bureau of the Census: Funding is requested to: (1) undertake final
preparatory activities for the conduct of the 2000 Census including
developing a comprehensive address list, establishing the required field
infrastructure, printing questionnaires, and developing and
manufacturing hardware and software to produce a more accurate and less
costly decennial count; (2) review, edit, and disseminate the data
collected for the 1997 Economic Censuses and the Census of Governments;
(3) further the development and testing of the Continuous Measurement
program, which would provide nationally comparable and consistent
community-based data on an annual basis and permit elimination of the
decennial census long form in 2010; (4) implement NAICS in current
economic surveys to complement the work already undertaken for the 1997
quinquennial economic censuses; (5) improve the quality of construction,
government, and service sector data used in Gross Domestic Product
estimates; (6) perform research and support activities related to
improving the measurement of income and poverty; (7) standardize the
reporting of international trade data; and (8) begin transition to
decentralized funding of the decennial revision of all monthly,
quarterly, and annual household survey samples to conform to the
anticipated redistribution of population that will be measured in the
2000 Census.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1)
maintain the core statistical programs of BTS, including the American
Travel Survey, the Commodity Flow Survey, and the Transborder Surface
Freight program; (2) produce and enhance data compilations and analyses
concerning patterns of passenger travel and goods movements that are
reported in the congressionally mandated Transportation Statistics
Annual Report and companion publications; (3) extend efforts to provide
technical assistance to State and local authorities; (4) initiate data
collections and analyses related to international transportation; and
(5) lead the Department of Transportation's development of more relevant
and timely transportation system performance indicators.
Economic Research Service: Funding is requested to: (1) prepare
estimates of the benefits of food safety, (2) support the analytical
needs of small farmers, niche marketers, and others adversely affected
by an industrializing agricultural sector; and (3) assess the effects of
electric utility deregulation on rural communities. The decrease in ERS
total funding reflects the proposal to reverse the 1998 transfer of
funds ($18.5 million) for the evaluation of domestic food assistance
programs from the Food and Nutrition Service.
Energy Information Administration: Funding is requested to: (1)
collect and analyze energy efficiency and renewable energy data; (2)
perform energy end-use consumption surveys; (3) compile integrated
energy end-use data; (4) model mid-term energy demand; (5) analyze
greenhouse gas data; and (6) analyze carbon management policies and
industry voluntary activities in support of the Climate Change
Technology Initiative.
National Agricultural Statistics Service: Funding is requested to: (1)
develop the statistical infrastructure needed to expand the agricultural
pesticide use surveys to the horticulture/greenhouse industries; (2) lay
the groundwork for the year 2000 decennial Agricultural Economics and
Land Ownership Survey, which provides the only comprehensive data on
agricultural land ownership, financing, and inputs by farm operators and
landlords for each State; and (3) perform the first extensive census of
aquaculture to provide consistent national and State level detailed data
about aquacultural production. The decrease in NASS total funding
reflects
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a reduction in funding for the Census of Agriculture due to the cyclical
nature of the program.
National Center for Education Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1)
follow up on the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey and enhance fast
response post-secondary and vocational education surveys to collect
performance indicator data; (2) support periodic data collections for
the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, the Schools and Staffing
Survey, and the National Household Education Survey; (3) enhance the
coverage and quality for the kindergarten cohort and the coverage of the
year 2000 birth cohort in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey; (4)
institute the State and school district option for the 1999 Third
International Mathematics and Science Study Replication at grade 8; (5)
produce a crosscutting special report and analysis of education in the
year 2000; (6) develop a special financial accounting handbook for
school system use; (7) perform special fast response statistical surveys
on critical educational issues; and (8) fund initiatives in the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that will enrich coverage of
private schools and minority students, field test new items for the NAEP
assessments, support implementation of the new NAEP Annual Assessment
Schedule, increase support to selected schools to foster NAEP
participation, develop the new NAEP market basket 2000 prototype, and
implement the NAEP redesign including new technical requirements.
National Center for Health Statistics: Funding is requested to
maintain at 1998 levels support for NCHS' core data systems, including
the Vital Statistics System, Personal Interview Surveys, Health Care
Surveys, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. NCHS
is currently reexamining the content, sample size, and periodicity of a
number of its data systems.
Table 11-1. 1997-1999 BUDGET AUTHORITY FOR PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
(In millions of dollars)
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1997 actual 1998 enacted 1999 request
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Bureau of Economic Analysis........................................ 40.6 42.3 48.4
Bureau of Justice Statistics....................................... 21.4 21.5 27.0
Bureau of Labor Statistics......................................... 360.8 380.5 398.9
Bureau of the Census............................................... 351.2 693.1 1,187.9
Periodic Censuses and Programs................................... 216.2 555.8 1,027.8
Salaries and Expenses............................................ 135.0 137.3 160.1
Bureau of Transportation Statistics................................ 24.7 \1\ 25.0 31.0
Economic Research Service.......................................... 53.1 \2\ 71.6 55.8
Energy Information Administration.................................. 66.1 66.8 70.5
National Agricultural Statistics Service \3\....................... 100.2 118.0 107.2
National Center for Education Statistics........................... 79.8 91.0 104.0
Statistics....................................................... 50.0 59.0 68.0
Assessment....................................................... 29.8 32.0 36.0
National Center for Health Statistics.............................. 86.0 86.0 86.0
PHS Evaluation Funds............................................. 48.4 59.2 86.0
Budget Authority................................................. 37.6 26.8 .............
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\1\ Annualization of congressionally authorized $12.5 million for first six months of 1998, pending
reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA).
\2\ Increase reflects the transfer of $18.5 million for the evaluation of domestic food assistance programs from
the Food and Nutrition Service.
\3\ Includes funds for the periodic Census of Agriculture of $17.5, $36.3, and $23.7 (millions) in 1997, 1998,
and 1999, respectively.