[Analytical Perspectives]
[Special Analyses and Presentations]
[11. Strengthening Federal Statistics]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
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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 continue
to extend their collaborative endeavors to improve the overall
performance and efficiency of the Federal statistical system. For
example, during 1998 the ICSP continued its support of 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.
In September 1998, FedStats doubled the number of Federal statistical
sites indexed by its search engine from 14 to 28. FedStats has been
enthusiastically received both by Web watchers and by more than a
million users of Federal statistical information.
In May 1998, the Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
published a new report, Nurturing Fatherhood: Improving Data and
Research on Male Fertility, Family Formation and Fatherhood, and in July
released its second annual report, America's Children, Key National
Indicators of Well-Being, 1998. In September, the Council of Economic
Advisers in consultation with Federal statistical agencies published
Changing America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being by Race
and Hispanic Origin for the President's Initiative on Race. This chart
book, which documents current differences in well-being by race and
Hispanic origin and describes how such differences have evolved over the
past several decades, provides the basis for an informed discussion
about the problems faced by people of different races and backgrounds in
America. Among the benefits of these activities has been the stimulation
of interagency efforts to close data gaps identified in the reports.
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, can threaten the relevance and accuracy of our
Nation's key statistics. A 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 the
proposals set forth in the Administration's budget. These initiatives
include:
implementing a sampling methodology for the 2000 Decennial
Census that is designed to reduce the differential undercount
for hard to enumerate populations in order to improve the
accuracy of data used to reapportion seats in the U.S. House
of Representatives, redraw State legislative districts, and
distribute annually more than $100 billion in Federal funds to
State and local jurisdictions (Bureau of the Census);
providing 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 (Bureau of Economic
Analysis);
modernizing 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 (Bureau of Labor Statistics
and Bureau of the Census);
improving 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
(Bureau of Labor Statistics);
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providing consistent, accurate, and current demographic
information for all States as well as for sub-State areas with
populations greater than 250,000 through the American
Community Survey program, which will result in numerous data
improvements and efficiencies including far more timely data
to distribute over $100 billion in Federal funds annually to
States and local areas (Bureau of the Census); and
providing 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.
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2000 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 in BEA's 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) develop and
implement a program to produce consistent annual measures of the
incidence of hate crimes and to estimate the extent and nature of change
from year to year; (2) develop a tribal data collection program that
would include conducting a complete census of approximately 500
recognized Indian tribes to collect data on the types and
characteristics of criminal justice agencies operating in these
jurisdictions, measuring services provided to these communities,
assessing the tribes' capacity to collect and report information on
crime in their jurisdictions, improving crime measurement capabilities
and information systems, integrating tribal crime statistics into
existing national reports, and carrying out studies on violent crime in
Indian tribal jurisdictions; and (3) collect and analyze data on
pretrial drug testing of offenders; treatment policies, practices, and
services available to arrestees; case processing of drug abuse
violators; State court management of drug-related cases and services;
and drug-free workplace policies in State and local agencies.
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) complete the
Consumer Price Index (CPI) revision; (2) continue improvements in the
CPI revision process that would make it possible to complete the CPI
weight update 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) complete the initial transition
from the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) to the new North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS); (4) expand the
Employment Cost Index (ECI) sample to produce more precise indices of
quality changes in employer wage and benefit costs by major industry and
major occupational group and to produce better annual estimates of
employer cost levels; (5) extend the application of quality adjustments
and accelerate the introduction of new products in the Producer Price
Index (PPI), expand PPI coverage for the first time to the construction
sector of the U.S. economy, and enhance coverage of the service sector
in the PPI and in BLS productivity data; and (6) improve data
dissemination by expanding the Internet public access site.
Bureau of the Census: Funding is requested to: (1) shift from planning
and testing for the 2000 Decennial Census to the operational phase based
on sampling for nonresponse follow up; (2) establish a nationwide
physical and technological infrastructure employing several hundred
thousand people based in 476 local Census Bureau offices to collect and
process data for Census 2000; (3) deliver Census 2000 questionnaires and
collect data from an estimated 118 million households; (4) tabulate the
data collected in Census 2000 for use in the reapportionment of
Congressional representation and in formulas for annually distributing
in excess of $100 billion in Federal funds; (5) prepare the American
Community Survey national sample for benchmarking these data against
Census 2000 data; (6) publish the first North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS)-based Annual Survey of Manufactures and
County Business Patterns reports in mid-2000, collect Annual Capital
Expenditures Survey data on a NAICS basis for 1999, restructure the
program of annual service industry surveys, and collect NAICS-based
annual statistics for additional service industries in the new program
for calendar years 1998 and 1999; and (7) complete dissemination of data
from the 1997 Economic Censuses, and begin preparations for the 2002
Economic Censuses and the 2002 Census of Governments.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1)
produce and enhance data compilations and analyses concerning patterns
of passenger travel and goods movements that are reported in the congres
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sionally-mandated Transportation Statistics Annual Report and companion
publications; (2) extend efforts to provide technical assistance in the
use of statistics and data products to State and local authorities; (3)
initiate analyses as directed by Congress in TEA-21, including the
Intermodal Transportation Data Base, Transportation Capital Stocks
Account, National Transportation Atlas Data Base, International Trade
Impact Study, and other analyses related to international
transportation; and (4) expand collections and services of the National
Transportation Library.
Economic Research Service: Funding is requested to: (1) enhance
commodity market analysis; (2) support an initiative on the economic
incentives for carbon sequestration and trace gas emissions control in
agriculture; (3) cooperate with the U.S. Global Change Research Program
(USGCRP) National Assessment activities; (4) provide economic analyses
in food-safety risk assessment; (5) meet the analytical information
needs of small farmers, niche marketers, and other casualties of an
industrializing agricultural sector; and (6) assess the effects of
electric utility deregulation on rural communities. The decrease in ERS
total funding reflects the proposal to reverse the 1999 transfer of
funds ($12.2 million) for the evaluation of domestic food assistance
programs from the Food and Nutrition Service.
Energy Information Administration: Funding is requested to: (1)
enhance international analysis capabilities to assess carbon mitigation,
permit trading, and other global climate change issues; (2) begin
assessing the accuracy and reliability of energy data systems such as
consumption surveys which are operating on a base that is reaching 20
years of age, well beyond the normal 10-year life-cycle; (3) continue
overhauling survey frames and data systems to maintain the ability to
analyze changes such as those brought on by deregulation and
restructuring in the natural gas and electricity industries; and (4)
seek further efficiency gains through the use of information processing
and communications technologies.
National Agricultural Statistics Service: Funding is requested to: (1)
conduct a survey of fruit and vegetable growers, as well as fruit and
vegetable packing houses, to help ensure food safety in the production
and processing of domestic and imported fruits and vegetables; (2)
expand measurement of chemical usage on cropland within the Mid-Atlantic
region, and lead a multi-agency collaborative effort to ``warehouse''
data and information from the many independent assessment activities
into an integrated and consistent geographically linked information
system in support of the National Environmental Monitoring and Research
Framework; (3) establish a permanent office in Puerto Rico; (4) collect
pesticide use data for the horticulture and greenhouse industries, and
expand pesticide use surveys for other commodities; and (5) conduct the
Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey, which occurs every 10
years following the Census of Agriculture and provides the only
comprehensive source of data on agricultural land ownership, financing,
and inputs by farm operators and landlords for each State. The decrease
in NASS total funding reflects 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)
redesign the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to
utilize a new web-based system; (2) improve dissemination of consumer
information on college costs and prices; (3) begin development of a
higher-education cost index, in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor
Statistics; (4) perform a post-secondary teacher education study that
standardizes the definition for teacher certification at the State
level; (5) develop individual State capacity to interpret, report, and
use National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data; (6) permit
State and local jurisdictions to provide annual NAEP-like indicators of
educational progress; (7) enhance the dissemination of NAEP data on the
Internet; and (8) increase the use of computers in all phases of NAEP
assessments.
National Center for Health Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1)
help States implement a major revision to the international coding
system for mortality, make further improvements in data quality and
timeliness, and maintain the scope of data available on births and
deaths; (2) support a fundamental sample redesign for the National
Health Interview Survey following the decennial census; (3) provide new,
state-of-the-art medical and communications technology to improve
quality and speed results for the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey; (4) begin to implement new approaches to monitoring
the health care delivery system, including organizational and financial
arrangements of providers, as part of a public/private effort to address
major data gaps in this area; (5) develop new approaches to acquiring
data on special populations such as racial and ethnic groups in order to
track progress in meeting health objectives, identify health
differentials, and better understand differences among groups; (6)
implement surveys to produce State level data for tracking changes in
access to care, insurance coverage, health status, and use of health
services as market and policy reforms are implemented; and (7) make data
more readily available to users by improving timeliness and access
through use of automated systems and the Internet.
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Table 11-1. 1998-2000 BUDGET AUTHORITY FOR PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
(In millions of dollars)
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1998 actual 1999 enacted 2000 request
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Bureau of Economic Analysis........................................ 42.5 43.2 49.4
Bureau of Justice Statistics....................................... 21.5 25.0 32.0
Bureau of Labor Statistics......................................... 380.5 398.9 420.9
Bureau of the Census............................................... 686.5 1,339.9 3,071.7
Periodic Censuses and Programs................................... 549.8 1,193.8 2,914.8
Salaries and Expenses............................................ 136.7 146.1 156.9
Bureau of Transportation Statistics................................ 31.0 31.0 31.0
Economic Research Service.......................................... 71.6 65.8 \1\ 55.6
Energy Information Administration.................................. 66.8 70.5 72.6
National Agricultural Statistics Service \2\....................... 118.3 104.0 100.6
National Center for Education Statistics........................... 91.0 104.0 117.5
Statistics....................................................... 59.0 68.0 77.5
Assessment....................................................... 32.0 36.0 40.0
National Center for Health Statistics.............................. 84.6 94.6 109.6
PHS Evaluation Funds............................................. 58.5 67.8 109.6
Budget Authority................................................. 26.0 26.8 .............
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\1\ Decrease reflects the proposal to reverse the 1999 transfer of $12.2 million for the evaluation of domestic
food assistance programs from the Food and Nutrition Service.
\2\ Includes funds for the periodic Census of Agriculture and Special Studies of $36.5, $23.6, and $16.5
(million) in 1998, 1999, and 2000, respectively.