[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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.