[Analytical Perspectives]
[Special Analyses and Presentations]
[12. Strengthening Federal Statistics]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]


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                  12.  STRENGTHENING FEDERAL STATISTICS

  Economic statistics are valuable tools that policy makers, industry 
leaders, and individuals use to understand developments in our economy. 
Their ability to make appropriate decisions about taxes, work, 
investments, and a host of other important issues depends critically on 
the relevance, accuracy, and timeliness of federal statistics. Data on 
real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and 
the trade deficit, for example, have a major impact on government 
spending, budget projections, and the allocation of federal funds. They 
also are critical to monetary, fiscal, trade, and regulatory policy. 
Economic data, such as measures of price change, have a significant 
influence on interest rates and cost-of-living adjustments that affect 
every American who runs a business, saves for retirement, or obtains a 
mortgage. The Administration has proposed initiatives to recognize new 
financial instruments, such as derivatives, in the Balance of Payments; 
continue to improve the Consumer Price Index; strengthen the source data 
used to measure the service sector; and accelerate the release of 
critical economic statistics. These initiatives will improve the quality 
of current federal economic statistics.
  Similarly, current, comparable data on the characteristics of the U.S. 
population are essential to monitor significant societal changes. The 
plan for the next decade is to re-engineer the 2010 Census in order to 
reduce operational risks, improve accuracy, provide more relevant data, 
and contain costs. The approach has three components:
    a simplified, short form only, 2010 Census and more timely 
          data based on eliminating the decennial long form through the 
          implementation of the American Community Survey;
    a central, continuously updated address universe and 
          associated geographical products employing satellite and 
          Global Positioning System technology for use in all decennial 
          census and demographic survey programs; and
    a well-tested and planned 2010 Census design produced 
          through systematic development well before mid-decade 
          operational testing.
  In particular, the American Community Survey represents a major 
modernization of the statistical system that will provide community 
profiles similar to those from the decennial census, but on a far more 
current basis. This will shift the traditional ``once every ten years'' 
long form data collection and data dissemination activity to a 
continuous activity providing current data every year.
  Under the aegis of the congressionally-mandated Interagency Council on 
Statistical Policy (ICSP), the principal statistical agencies continue 
to extend their collaborative endeavors in order to improve the overall 
performance and efficiency of the federal statistical system. Several 
recent initiatives will enhance the quality of data the federal 
statistical system produces. First, the passage of the Confidential 
Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA), 
included as Title V in the E-Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-
347), provides a uniform set of confidentiality protections and extends 
these protections to all individually identifiable data collected for 
statistical purposes under a pledge of confidentiality; this Act also 
permits the sharing of business data among the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Bureau of the Census. 
Since 1971, the Executive Branch has sought to shore up legal protection 
for the confidentiality of statistical information, as well as to permit 
some limited sharing of data for statistical purposes. The ability to 
share data will reduce paperwork burdens on businesses that provide 
information to the government and improve the comparability and accuracy 
of federal economic statistics. To achieve the greatest benefits from 
CIPSEA, complementary changes are needed in the ``Statistical Use'' 
section of the Internal Revenue Code. A legislative proposal to effect 
these changes has been endorsed by the Administration and submitted to 
the Congress.
  Second, the statistical agencies have developed a common statement of 
their principles for information quality, as well as their own 
individual statistical agency information quality guidelines. These 
actions were taken in response to OMB's Information Quality Guidelines 
(Public Law 106-554, known as the ``Information Quality Law''). The 
Information Quality Law represents the first time that the Executive 
Branch has developed a government-wide set of information quality 
guidelines, including agency-specific guidelines tailored to each 
agency's unique programs and information. Statistical agencies played a 
leadership role throughout the federal government in developing a 
comprehensive and consistent approach for implementation.
  Third, the ICSP has formed a working group of information technology 
(IT) leaders to better coordinate and explore opportunities to foster 
improved IT collaboration among the statistical agencies. The working 
group is examining areas such as jointly supporting IT services that are 
common to the statistical agencies, and adopting a standard data 
description language known as the extensible markup language (XML). 
Using the capabilities of XML should allow agencies to more easily 
manage statistical data and provide broader access to data users, 
thereby achieving better quality data, improved cost management, and 
increased user satisfaction.
  Fourth, the ICSP continues to support FedStats (www.fedstats.gov), the 
``one-stop shopping'' Internet site for federal statistics. The site 
provides easy access via an initial point of entry to the wide array of 
statistical information available to the public from more than 100 
federal agencies. The FedStats team has conducted a Section 508 
Accessibility Workshop to identify best practices to make statistical 
agency web content accessible to people with disabilities and is 
preparing a working paper based on the workshop findings. It is

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also examining ways to disseminate statistical information to promote a 
better understanding of statistics among the general public and to 
improve the FedStats search engine.
  Despite these accomplishments, rapid changes in our economy and 
society can threaten the relevance, accuracy, and timeliness of our 
nation's key statistics. Any growing inability of our statistical system 
to mirror accurately our economy and society, including the 
unprecedented growth of electronic commerce, could undermine core 
government activities, such as the accurate allocation of scarce federal 
funds. Fortunately, the most serious shortcomings of our statistical 
infrastructure would be substantially mitigated by four programs 
supported in the Administration's budget. These initiatives would:
    continue support for early planning of the 2010 Census 
          predicated on a fundamental re-engineering of the census 
          process (Bureau of the Census);
     continue implementation of the American Community Survey 
          program (Bureau of the Census);
     accelerate the release of some of the nation's most 
          important economic statistics (Bureau of Economic Analysis); 
          and
     increase the annual number of topical studies of key labor 
          force issues (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
  More broadly, the programs that provide essential statistical 
information for use by governments, businesses, researchers, and the 
public are carried out by some 70 agencies spread across every 
department and several independent agencies. Approximately 40 percent of 
the funding for these programs provides resources for ten agencies that 
have statistical activities as their principal mission. (Please see 
Table 12-1.) The remaining funding supports work in 60-plus agencies 
that carry out statistical activities in conjunction with other missions 
such as providing services or enforcing regulations. More comprehensive 
budget and program information about the federal statistical system will 
be available in OMB's annual report, Statistical Programs of the United 
States Government, Fiscal Year 2004, when it is published this summer. 
The following highlights elaborate on the Administration's proposals to 
strengthen the programs of the principal federal statistical agencies.

 HIGHLIGHTS OF 2004 PROGRAM PROPOSALS FOR PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES

  Bureau of Economic Analysis: Funding is requested to move forward with 
critical improvements to the nation's economic accounts to: (1) 
accelerate the release of some of the nation's most important economic 
statistics to dramatically increase their usefulness to policy makers, 
business leaders, and other users; (2) update the U.S. Balance of 
Payments to recognize derivatives and other new financial instruments, 
and to meet U.S. statistical obligations to international organizations; 
(3) improve the economic accounts by acquiring monthly real-time data 
from private sources to fill data gaps in current measures; and (4) 
conduct a quarterly survey of large and volatile international services 
such as telecommunications, finance, and insurance.
  Bureau of Justice Statistics: Funding is requested to enhance and 
maintain core statistical programs, including: (1) the National Crime 
Victimization Survey, the nation's primary source of information on 
criminal victimization, which plans to automate household data 
collection; (2) cybercrime statistics on the incidence, magnitude, and 
consequences of electronic and computer crime; (3) law enforcement data 
from over 3,000 agencies on the organization and administration of 
police and sheriffs' departments; (4) nationally representative 
prosecution data on resources, policies, and practices of local 
prosecutors; (5) court and sentencing statistics, including federal and 
state case processing data; and (6) data on correctional populations and 
facilities from federal, state, and local governments.
  Bureau of Labor Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) produce two 
Current Population Survey supplements on key labor force issues every 
year, such as volunteerism and worker turnover, to provide insights into 
trends and their effect on the business cycle; (2) continue to modernize 
the computing systems for monthly processing of the Producer Price Index 
(PPI) and U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes, improve index accuracy, 
and produce new data outputs such as experimental PPI's for goods and 
services that will provide the first economy-wide measures of changes in 
producer prices; (3) continue to implement a significant change in the 
way the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is revised and updated by instituting 
a process for continuous improvement in place of the periodic major 
revisions that were undertaken about every ten years; and (4) continue 
to enhance and consolidate core BLS information technology 
infrastructure (through a central Department of Labor appropriation).
  Bureau of the Census: Funding is requested for the Census Bureau's 
economic and demographic programs and for a re-engineered 2010 Census. 
For the Census Bureau's economic and demographic programs, funding is 
requested to: (1) support the completion of the data processing 
activities and product preparations associated with disseminating 
results of the 2002 Economic Census and the Census of Governments; (2) 
improve measurement of services by expanding key source data for 
critical quarterly and annual estimates of our nation's Gross Domestic 
Product; (3) offer electronic reporting for almost 100 current economic 
surveys; (4) provide computing capacity required for mission critical 
data products in the event of a disaster; and (5) implement the first 
new samples based on 2000 Census data for ongoing federal household 
surveys that gather data on topics such as crime, employment, and 
health. For 2010 Census planning, funding is requested to continue

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to: (1) conduct extensive planning, testing, and development activities 
to support a re-engineered 2010 Census; (2) correct the accuracy of map 
feature locations in 600 of the nation's 3,232 counties; and (3) 
implement the American Community Survey to collect current ``long form'' 
data instead of using a long form in the 2010 Census.
  Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) 
collect more timely, comprehensive, and geographically detailed data on 
freight movement and personal travel; (2) advance the Administration's 
Geospatial One-Stop e-Government initiative; (3) develop and produce a 
series of indicators of transportation system performance; (4) publish 
transportation issue briefs that bridge the gap between researchers and 
policy makers; and (5) improve the collection and analysis of airline 
data.
  Economic Research Service: Funding is requested to: (1) strengthen the 
economic information and analytical bases for genomics research, 
application, and education program decisions in coordination with an 
increase in United States Department of Agriculture genomics research; 
and (2) develop the Security Analysis System for U.S. agriculture.
  Energy Information Administration: Funding is requested to: (1) 
improve the data quality of natural gas and electricity surveys, (2) 
redesign petroleum surveys to reflect new fuel standards, (3) complete 
the update of the 20-year old survey designs for residential and 
commercial building energy consumption based on the 2000 Census, (4) 
integrate the operation of the Weekly Natural Gas Underground Storage 
Survey as an ongoing EIA activity, and (5) continue development and 
operation of the Voluntary Greenhouse Gases survey to support the 
President's Initiative on Greenhouse Gases.
  National Agricultural Statistics Service: Funding is requested to: (1) 
restore and modernize the agricultural estimates program to ensure the 
continuation of state, regional, and national level agricultural 
estimates of sufficient precision, quality, and detail to meet the needs 
of a broad customer base; (2) implement the NASS e-Government tactical 
plan, specifically the infrastructure needs and the continued 
development of electronic data reporting and enhanced services to the 
public; and (3) maintain development of an annual integrated locality-
based county estimates program.
  National Center for Education Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) 
support new data collection for the Schools and Staffing Survey, the 
principal source of information on the characteristics of America's 
schools and the teachers and principals who work in them; (2) improve 
survey designs for the Study of Students and Faculty, the National 
Household Survey, and the October supplement to the Current Population 
Survey; (3) continue U.S. participation in data collections and analyses 
that depict international educational performance and permit comparison 
of United States' educational progress with those of other countries; 
(4) continue support for the National Assessment of Educational Progress 
(NAEP) Program and its role in the No Child Left Behind Act; and (5) 
improve electronic data collection and dissemination efforts.
  National Center for Health Statistics: Funding is requested to: (1) 
maintain and rebuild several core data collections, including the 
National Health Interview Survey, which is undertaking a multi-year 
effort to identify the sample for household surveys for the next decade 
and to overhaul the basic systems through which data are collected, 
processed, and made available to users; and (2) support the National 
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, through which health 
information is obtained by direct physical examinations and laboratory 
tests.

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                   TABLE 12-1.  2002-2004 BUDGET AUTHORITY FOR PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
                                            (in millions of dollars)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                 2002        2003        2004
                                                                                actual     estimate    estimate
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau of Economic Analysis.................................................        $ 57        $ 67        $ 78

Bureau of Justice Statistics................................................          33          34          36

Bureau of Labor Statistics..................................................         475         498         512

Bureau of the Census\1\                                                              499         725         682
  Salaries and Expenses\1\..................................................         189         225         241
  Periodic Censuses and Programs............................................         310         500         441

Bureau of Transportation Statistics.........................................          31          35          36

Economic Research Service...................................................          67          73          77

Energy Information Administration...........................................          78          80          80

National Agricultural Statistics Service \2\................................         115         141         136

National Center for Education Statistics                                         \3\ 197         190         191
  Statistics................................................................          85          95          95
  Assessment................................................................     \3\ 112          95          96

National Center for Health Statistics                                                127         126         125
  PHS Evaluation Funds......................................................          23          47          52
  Budget Authority..........................................................         104          79          73
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Includes Mandatory Appropriations of $20 million for each year.
\2\ Includes funds for the periodic Census of Agriculture of $25, $41, and $25 million in 2002, 2003, and 2004,
  respectively. The 2004 Budget includes a reduction of $16.5 million due to the lower cyclical funding needs of
  the quinquennial Census of Agriculture (funding needs for the Census are at their peak level in 2003).
\3\ Includes $17 million in administrative contract costs not necessary in 2003 or 2004, consistent with the
  assessment plan authorized in the No Child Left Behind Act.