[Analytical Perspectives]
[Crosscutting Programs]
[4. Strengthening Federal Statistics]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]
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4. STRENGTHENING FEDERAL STATISTICS
Federal statistical programs produce key information to inform public
and private decision makers about a range of topics of interest,
including the economy, the population, agriculture, crime, education,
energy, the environment, health, science, and transportation. The
ability of governments, businesses, and citizens to make appropriate
decisions about budgets, employment, investments, taxes, and a host of
other important matters depends critically on the ready availability of
relevant, accurate, and timely Federal statistics.
The Federal statistical community remains on alert for opportunities
to improve these measures of our Nation's performance. For example,
during 2007, Federal statistical agencies (i) published prototype
estimates of Gross Domestic Product by metropolitan area for 2001-2005,
which can be used to determine the overall size and growth of
metropolitan economies, to assess the impacts of natural or man-made
disasters on cities, and to analyze comparative industrial growth across
metropolitan America (Bureau of Economic Analysis); (ii) developed a
website that presents recent trends in mortality in State prisons, local
jails, and State juvenile correctional facilities (Bureau of Justice
Statistics); (iii) expanded coverage of the Producer Price Index to over
70 percent of services output, by publishing new service sector indexes
for management consulting, blood banks, computer training schools, and
machinery and equipment repair (Bureau of Labor Statistics); (iv)
developed an innovative software tool, called GeoMiler, to compute
likely transportation routes more efficiently for the nearly 6 million
freight shipments reported in the Commodity Flow Survey (Bureau of
Transportation Statistics); (v) completed street features in the
Decennial Census geographic database for 737 additional counties,
bringing the total completed to about 90 percent of all 3,232 counties
in the United States and Puerto Rico (Census Bureau); (vi) launched two
new Internet gateways for State Energy Profiles and Country Energy
Profiles (Energy Information Administration); (vii) enhanced
representation of the Nation's socially disadvantaged and minority farm
operators in the Census of Agriculture (National Agricultural Statistics
Service); and (viii) offered significantly more timely access to
National Health Interview Survey data on the Internet (National Center
for Health Statistics).
For Federal statistical programs to benefit effectively their wide
range of users, the underlying data systems must be viewed as credible.
In order to foster this credibility, Federal statistical programs seek
to adhere to high quality standards and to maintain integrity and
efficiency in the production of data. As the collectors and providers of
these basic statistics, the responsible agencies act as data stewards--
balancing public and private decision makers' needs for information with
legal and ethical obligations to minimize reporting burden, respect
respondents' privacy, and protect the confidentiality of the data
provided to the Government. This chapter discusses the development of
standards that principal statistical programs use to assess their
performance and presents highlights of their 2009 budget proposals.
Performance Standards
Description of Dimensions
Product Quality
Relevance: Qualitative or quantitative descriptions of the degree to which products and
services are useful to users and responsive to users' needs.
Accuracy: Qualitative or quantitative measure of important features of correctness,
validity, and reliability of data and information products measured as degree of closeness
to target values.
Timeliness: Qualitative or quantitative measure of the timing of information releases.
Program Performance
Cost: Quantitative measure of the dollar amount used to produce data products and services.
Dissemination: Qualitative or quantitative information on the availability, accessibility,
and distribution of products and services.
Mission Achievement: Qualitative or quantitative information about the effect of, or
satisfaction with, statistical programs.
Key to Statistical Agencies
BEA = Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce
BJS = Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice
BLS = Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor
BTS = Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Department of Transportation
Census = Census Bureau, Department of Commerce
EIA = Energy Information Administration, Department of Energy
ERS = Economic Research Service, Department of Agriculture
NASS = National Agricultural Statistics Service, Department of Agriculture
NCES = National Center for Education Statistics, Department of Education
NCHS = National Center for Health Statistics, Department of Health and Human Services
ORES = Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics, Social Security Administration
SOI = Statistics of Income, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury
SRS = Science Resources Statistics Division, National Science Foundation
Statistical programs maintain the quality of their data or information
products as well as their credibility by setting high performance
standards for their activities. The statistical agencies and statistical
units represented on the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy
(ICSP) have collaborated on developing a set of common performance
standards for use under the Government Performance and Results Act and
in completing the Administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool
(PART). Federal statistical agencies agreed that there are six
conceptual dimensions within two general areas of focus that are key to
measuring and monitoring statistical programs. The first area of focus
is Product Quality, encompassing the traditional dimensions of
relevance, accuracy, and timeliness. The second area of focus is Program
Performance, encompassing the dimensions of cost, dissemination, and
mission achievement.
Statistical agencies historically have focused on measuring
performance in the area of product quality, especially dimensions of
accuracy and timeliness that are most amenable to quantitative
measurement. Relevance, also an accepted measure of quality, can be
either a qualitative description of the usefulness of products or a
quantitative measure such as a customer satisfaction score. Relevance is
more difficult to measure, and the indicators that do exist are more
varied.
Program performance standards form the basis for evaluating
effectiveness. They address questions such as: Are taxpayer dollars
being spent most effectively? Are products being made available to those
who need them? Are agencies meeting their mission requirements or making
it possible for other agencies to meet their missions? The indicators
available to measure program performance for statistical activities were
historically less well developed than those for product quality, but
nearly all principal statistical agencies have now devel
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oped and implemented a complete set of program performance standards.
Product quality and program performance standards are designed to
serve as indicators when answering specific questions in the
Administration's PART process. Chart 4-1 presents each principal Federal
statistical agency's assessment of the status of its current and planned
use of indicators on the six dimensions. With the exception of cost
indicators, where one agency (NCHS) is still planning its measure, each
ICSP agency has now developed performance measures for all six
dimensions. Use of the indicators may be for internal management,
strategic planning, or annual performance reporting. The dimensions
shown in the chart re
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flect an overall set of indicators for statistical activities, but the
specific measures vary among the individual programs depending on their
unique characteristics and requirements. Annual performance reports and
PARTs provide these specific measures, as well as additional information
about performance goals and targets and whether a program is meeting, or
making measurable progress toward meeting, its performance goals. The
examples below illustrate different ways agencies track their
performance on each dimension.
Product Quality: Statistical agencies agree that product quality
encompasses many attributes, including (but not limited to) relevance,
accuracy, and timeliness. The basic measures in this group relate to the
quality of specific products, thereby providing actionable information
to managers. These are ``outcome-oriented'' measures and are key to the
usability of information products. Statistical agencies or units
establish targets and monitor how well targets are met. In some sense,
relevance relates to ``doing the right things,'' while accuracy and
timeliness relate to ``doing things right.''
Relevance: Qualitative or quantitative descriptions of the
degree to which products and services are useful and
responsive to users' needs. Relevance of data products and
analytic reports may be monitored through a professional
review process and ongoing contacts with data users. Product
relevance may be indicated by customer satisfaction with
product content, information from customers about product use,
demonstration of product improvements, comparability with
other data series, agency responses to customer suggestions
for improvement, new or customized products or services,
frequency of use, or responses to data requests from users
(including policy makers). Through a variety of professional
review activities, agencies maintain the relevance and
validity of their products, and encourage data users and other
stakeholders to contribute to the agencies' data collection
and dissemination programs. Striving for relevance requires
monitoring to ensure that information systems anticipate
change and evolve to appropriately measure our dynamic society
and economy.
Accuracy: Qualitative or quantitative measures of important
features of correctness, validity, and reliability of data and
information products measured as degree of closeness to target
values. For statistical data, accuracy may be defined as the
degree of closeness to the target value and measured as
sampling error and various aspects of nonsampling error (e.g.,
response rates, size of revisions, coverage, edit
performance). For analysis products, accuracy may be the
quality of the reasoning, reasonableness of assumptions, and
clarity of the exposition, typically measured and monitored
through review processes. In addition, accuracy is assessed
and improved by internal reviews, comparisons of data among
different surveys, linkages of survey data to administrative
records, redesigns of surveys, or expansions of sample sizes.
Timeliness: Qualitative or quantitative measure of timing
of information releases. Timeliness may be measured as time
from the close of the reference period to the release of
information, or customer satisfaction with timeliness.
Timeliness may also be measured as how well agencies meet
scheduled and publicized release dates, expressed as a percent
of release dates met.
Program Performance: Statistical agencies agree that program
performance encompasses balancing the dimensions of cost, dissemination,
and mission accomplishment for the agency as a whole; operating
efficiently and effectively; ensuring that customers receive the
information they need; and serving the information needs of the Nation.
Costs of products or programs may be used to develop efficiency
measures. Dissemination involves making sure customers receive the
information they need via the most appropriate mechanisms. Mission
achievement means that the information program makes a difference.
Hence, three key dimensions are being used to indicate program
performance: cost (input), dissemination (output), and mission
achievement (outcome).
Cost: Quantitative measure of the dollar amount used to
produce data products or services. The development and use of
financial performance measures within the Federal Government
is an established goal; the intent of such measures is to
determine the ``true costs'' of various programs or
alternative modes of operation at the Federal level. Examples
of cost data include full costs of products or programs,
return on investment, dollar value of efficiencies, and ratios
of cost to products distributed.
Dissemination: Qualitative or quantitative information on
the availability, accessibility, and distribution of products
and services. Most agencies have goals to improve product
accessibility, particularly through the Internet. Typical
measures include: on-demand requests fulfilled, product
downloads, degree of accessibility, customer satisfaction with
ease of use, number of participants at user conferences,
citations of agency data in the media, number of Internet user
sessions, number of formats in which data are available,
amount of technical support provided to data users, exhibits
to inform the public about information products, issuance of
newsletters describing products, usability testing of web
sites, and assessing compliance with Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act, which requires Federal agencies to make
their electronic and information technology accessible to
people with disabilities.
Mission Achievement: Qualitative or quantitative information
about the effect of, or satisfaction with, statistical
programs. For Government statis
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tical programs, this dimension responds to the question: Have
we achieved our objectives and met the expectations of our
stakeholders? Under this dimension, statistical programs
document their contributions to the goals and missions of
parent departments and other agencies, the Administration, the
Congress, and information users in the private sector and the
general public. For statistical programs, this broad dimension
involves meeting recognized societal information needs; it
also addresses the linkage between statistical outputs and
programmatic outcomes.
However, identifying this linkage is far from
straightforward. It is frequently difficult to trace the
effects of information products on the public good. Such
products often are necessary intermediate inputs in the
creation of high-visibility information whose societal benefit
is clearly recognized. For example, the economic statistics
produced by a variety of agencies are directly used by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis in the calculation of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), which analysts universally use to
assess changes in the level of domestic economic activity.
Similarly, statistics from specific surveys are directly used
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the calculation of the
Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is widely used in diverse
applications, such as indexing pensions for retirees. As a
result, a number of statistical agencies can claim credit for
contributing to the GDP and/or the CPI and to the many uses of
these information products. In addition, statistics produced
by Federal agencies are used to track the performance of
programs managed by their parent or other organizations
related to topics such as crime, education, energy, the
environment, health, science, and transportation.
Moreover, beyond the direct and focused uses of statistical
products, the statistical agencies and their programs serve a
diverse and dispersed set of data users working on a broad
range of applications. Users include government policy makers
at the Federal, State, and local levels, business leaders,
households, academic researchers, analysts at public policy
institutes and trade groups, marketers and planners in the
private sector, and many others. Information produced by
statistical agencies often is combined with other information
for use in the decision-making process. Thus, the relationship
between program outputs and their beneficial uses and outcomes
is often complex and difficult to track. Consequently,
agencies use both qualitative and quantitative indicators to
make this linkage as explicit as feasible.
In the absence of preferred quantitative indicators,
qualitative narratives can indicate how statistical agency
products contribute to and evaluate progress toward important
goals established for government or private programs. In
particular, narratives can highlight how statistical agencies
measure the Nation's social and economic structure, and how
the availability of the information influences changes in
policies and programs. These narratives contribute to
demonstrating mission accomplishment, particularly in response
to questions in Section I of the PART, ``program purpose and
design.'' Narratives may describe statistical information's
effects on measuring agency policy or change of policy,
supporting research focused on policy issues, informing debate
on policy issues, or providing in-house consulting support.
In addition to narratives, quantitative measures may be used
to reflect mission achievement. For example, customer
satisfaction with the statistical agency or unit indicates if
the agency or unit has met the expectations of its
stakeholders.
Chart 4-2. MOST RECENT PART SUMMARY RATINGS FOR STATISTICAL PROGRAMS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary Rating
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau of Economic Analysis Effective
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Criminal Justice Statistics Effective
Program
National Criminal History Moderately Effective
Improvement Program
Bureau of Labor Statistics Effective
Bureau of Transportation Statistics Moderately Effective
Census Bureau
Current Demographic Statistics Effective
Decennial Census Moderately Effective
Intercensal Demographic Estimates Moderately Effective
Survey Sample Redesign Effective
Economic Census Effective
Current Economic Statistics Moderately Effective
/Census of Governments
Economic Research Service Effective
Energy Information Administration Results Not Demonstrated
National Agricultural Statistics Moderately Effective
Service
National Center for Education
Statistics
Statistics Effective
Assessment Effective
National Center for Health Moderately Effective
Statistics
Science Resources Statistics
Division, NSF
NSF's Infrastructure and Effective
Instrumentation component
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of the 14 principal Federal statistical agencies or units that are
members of the ICSP, eleven agencies have programs that have been
assessed using the PART process. All but one of these agencies' programs
have received PART summary ratings of Effective or Moderately Effective,
as shown in Chart 4-2. While recognizing the strength of the Energy
Information Administration's purpose and management, in 2004 EIA
received an initial rating of ``Results Not Demonstrated'' for two key
reasons, both of which have since been rectified. At the time of the
evaluation, EIA had re
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cently adopted new performance measures and lacked necessary historical
baselines and future targets; these now exist for all measures. EIA was
also critiqued for having no recurring independent evaluation of its
entire program. EIA recruited an energy expert from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology to select and lead a team to conduct such an
evaluation, and the team completed its report in 2006. EIA management
accomplished one of the team's recommendations in 2007 by obtaining
Principal Economic Indicator status for the Weekly Natural Gas Storage
Report and is implementing several of the team's other recommendations
as part of its strategic planning process. As additional ICSP agency
programs have an opportunity to undergo the PART process, the agencies
plan to continue to use the results of the collaborative performance
standards development effort to help maintain and extend their generally
favorable assessments.
Highlights of 2009 Program Budget Proposals
The programs that provide essential statistical information for use by
governments, businesses, researchers, and the public are carried out by
more than 70 agencies spread across every department and several
independent agencies. Excluding cyclical funding for the Decennial
Census, nearly 40 percent of the total budget for these programs
provides resources for 13 agencies or units that have statistical
activities as their principal mission. (Please see Table 4-1.) The
remaining funding supports work in more than 60 agencies or units 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 2009, when it is published later this
year. The following highlights elaborate on the Administration's
proposals to support the programs of the principal Federal statistical
agencies.
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA): Funding is requested to continue
BEA's core programs, and to: (1) extend the prototype R&D satellite
account, funded by the National Science Foundation in 2006 and 2007,
with annual updates and extensions to BEA's GDP and other estimates and
eventual full incorporation into the economic accounts; (2) develop a
more accurate measure of the health care sector in GDP and create a
supplemental, satellite account that provides detailed and specific
information on the expenditures of the health care industry and the
costs of treating specific diseases; and (3) ensure the continued
improvement of the accuracy and relevance of BEA's economic accounts
data.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): Funding is requested for the
maintenance of BJS' core statistical programs, including: (1) criminal
victimization statistics; (2) cybercrime data on the incidence,
magnitude, and consequences of electronic and computer crime to
households and businesses; (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 (BLS): Funding is requested to maintain
BLS' core programs, and to: 1) address the rising costs of the Current
Population Survey (CPS) and avoid a reduction in the accuracy of CPS
estimates both by requesting an additional appropriation and by
reallocating funds within BLS through the elimination of lower-priority
programs, such as the American Time Use Survey, that do not directly
support Principal Federal Economic Indicators; (2) initiate continuous
updating of the housing and geographic area samples in the Consumer
Price Index (CPI), which will improve the accuracy and timeliness of the
CPI; and (3) modernize the computing systems for monthly processing of
the Producer Price Index and U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS): Funding is requested to
develop measures of congestion and for the maintenance of BTS' core
statistical programs, including: (1) production of data products from
the 2007 Commodity Flow Survey, a major national benchmark survey of
shippers; (2) release of monthly statistics on the commodities and mode
of transportation used in trading with the United States' largest
partners; (3) production of a core set of economic data and indicators,
including the Transportation Services Index, multi-factor productivity
measures, the State Transit Expenditure Survey, and the Air Travel Price
Index; (4) release of the National Transportation Atlas Data Base, a
compendium of national geospatial transportation data; and (5)
dissemination of the Transportation Statistics Annual Report and other
key publications on the national transportation system.
Census Bureau: Funding is requested for the Census Bureau's ongoing
economic and demographic programs and for a re-engineered 2010 Census.
For the 2010 Census Program, funding is requested to: (1) conduct
planning, testing, and development activities, including completion of
dress rehearsal operations and assessments, and carry out several major
operations for the 2010 Census, including Address Canvassing, while
making final preparations for the remaining operations; (2) update the
road network to a more recent vintage that includes new streets and
roads constructed
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in counties that were aligned very early in the program; and (3)
continue to conduct the American Community Survey to provide
socioeconomic data on an ongoing basis rather than waiting for once-a-
decade censuses, releasing data for all places with a population of
20,000 or larger. For the Census Bureau's other economic and demographic
programs, funding is requested to: (1) process returns for the 2007
Economic Census and conduct more than 100 annual, quarterly, and monthly
surveys that provide key national economic statistics; (2) create
Internet and printed reports containing government counts, employment
levels, and finance data for the 2007 Census of Governments; (3) operate
the Survey of Income and Program Participation at the traditional sample
size and incorporate improvements; and (4) maintain the accuracy and
relevance of Current Population Survey data.
Economic Research Service (ERS): Funding is requested to continue ERS'
core programs, and to: (1) strengthen and enhance the ERS market
analysis and outlook program to provide timely analyses of global
agricultural product markets; and (2) analyze the regional impacts of
bioenergy production and evaluate issues related to transportation
networks, feedstock storage, marketing channels, and shifts in commodity
production.
Energy Information Administration (EIA): Funding is requested to
continue ongoing EIA operations to maintain critical energy data
coverage, analysis, and forecasting, and to: (1) enhance petroleum and
natural gas data reliability and statistical accuracy; (2) complete
development and begin initiating monthly ethanol and biofuels data
collections on a national and regional basis as mandated in Section 1508
of the Energy Policy Act of 2005; (3) combine the environmental data
previously collected by the Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design
Report into two existing electric power surveys; (4) resume development
and testing of the next generation National Energy Model to replace the
existing National Energy Modeling System; and (5) enhance EIA's global
oil, gas, and coal analysis and forecasting capabilities.
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS): Funding is requested
to continue NASS core programs and to: (1) enhance the quality,
precision, and detail of NASS State, regional, and national estimates to
help ensure that they meet customer needs; (2) provide a data series on
bioenergy production and utilization, (3) measure energy production and
use on farms through the Census of Agriculture; (4) reduce the cyclical
fluctuations of annual funding needs for the Census of Agriculture; (5)
summarize and publish the 2007 Census of Agriculture, to be released in
February 2009, and (6) begin preparation of numerous census follow-on
studies, including a revamped Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey to
evaluate current access to reuse water, quantities of water used, and
costs associated with various water delivery systems.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): Funding is requested
to continue NCES' core programs and to: (1) conduct the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, including voluntary 12th grade
reading and mathematics assessments, in 2009; (2) conduct a new high
school longitudinal study that will begin with a cohort of 9th graders
in 2009 and follow them through postsecondary education and into the
workforce; (3) conduct surveys and analyze data from international
studies such as the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study and the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment and
plan for new international assessments; (4) analyze data from the 2007-
08 Schools and Staffing Survey and collect data for the Teacher Followup
Study; and (5) conduct the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal
Survey, which provides information on the progress of postsecondary
students.
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS): Funding is requested to
continue data collection, analysis, and dissemination activities for key
national health data systems, including the National Vital Statistics
System, National Health Interview Survey, National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES), and National Health Care Survey; and to:
(1) further gains in timeliness by implementing systems improvements in
data collection and processing; (2) work on the creation and use of new
data access tools and tutorials to ensure data are available in easily
accessible forms; (3) use birth and death data from the States for
tracking priority health initiatives in prevention, cancer control, out
of wedlock births, and teenage pregnancy; (4) transition from
International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9-CM to ICD-10-CM code
sets to improve comparability between mortality and morbidity data in
the U.S. and internationally; (5) ensure availability of NHANES data on
diet and nutrition, blood pressure, and other health indicators; and (6)
allow the National Health Interview Survey to return to its designed
sample of 100,000, permitting estimates for smaller populations to be
published.
Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics (ORES), SSA: Funding is
requested to continue ORES' core programs, and to: (1) further modernize
ORES's processes for developing and disseminating data from the Social
Security Administration's major administrative data files for
statistical purposes; (2) support outside surveys and linkage of SSA
administrative data to surveys; (3) create a new public use file of
administrative data on earnings histories and benefits for a sample of
Social Security Numbers; and 4) evaluate the analytic validity of a
synthetic data file based on data from the 1990-1993 and 1996 Survey of
Income and Program Participation panels matched to SSA and IRS
administrative data.
Science Resources Statistics Division (SRS), NSF: Funding is requested
to implement ongoing programs on the science and engineering enterprise,
and
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to: (1) continue redesign and improvement activities for a broad range
of surveys, particularly the suite of research and development surveys;
(2) support the Science of Science and Innovation Policy initiative to
develop the data, tools, and knowledge needed for a new science of
science policy by enhancing the comparability, scope, and availability
of international data; (3) implement a full-scale pilot of a redesigned
Survey of Industrial Research and Development; (4) develop a pilot data
collection on postdoctoral students; and (5) enhance SRS data linking,
data extraction, and data matching activities.
Statistics of Income Division (SOI), IRS: Funding is requested to
continue SOI's core programs, and to: (1) continue to modernize tax data
collection systems, particularly to more efficiently assimilate into SOI
systems data captured from the electronic filing of tax and information
returns; (2) examine means to better mask individual records to minimize
the risk of reidentification in the Individual Public Use cross-section
file; (3) undertake a feasibility study to develop an Individual Public
Use panel data file; (4) develop statistical techniques to identify
outliers and edit data in IRS administrative population files; and (5)
modernize and expedite dissemination of data products and reports on the
www.irs.gov/TaxStats website.
Table 4-1. 2007-2009 BUDGET AUTHORITY FOR PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES\1\
(In millions of dollars)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimate
2007 -------------------------
Actual 2008 2009
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau of Economic Analysis.............................................. 80 80 91
Bureau of Justice Statistics \2\......................................... 47 49 53
Bureau of Labor Statistics............................................... 548 544 593
Bureau of Transportation Statistics...................................... 28 27 27
Census Bureau \3\........................................................ 913 1260 2635
Salaries and Expenses \3\.............................................. 217 233 269
Periodic Censuses and Programs......................................... 696 1027 2366
Economic Research Service \4\............................................ 75 77 82
Energy Information Administration........................................ 91 95 111
National Agricultural Statistics Service \5\............................. 147 162 153
National Center for Education Statistics................................. 183 192 244
Statistics............................................................. 90 88 105
Assessment............................................................. 88 98 130
National Assessment Governing Board.................................... 5 6 9
National Center for Health Statistics \6\................................ 107 114 125
Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics, SSA...................... 15 20 16
Science Resources Statistics Division, NSF............................... 36 36 40
Statistics of Income Division, IRS....................................... 38 41 41
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Reflects any recissions.
\2\ Includes funds for management and administrative costs of $12, $14, and $15 million in 2007, 2008, 2009,
respectively that were previously displayed separately.
\3\ Includes Mandatory Appropriations of $20 million in 2007 and $30 million in 2008 and 2009 for the Survey of
Program Dynamics and collection of data related to the allocation to States of State Children's Health
Insurance Program funds.
\4\ 2007 funding assumes the reallocation of $350,000 provided in 2006 for a comprehensive report on the
economic development and current status of the sheep industry in the United States. Funding for that purpose
will not be needed in 2008.
\5\ Includes funds for the periodic Census of Agriculture of $36, $52, and $39 million in 2007, 2008, and 2009,
respectively. The FY 2009 Budget reflects a decrease of $8.7 million, due to the cyclical nature of the census
preparations.
\6\ All funds from the Public Health Service Evaluation Fund. Administrative costs for NCHS that previously were
displayed as part of the NCHS budget line are now reflected in two consolidated CDC-wide budget lines for
management and administrative costs.