[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 125 (Wednesday, June 30, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39408-39409]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-14819]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of the Census

[Docket Number 040616185-4185-01]


Notice of Data Sharing Activity

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice and request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) plans to provide 
certain business data collected in its 2002 Economic Census to the 
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) for statistical purposes exclusively. 
In accordance with the requirement of section 524(d) of the 
Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 
2002 (CIPSEA), the Census Bureau is providing the opportunity for 
public comment on this data-sharing action. Through the use of these 
shared data, the BEA expects to improve the quality of data collected 
by the Census Bureau under the authority of Title 13 of the United 
States Code (U.S.C.), and collected by the BEA under the authority of 
the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act by 
identifying data-quality issues arising from reporting differences in 
the Census Bureau and BEA surveys. The Census Bureau and BEA will 
publish nonconfidential aggregate reports (public use) that have 
cleared the BEA and Census Bureau disclosure review.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before August 30, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Please direct all written comments on this proposed program 
to the Director, U.S Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Washington, 
DC 20233-0100.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information on 
this proposed program should be directed to Mr. Julius Smith, Jr., 
Chief, Special Studies Branch, Manufacturing and Construction Division, 
U.S. Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Washington, DC 20233-6900, 
by phone at (301) 763-7662 or by fax at (301) 457-1318 or by e-mail at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The CIPSEA (Pub. L. 107-347, Subtitle V; 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) 
and the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (Pub. 
L. 94-472 as amended; 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108) allow the BEA and the Census 
Bureau to share certain business data for exclusively statistical 
purposes. Section 524(d) of the CIPSEA requires a Federal Register 
notice announcing the intent to share data (allowing 60 days for public 
comment).
    Section 524(d) also requires us to provide information about the 
terms of the agreement for data sharing. For the purposes of this 
notice, the Census Bureau has decided to group these terms by three 
categories. The categories are as follows:
     Shared data.
     Statistical purposes for the shared data.
     Data access and confidentiality.

Shared Data

    The Census Bureau proposes to provide the BEA with data collected 
from the 2002 Economic Census and Business Register. The agreement also 
calls for the BEA to share with the Census Bureau data collected from 
the Foreign Direct Investment surveys. The BEA will issue a separate 
notice addressing this issue.
    The BEA will use these data for statistical purposes exclusively. 
Through record linking, the BEA expects to improve the quality of data 
collected under the authority of Title 13 of the U.S.C, and the 
International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act by 
identifying data-quality issues arising from reporting differences in 
the Census Bureau and the BEA surveys.

Statistical Purposes for the Shared Data

    The data collected from the 2002 Economic Census and Business 
Register are used to estimate employment, payroll, and receipt data of 
U.S. companies. Statistics from the census are published in separate 
data publications. All data are collected under Sections 131 and 224 of 
Title 13 of the U.S.C.

[[Page 39409]]

Data Access and Confidentiality

    Title 13 of the U.S.C. protects the confidentiality of these data. 
The data may be seen only by persons sworn to uphold the 
confidentiality of the information. Access to the shared data will be 
restricted to specifically authorized personnel and will be provided 
for statistical purposes only. All BEA employees with access to these 
data will become Census Bureau Special Sworn Employees--meaning that 
they, under penalty of law, must uphold the data's confidentiality. To 
further safeguard the confidentiality of the data, the Census Bureau 
has conducted an Information Technology Security Review of the BEA. The 
results of this project are subject to disclosure review. Disclosure 
review is a process conducted to verify that the data to be released do 
not reveal any confidential information.

    Dated: June 24, 2004.
Hermann Habermann,
Deputy Director, Bureau of the Census.
[FR Doc. 04-14819 Filed 6-29-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P