[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 184 (Friday, September 22, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55522-55523]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-8044]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys

AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the 
President.

ACTION: Notice of decision.

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SUMMARY: As part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality, 
objectivity, utility, and integrity of information collected and 
disseminated by the Federal Government, the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) is issuing revised Standards and Guidelines for 
Statistical Surveys. OMB proposed revised standards and requested 
public comment on July 14, 2005 (70 FR 40746-40747). The proposed 
standards were based on recommendations from the Federal Committee on 
Statistical Methodology's (FCSM) Subcommittee on Standards for 
Statistical Surveys whose charge was to update and revise OMB 
Statistical Policy Directive No. 1, Standards for Statistical Surveys, 
and OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 2, Publication of Statistics. 
The guidance, which applies to all Federal agencies subject to the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, is intended to ensure that the results 
of statistical surveys sponsored by the Federal Government are as 
reliable and useful as possible. OMB received six public comments on 
the proposed standards and has made some modifications to the proposed 
standards and guidelines in response to these comments. OMB is now 
issuing these Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys as 
final, and they are available in their entirety along with the public 
comments and OMB's summary of and response to the public comments on 
the OMB Web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/statpolicy.html.

    Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3504(e)(3).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brian Harris-Kojetin, Ph.D., 
Statistical and Science Policy Office, Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, NEOB, Room 10201, 
725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503. Telephone: 202-395-3093.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Statistics collected and published by the Federal Government 
constitute a significant portion of the available information about the 
United States' economy, population, natural resources, environment, and 
public and private institutions. These data are used by the Federal 
Government and others as a basis for actions that affect people's lives 
and well-being. It is essential that they be collected, processed, and 
published in a manner that guarantees and inspires confidence in their 
reliability. The statistical programs of the Federal Government are 
decentralized among more than 70 agencies or organizational units. It 
is therefore also essential that, to the extent permitted by law, there 
be sufficient government-wide uniformity in statistical methods and 
practices to ensure the maximum usefulness of the statistics produced.
    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA; 44 U.S.C. 3504) gives the 
Director of OMB broad responsibility for improving the usefulness of 
information collected, maintained, and disseminated by the Federal 
Government and for reducing the reporting burden on the public. Among 
the Director's functions under the PRA are statistical policy and 
coordination, which includes the development and implementation of 
``Government-wide policies, principles, standards, and guidelines 
concerning (a) statistical collection procedures and methods; (b) 
statistical data classification; (c) statistical information 
presentation and dissemination; (d) timely release of statistical data; 
and (e) such statistical data sources as may be required for the 
administration of Federal programs'' (44 U.S.C. 3504 (e)(3)). The 
Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in 
OMB has the responsibility to ``develop programs and prescribe 
regulations to improve the compilation, analysis, publication, and 
dissemination of statistical information by executive agencies'' (31 
U.S.C. 1104 (d)).
    The revised Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys 
provide guidance for designing, conducting, and disseminating 
statistical surveys and studies sponsored by Federal agencies. The 
standards and guidelines are intended to ensure that such surveys and 
studies are designed to produce reliable data as efficiently as 
possible and that methods are documented and results presented in a 
manner that makes the data as accessible and useful as possible.

[[Page 55523]]

    These revised standards and guidelines replace OMB Statistical 
Policy Directives Nos. 1 and 2, on Standards for Statistical Surveys, 
and Standards for Publishing Statistics, respectively. These standards 
and guidelines were last revised in 1974 when they were issued as OMB 
Circular No. A-46, Exhibits A and B. The standards were reissued in 
1978 as Statistical Policy Directives 1 and 2 when the statistical 
policy function was temporarily relocated to the Department of 
Commerce, and their designation as Statistical Policy Directives 
remained when the statistical policy function was returned to OMB in 
1981 under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.

Development and Review

    As part of ongoing efforts to improve the quality of information 
collected by the Federal Government and to update statistical standards 
and guidance, OMB requested in 2003 that agencies who were members of 
the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP) nominate 
representatives to a new subcommittee formed under the aegis of the 
Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM). This subcommittee 
was asked to review Statistical Policy Directives Nos. 1 and 2 and to 
make recommendations for updating or revising these standards to 
reflect current best practices in Federal statistical agencies.
    The subcommittee reviewed the OMB directives, standards currently 
used by Federal statistical agencies, and standards and guidelines 
produced and disseminated by national statistical institutes in a 
number of other countries. The subcommittee also drew on interagency 
efforts by statistical agencies to develop a common framework for their 
activities in response to OMB's issuance of its Information Quality 
Guidelines (IQG) and the requirement that agencies issue their own IQGs 
(67 FR 8452-8460).
    The revised and updated standards and guidelines developed by the 
subcommittee reflected the organizational framework that the 
statistical agencies used for their Information Quality Guidelines. 
They were the product of a careful and deliberate process to create a 
set of standards and guidelines that will address all key aspects of 
planning, conducting, processing, and disseminating Federal statistical 
surveys. Because OMB standards and guidelines must cover a broad range 
of applications, agencies are encouraged to develop their own more 
specific standards for the statistical surveys and studies they conduct 
or sponsor. The subcommittee provided initial draft standards and 
guidelines for review by the FCSM and then by the ICSP in 2004. The 
subcommittee addressed the comments it received at each stage and 
provided its recommendations to OMB in 2005.
    OMB issued the proposed standards and guidelines for public comment 
in July 2005 (70 FR 40746-40747). Six public comments were received in 
response to OMB's request. OMB reviewed the standards and guidelines 
and made some modifications in response to the public comments. The 
final standards and guidelines, the public comments, and OMB's summary 
of and response to the public comments are available on the OMB Web 
site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/statpolicy.html.

Steven D. Aitken,
Acting Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
[FR Doc. 06-8044 Filed 9-21-06; 8:45 am]
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