[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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