Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency Sixth Edition (2017) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Legislation and Regulations That Govern Federal Statistics
Appendix A: Legislation and Regulations That Govern Federal Statistics
Pages 139-170
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information quality, peer review, performance evaluation, scientific integrity, and transparency. See Appendix B for descriptions of the overall structure of the system and the principal statistical agencies.
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It establishes OMB's review power over federal statistical agencies and myriad other agencies throughout the federal government that collect information from individuals and organizations. This review power covers both burden imposed by information collection and methods and practices for data collection and dissemination.
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Its purpose is to explain OMB's review process, assist agencies in strengthening their supporting statements 1 Seven months later, a pair of Federal Register notices (43 Federal Register 19260 and 19308) formally transferred the content of and responsibility for various regulatory circulars on federal statistical activities to the Commerce Department -- at which time they were designated "statistical policy directives" for the first time.
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. After an agency has developed a draft information collection plan and instrument, the agency must publish a 60-day notice for public comment in the Federal Register and have the draft survey instrument available for the public to review.
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1 -- Fundamental Responsibilities of Federal Statistical Agencies and Recognized Statistical Units OMB issued its latest statistical policy directive on December 2, 2014 (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2014b)
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: Federal statistical agencies and recognized statistical units must adhere to these responsibilities and adopt policies, best practices, and appropriate procedures to implement them. Federal departments must enable, support, and facilitate Federal statistical agencies and recognized statistical units as they implement these responsibilities.
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designates statistical series that provide timely measures of economic activity as Principal Economic Indicators and requires prompt release of these indicators by statistical agencies in a politically neutral manner. The intent of the directive is to preserve the time value of such information, strike a balance between timeliness and accuracy, prevent early access to information that may affect financial and commodity markets, and preserve the distinction between the policy neutral release of data by statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials.
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Statistical Policy Directive No. 4 -- Release and Dissemination of Statistical Products Produced by Federal Statistical Agencies OMB issued Directive No.
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3 requires that the key economic indicators (see above) be evaluated every 3 years.8 Statistical Policy Directive No.
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. 11 See "North American Industry Classification System -- Revision for 2017," 81 Federal Register 52584 (August 8, 2016)
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statistical agencies; the plan is to update NAPCS every 5 years on the same cycle as NAICS. For more information, see Economic Classification Policy Committee of the United States (2003)
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The list of metropolitan and micropolitan areas using the 2000 criteria was initially issued in 2003 and updated annually through 2008 by OMB on the basis of the Census Bureau's population estimates.15 Two years later, OMB issued 2010 Standards for Delineating Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, which largely continued the criteria adopted for the 2000 standards.16 Areas based on these standards, using data from the 2010 census and the American Community Survey, were announced in 2013 and updated in 2015.17 Beginning with the 2010 census, the revision and updating process was changed to reflect the availability of needed commuting and employment information from the continuous ACS. Under the changed process, OMB will issue as often as annually a list of newly recognized areas by using Census Bureau population estimates; in addition, on the basis of ACS and census data, OMB may revise the criteria for area delineation every 5 years instead of every 10 years.
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. 21 See 81 Federal Register 67398.
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, this memorandum "strongly encourages the Federal statistical agencies and units, and their parent Departments, to build interagency collaboration that will help the Federal statistical community more effectively meet the information needs of the 21st century." The memorandum cites examples of successful interagency collaboration (including within and across departments)
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The defined conditions for disclosure of personal records without prior consent include use for statistical purposes by the Census Bureau, for statistical research or reporting when the records are to be transferred in a form that is not individually identifiable, for routine uses within a U.S. government agency, for preservation by the National Archives and Records Administration "as a record which has sufficient historical or other value to warrant its continued preservation by the United States Government," for law enforcement purposes, for congressional investigations, and for other administrative purposes.
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at universities and other organizations and agencies, registered with DHHS, review research protocols to determine whether they qualify for exemption from or are subject to IRB review and, if the latter, whether the protocol satisfactorily adheres to the regulations. Some federal statistical agencies are required to submit data collection protocols to an IRB for approval; other agencies 24 See OMB Circular A-130, Management of Government Information Resources, Appendix I, revised 1996.
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• Provisions are added for "broad" consent for storage, maintenance, and secondary research use of identifiable private information or biospecimens. 1997 Order Providing for the Confidentiality of Statistical Information This order, issued in 1997, was designed to bolster the confidentiality protections afforded by statistical agencies or units (as listed in the order)
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Enactment of CIPSEA was the culmination of more than 30 years of efforts to standardize and bolster legal protections for data collected solely for statistical purposes by federal agencies while permitting limited sharing of individually identifiable business information among three statistical agencies for efficiency and quality improvement. CIPSEA has two subtitles, covering confidentiality and sharing data, respectively.
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A proposal for legislation to expand access to IRS information for limited statistical purposes has been developed through interagency discussions: it would authorize the Bureau of Labor Statistics to receive limited business data from the Census Bureau (comingled with business tax information) for the purpose of synchronizing the two agencies' business lists.
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: • Of the 16 agencies, 12 were enumerated in OMB's 1997 confidentiality order and carried over into the CIPSEA implementation guidance: they are all principal statistical agencies and thereby members of the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (see Appendix B)
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The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) was enacted in 2002 as Title III of the E-Government Act of 2002 (P.L.
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In addition, some departments are taking the position that all information systems in a department constitute a single information system for purposes of FISMA: those departments are taking steps to require that statistical agencies' information systems and personnel be incorporated into a centralized department-wide system. 2014 Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA)
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The technology, currently in version E3A, has been welcomed by federal statistical agencies, but agencies initially were concerned about a DHS interpretation of the act that would allow DHS staff to monitor traffic on agency networks and follow up on actual or likely intrusions. Such surveillance by DHS staff could lead to violations of agencies' pledges to protect the confidentiality of information provided by individual respondents for statistical purposes, which state that only statistical agency employees or sworn agents can see such information.
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and similar statistical confidentiality pledges promise that respondents' data will be seen only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents. Since it is possible that DHS personnel could see some portion of those confidential data in the course of examining the suspicious Internet packets identified by Einstein 3A sensors, statistical agencies need to revise their confidentiality pledges to reflect this process change.
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Each agency then finalized its own guidelines.39 The information quality framework developed by the agencies was followed in the 2006 revision of OMB's standards and guidelines for statistical surveys (see Statistical Policy Directive No. 2 above)
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The broad scope of agencies affected by this act, and the use of the act in making budgetary decisions based on measured achievement toward program goals, has fostered added focus among many agencies on how to collect high quality data and produce sound government statistics with which to conduct rigorous program evaluation. The proposed addendum, issued in 2016, to Statistical Policy Directive No.
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The statement articulates how the Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, Fourth Edition (National Research Council, 2009) , various OMB statistical policy directives and standards, and each agency's information quality guidelines together form "the foundation for achieving and maintaining scientific integrity within and among the principal statistical agencies."44 2013 OSTP Memorandum on Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research On February 23, 2013, the OSTP director issued a memorandum for heads of executive departments and agencies on "Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research."45 Citing the importance of scientific research for driving improvements in "areas such as health, energy, the environment, agriculture, and national security," the memorandum outlined the administration's commitment to: 43 Available: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ scientific-integrity-memo-12172010.pdf [April 2017]
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Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce.
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. Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, Fourth Edition.
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4: Release and dissemination of statistical products produced by federal statistical agencies. 73 Federal Register 12625 (March 7, 2008)
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1: Fundamental responsibilities of federal statistical agencies and recognized statistical units. 79 Federal Register 71609 (December 2, 2014)
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