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Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency Sixth Edition (2017) / Chapter Skim
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Establishment of a Federal Statistical Agency
Pages 15-18

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From page 15...
... Relevant statistics are statistics that measure things that matter to policy and decision making, program implementation, program monitoring, program evaluation, scientific research, and public understanding. Relevance requires agencies to be concerned about providing data that help users meet their current needs for decision making and analysis, as well as anticipating future needs.
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From page 16...
... Establishing a federal statistical agency, or adding responsibilities to an existing agency, should be considered when one or more of the following conditions prevail.15 • There is a need for high-quality information on an ongoing basis beyond the capacity of existing operating units. Such needs may require coordinating data from various sources, initiating new data collection programs, or developing regularly updated time series of estimates.
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From page 17...
... Commercial, nonprofit, and academic organizations in the private sector also provide useful statistical information, including data they collect themselves and data they acquire from statistical agencies and other data collectors to which they add information or analysis. However, because the benefits of statistical information are shared widely throughout society and because it is often difficult to garner payments for these benefits, private entities are not likely to collect all of the data that are needed for public and private decision making or to make data as widely available as needed for important public purposes.16 Federal statistical agencies are established to ensure that a broad array of credible, scientifically based information is available that will inform the electorate and policy makers in a democratic system of government.
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