FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCIES
AS MODELS
FORA
BUREAU OF ENVIRONMENTAL
STATISTICS
By
Dorothy G. Wellington, Ph.D.
1988 Executive Potential Program
Statistical Policy Branch
Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation
September 22, 1988
Submitted to:
R. Thomas Parker
Senior Executive Advisor
Director,
Agency wide Technology Transfer Staff
Office of Regional Operations
Office of the Administrator
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FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCIES
AS MODELS
FORA
BUREAU OF ENVIRONMENTAL
STATISTICS
By
DorpthyG. Wellington, -Ph.E);
Office of Mcy, f and Evaluation
, 1988
SHlsnitted to:
Rv Thomas Parker
Senior Executive Advisor
Director,
Agencywide Technology Transfer Staff
Office of Regional Operations
^d&fe Administrator
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A great deal can be learned from the Federal statistics agencies in establishing a Bureau
of Environmental Statistics. To take advantage of this relevant experience, EPA manage*
ment requested a report on agencies that have statistical activities as their primary niissioh
and can serve as models for the Bureau. • - j
'I
This report contains extensive information from interviews with officials of 12 Federal
statistics agencies as well as published data on the agencies. In addition, the report presents
recommendations for applying lessons learned from these sources in planning the Bureau
of Environmental Statistics. The major recommendations are as follows: .}
• 1
• A Federal statistics agency, called the Bureau of Environmental Statistics, should be
established within the EPA. ; .
• The mission of the Bureau should be broad in scope, like the mission of the Bureau [..
of Labor Statistics and a number of other Federal statistics agencies. The mission !
should combine a duel role: statistics arm of EPA and, at the same time, Federal I
agency responsible for establishing a national data system on environmental statistic;*.
• As with other Federal statistics agencies, the Bureau's effectiveness in the long run
will depend upon the credibility of its statistics. There should be statutory safeguards
as well as initiating traditions that guarantee the independence of data and programs.
Federal agencies provide many models for assuring independence. The' models^extend
to such areas as the independence of publications and data releases, budget ihdepen|l-
ence, placement within the parent organization, and reporting distance to the Secretary
or Administrator. ° I
. j
To preserve data integrity, in fact and in the public's perception, the Bureau's program
must be totally separate from the regulatory functions of the EPA.
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• To further assure program independence, the Bureau should be a line item in the
President's budget. Programs requiring continuity, such as longitudinal data series,
should also be line items.
• The Bureau should publish a quarterly abstract bringing together environmental data
from many sources, plus a core statistics system that provides a clear picture of the state
of the environment
• As in many other statistical agencies, networks should be established linking potential
data users elsewhere in the Federal government, in Congress, in State organizations, and
within EPA. These networks should be cultivated to assure the Bureau of advocates
and to promote feedback on the usefulness of the Bureau's products.
• Cooperative arrangements should be investigated to "piggyback" on other Federal
statistics agencies' surveys and to plan joint surveys.
• In order to make full and efficient use of other Federal statistics agencies, all located in
the Washington area, as well as professional associations, national scientific associa-
tions, and many public organizations, the Bureau should also be established in the
Washington area.
• Arrangements should be made with the State Environmental Protection Agencies to
•provide data for use by the Bureau, with technical assistance from the EPA Regional
Offices. For efficient coordination of this national network, the Bureau should be a part
of the EPA Headquarters.
• Statutory provision should be made for a Federal Advisory Committee to the Bureau.
An additional committee should be appointed from among the experts in mathematical
statistics, sampling theory, survey design, stochastic processes, spatial sampling, and
multiple time series analysis. The expert committee should be constituted by the
American Statistical Association.
• The National Academy of Sciences should be commissioned by EPA to prepare a report
which evaluates the need for a Bureau of Environmental Statistics, sets forth the standards
of data quality and professional level of staff, and recommends the statutory basis. fq>r
insuring data independence and credibility.
ill
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Mission of a Federal Statistics Agency
•2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Bureau of Labor Statistics Model
2.3 Recommendations for EPA
3. Benefits of Federal Statistical Programs
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Users of Federal Statistical Information
3.3 Types of Statistical Information Provided
3.4 Forms in which Information is Presented
3.5 Functions of Statistical Agencies
3.6 Conclusions
3.7 Recommendations for EPA
4. Independence of the Data
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Independence of the Program
4.3 Independence of Publication
4.4 Recommendations for EPA
5. Budget, Staffing, and Internal Organization
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Budget
5.3 Staffing
5.4 Internal Organization
5.5 Recommendations for EPA
6. Relationship with States and Other Networking
6.1 State Organizations
6.2 Other Networking
6.3 Recommendations for EPA
7. Advisory Committees
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Federal Advisory Committees under FACA
7.3 Advisory Groups of Federal Statistics Agencies
7.4 Recommendations for EPA
Appendix A: Summary Reports of Interviews and Published
Information on 12 Federal Statistics Agencies
Appendix B: Organizational Charts of 12 Federal Statistics
Agencies
i v
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1. INTRODUCTION,
This report was prepared by Dorothy G. Wellington,
Statistical Policy Branch, Office of Standards and Regulations,
Office of Policy Planning and Regulations of the EPA, during a
special assignment, under the auspices of OPM's Executive
Potential Program for Mid-Level Employees. The work was carried
out under the direction of Tom Parker, Director of The Agencywide
Technology Transfer Staff, Office of the Administrator.
The purpose of this detail was to determine what
products and benefits are derived from the programs of the
Federal statistics agencies, and to learn directly from their
directors and other officials about the process of their
establishment, statutory basis, organizational structure,
staffing and budget, and any additional information that would be
applicable to a center for environmental statistics.
The twelve Federal statistics agencies that have
statistical activities as their principal mission were identified
by Katherine Wallman, Executive Director of the Council of
Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS).
Officials from all twelve Agencies were interviewed (one by
telephone), and they are listed in Exhibit 1-1. Summary reports
on the interviews are contained in Appendix A.
This report is based primarily on interviews with these
officials and the reports and documents they provided.
Additional material was obtained from COPAFS reports prepared by
Ms. Wallman, from the Office of Management and Budget's "A
Special Report on the Statistical Programs and Activities of the
United States Government Fiscal Year 1988," and from the
American Statistical Association's Committee on Government
Statistics1 commissioned report, "The Status of Advisory
Committees to the Federal Statistical Agencies," written by Marie
Eldridge, Research Triangle Institute.
The above sources provided a wealth of information that
is relevant to the establishment and operation of a statistics
center within EPA. This report contains most of the basic facts,
but additional, more detailed information has been obtained or
has been offered to EPA for future analysis. As the proposed
Bureau of Environmental Statistics moves through the planning
stages, the history and consultation of other Federal agencies
that have been through similar experiences can continue to be a
valuable resource.
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EXHIBIT 1-1
OFFICIALS OF FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCIES
INTERVIEWED BY EPA
Charles E. Caudill, Administrator
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
Department of Agriculture
Edward Reinsel, Data Coordinator
Economic Research Service (ERS)
Department of Agriculture
Charles A. Waite, Associate Director for Economic Problems
Ted Clemence, Senior Adviser to Deputy Director
Bureau of the Census (CENSUS)
Department of Commerce
Allan H. Young, Director
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
Department of Commerce
Emerson J. Elliott, Commissioner
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Department of Education
Gail Fischer, Associate Director
Jack Anderson, Deputy Associate Director
Office of Planning and Extramural Programs
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
Department of Health & Human Services
Jane L. Ross
Deputy Associate Commissioner For Policy
Former Director of Office of Research and Statistics (ORS)
Social Security Administration
Department of Health and Human Services
Duane McGough, Director
Division of Housing & Demographic Analysis (HDA)
Department of Housing & Urban Development
Steven Schlesinger, Director
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
Department of Justice
Janet L. Norwood,. Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Department of Labor
Bob Wilson, Supervisory Statistician Team Leader
Coordination and Publications Team
Statistics of Income Division (SOI)
Internal Revenue Service
Department of the Treasury
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2. MISSION OF A FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCY
2.1 Introduction
There are two models for a statistics center: 1) an in-
house statistics shop that produces data compilations for
internal use only, or 2) a bureau with a broader mission, that
provides statistical analysis and reports that are valuable to
policy makers outside its own Department, and to both the private
and jpublic sectors.
The twelve Federal statistics agencies having
statistical activities as their primary mission all have broader
missions than service to their Department alone. The advantages
to each of these statistics agencies of having this larger role
are the following:
1) The statistics agency reaches a larger audience
beyond its own Department that includes policy makers at all
levels in the public and private sectors, private industry,
academic research,.and public interest organizations;
2) The agency sets standards of data quality in its
field;
3) In response to the needs of outside users, the
agency develops diverse programs that provide a broad range of
products which prove valuable to its Department as well;
4) The agency works closely with other Federal
statistics agencies on an equal basis, to mutual advantage;
5) The agency has the authority and structure to
coordinate data collection activities of regional offices and
State organizations;
6) The agency is in a position to have as a valuable
resource one or more Federal Advisory Committees under FACA, as
well as a technical or "utilized" committee.
7) Not only does the agency have standing in the
scientific community, but it reflects that approbation onto the
statistical programs and output of its Department.
2.2 The Bureau of Labor Statistics Model
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is one of the Federal
statistics agencies that offers an particularly appropriate
model for a Bureau of Environmental Statistics. The
Commissioner, Janet Norwood, describes the BLS's mission as a
dual role:
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1) As the statistical arm of the Department of Labor,
which provides objective information to serve the Department's
needs;
2) As a national statistics Agency in its own right,
one which decides what data system is needed for the nation as a
whole.
The second role is distinct from the first, and
constitutes the BLS1 core program of statistics on unemployment,
wages, production, and economic growth.
The BLS does very little of the type of research that
is conducted in the rest of the Department of Labor, but
concentrates on research specifically related to its function of
establishing a national data system - research on measurement
and on the definition of that which should be measured;
definement research on how to define what to collect, method-
objective research, methodological research for survey
techniques specific to their data collection, and conceptual
research on identifying the problem and providing a basic
explanation of what is needed.
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2.3 Recommendations for EPA
EPA should initiate a new epoch in environmental
protection by supporting with all possible means available to it
the establishment of an independent Bureau of Environmental
Statistics within its organization. The Bureau should not be
merely an in-house statistics shop,.but should be broad in scope,
providing valuable information for policy formulation and
environmental research within and outside of the EPA. The
functions of a center with this broad a scope would be not only
data collection but also the preparation of special compilations
and analyses of the data. As the data bases developed over time,
more complex and meaningful statistical analyses could be
investigated and applied.
"The mission of a Bureau of Environmental Statistics
should be to provide a body of informative data in a consistent
state that enables assessment of the status of the national
environment and evaluation of the relation between activities in
environmental improvement and their ultimate consequences."
(Charles Schultz, former Chairman of Council of Economic
Advisers, personal discussion)
The model for the mission of a Bureau of Environmental
should be that of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a dual
role as 1) the statistics arm of the EPA, and 2) a federal
statistics agency that is responsible for establishing a national
environmental statistics data system. To this end the Bureau not
only should oversee the collection of the appropriate data, but
carry out research specific to that mission, i.e. conceptual,
definement, measurement, and survey methodology research.
The mission should encompass the following charges:
1. To provide the President and Congress with national
data on the state of the environment upon which environmental
policies can be based and appropriate legislation formulated;
2. To provide the Administrator of EPA with concrete
data concerning the effectiveness, nationally and locally, of
Agency measures to fulfill statutory requirements of the Agency's
mission;
3. To provide the public with official information on
the state of their environment, both regional and national, in
order to promote informed citizen participation;
4. To provide consistent, reliable data that can form
the basis for valid research in the public and private sectors.
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3. BENEFITS OF FEDERAL STATISTICAL PROGRAMS
3.1 Introduction
Federal statistical programs support many major activities
of government and private industry. Policy makers, staff
analysts, and planners rely heavily on information provided by
the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, and similar agencies throughout the Federal
government.
This chapter summarizes benefits provided by several
programs that could serve as models for a Bureau of Environmental
Statistics. The chapter outlines the many types of statistical
information that are provided by these Federal programs as well
as the varied formats that are used.
Also shown are the wide range of functions that can be
performed within statistical programs, depending upon how a
program defines its mission.
Four central aspects of statistical programs are discussed,
each drawing on examples from the 12 Federal statistical programs
examined in this report:
(1) Users of information generated by Federal statistical
programs;
(2) Types of statistical information provided;
(3) Forms in which information is presented; and
(4) Functions that can be performed in achieving a
program's goals.
The discussions are followed by conclusions and, finally, by
recommendations concerning prospective benefits of a Bureau of
Environmental Statistics.
3.2 Users of Federal Statistical Information
Federal statistical programs serve users at all levels of
government, in private industry, and in public interest groups.
Although diverse in their specific user profiles, most programs
come under one of the following headings:
. Programs whose products are used widely throughout the
public and private sectors as the underpinning of critical
policy decisions.
Examples include the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic
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Analysis (BEA), National Center for Health Statistics
(NCHS), and Housing and Demographic Analysis Division of
the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Further information about these programs is provided in
Exhibit 3-1.
In addition, the Federal Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) uses statistical information from these and other
programs to measure needs for program funding.
. Programs whose products are used primarily bv Federal.
State, and local government agencies and policy makers.
Examples include the Office of Research and Statistics
(ORS) in the Social Security Administration (SSA), the
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the
U.S. Department of Education, and the Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJS).
. Programs that provide basic statistical information for
further analysis by other Federal agencies.
Some Federal statistics programs exist mainly to provide,
basic information to other agencies, which perform further
analyses and may publish their findings independently.
Examples include the National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS), which supplies statistical information to
the Economic Research Service (ERS), another agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the Statistics of
Income (SOI) Division .of the Internal Revenue Service,
which supports tax analyses performed by the Treasury
Department and by Congress.
3.3 Types of Statistical Information Provided
Federal statistical programs provide many types of
statistical information. Each program has a unique mission, in
terms of measures that are reported and the frequency and methods
with which data are collected.
Some of the major types of statistical information, as shown
with examples in Exhibit 3-2, include: periodic censuses and
surveys; administrative data based on day-to-day administration
of Federal programs, such as Medicare; special studies, which
address issues of particular concern, and forecasts.
Because of their extensive knowledge in their respective
program areas, Federal statistical agencies often provide
services that go beyond the dissemination of data. Many set
national data quality standards and define the terminology that
is used by state and local governments and in private sector
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studies. Some Federal statistical agencies provide consulting
services to other Federal programs or agencies and, in some
cases, to other countries.
3.4 Forms in Which Information is Presented
Federal statistical programs present information in many
forms. Most publish periodic reports, and increasing numbers are
using charts, graphs, and narrative intended to make statistical
information more easily understood by readers without a technical
background. Many programs also present data on computer tape or
disk for analysis by users. Machine-readable microdata,
statistical abstracts, reports, technical releases, indicators,
and analyses are some of the most common forms in which
statistical data may be provided. Exhibit 3-3 contains examples.
3'. 5 Functions of Statistical Agencies
A description capturing the broad scope of Federal
statistical programs' activities is contained in "A Special
Report on the Statistical Programs and Activities of the United
States Government, Fiscal Year 1988," published by OMB. The
report defines statistical activities to include:
" 1) Planning of statistical surveys and studies,
including project design, sample design and selection, and
1 design of questionnaires, forms, or other techniques of
observation and data collection;
2) training of statisticians, interviewers, and processing
personnel;
3) collection, processing, and tabulation of statistical
data for publication, dissemination, research, analysis,
and program management and evaluation;
4) publication and dissemination of statistical data and
studies;
5) methodological testing and statistical research;
6) data analysis;
7) forecasts and projections that are" published or
otherwise made available for Government-wide or public.
use;
8) statistical manipulation, dissemination, or publication
of data collected by others;
9) construction of secondary data series or development of
models that are an integral part of generating statistical
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series or forecasts;
10) management and coordination of statistical operations;
and
11) statistical consulting and training."
Federal statistical programs differ widely in the extent to
which they incorporate any or all of the above functions into
their programs. An example of programs with well-defined, yet
different, functions is found in the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, where the NASS is responsible for data collection
and. data quality assurance, while the ERS undertakes economic
analyses of data supplied by NASS. In many other Federal
agencies, all of the functions identified by OMB are performed to
a greater or lesser degree.
All Federal statistical programs have in common the
responsibility to design the studies on which they report, yet
data collection is frequently performed outside the program by
contractors or by other government agencies. For example, the
Census Bureau provides data to many Federal agencies, including
the National Center for Health Statistics and the Bureau of
Economic Analysis. State agencies also supply data to programs
other than their own.
Many Federal agencies commission special studies from
Federal statistical programs on a cost-reimbursable basis. NASS,
for example, receives reimbursement for providing county-level
statistics to the Federal agency responsible for determining farm
price supports. The Census Bureau derived approximately 17
percent of its income from reimbursable studies in Fiscal Year
1988.
3.6 Conclusions
Federal statistical programs offer many different models for
a Bureau of Environmental Statistics. They serve policy makers,
analysts, and other users, both in the Federal government and in
other public sector organizations, and in the private sector.
The Federal statistical agencies examined in this report know
their major users and the applications of their data extremely
well.
The different user profiles highlight decisions that must be
made in establishing a Federal statistical agency and defining
its mission. Decisions must also be made concerning the types of
statistical information to be provided and specific information
presentation formats. These decisions will determine many of the
statistical agency's functions.
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3.7 Recommendations for EPA
In order to fulfill its mission to establish a national
data system of environmental statistics, the Bureau of
Environmental Statistics1 first product should be a quarterly
abstract bringing together the environmental data that are
collected not only by the EPA, but also by other sectors of the
Federal Government. This would combine into a single source data
such as the the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service
surveys, the Department of the Interior's Geological Survey, data
from Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
and NASA's stratospheric ozone depletion measurements. This
"Environmental Statistics Abstract" could be patterned on the
earlier reports of the president's Council on Environmental
Quality (CEQ), as well as on those of the current president's
Council of Economic Advisers.
But the core of the Abstract's data should be initiating
longitudinal series of measurements of toxic air pollutants, of
water quality, and of contamination of soil, food, wildlife
populations, and human body tissues. Data obtained from EPA
monitoring programs should be subjected to consistent quality.
control, with nationally standardized measurement protocols
installed, and gaps and sparcities corrected.
Additional products would be the Bureau's responsibility in
response to particular concerns of EPA, Congress, the President,
other sectors of the Federal Governemt and State organizations,
as well as of the private sector. However, the first
responsibility would be to produce a compendium, trusted by all
users, that enabled a basic understanding of the status of our
national environment and its trends.
With correctly designed sampling procedures, surveys can
be carried out, as in other statistics agencies, to estimate the
national or individual state environmental conditions. And the
Bureau should work with NASS, utilizing their extensive and well-
designed and executed crop surveys, to obtain national estimates
of toxic residues on various food products.
Until a network of users at the State and federal levels
with built-in feedback procedures can be established, a greater
degree of specificity in defining the potential products and
benefits of an environmental statistics agency is not feasible.
However, common sense clearly indicates the vast potential of
such an agency.
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EXHIBIT 3-1
MAJOR USERS OF STATISTICAL INFORMATION
FROM SELECTED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
Program
Major Users
Census Bureau
BEA
NCHS
HDA (HUD)
ORS (SSA)
Users include Congress as well as all
government agencies with policy
responsibilities in agriculture; population
and housing; business, construction,
manufactures, and mineral industries;
transportation; and state and local
government. Users are found throughout
private industry, labor, and non-profit
organizations.
The BEA produces the principal statistical
measures of economic activity in the U.S.,
including the national income and product
accounts summarized in the Gross National,
Product (GNP). BEA data and analyses are
used in the formulation of national fiscal
policies. Industry uses BEA information in
planning production, price, and investment
programs. Other users include state and
local governments, labor, universities, and
research organizations.
NCHS is the primary source of vital and
health statistics for the United States.
NCHS data are used by Federal and State
governments, public health professionals
and organizations, and private industry*
The Annual Housing Survey, HUD's Housing
and Marketing Reports series, and studies
produced on request are used by Congress
and by Federal agencies such as BEA, as
well as by private industry and academic
researchers.
ORS provides top management within HHS
with a broad perspective on SSA operations
because it gathers, analyzes, and publishes
data on all major social welfare programs
of the Federal government. ORS data are
also used by other program offices within
the Department of Health and Human
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EXHIBIT 3-1 (continued)
MAJOR USERS OF STATISTICAL INFORMATION
FROM SELECTED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
Program
NCES
BJS
NASS, ERS
SOI (IRS)
Major Users
Services, by Congress, by OMB, and by state
and local governments.
The Center's principal goal is to provide
data support to policy-making at the
Federal level; however, the Center also
considers State and local decision-makers,
parents, and the general public as
beneficiaries of its work, which includes
current indicators of educational quality
presented in a non-technical format for
general audiences.
BJS was established to collect and analyze
crime statistics "in support of national,,
State, and local justice policy and
decision-making." Users include governors,
crime policy makers, attorneys general,
correction officers, police, court
officers, and state regulators.
NASS administers the collection and
publication of national and state
agricultural statistics. The largest user
of NASS data is the Economic Research
Service (ERS) of .US DA, which publishes
reports on all aspects of the agricultural
economy of the U.S. and other countries.
Another important use of NASS data is in
commodities trading.
Tax analysts in Treasury are major users of
statistical reports from SOI, which are
critical for tax research and for
estimating revenue. The Congressional
Joint Committee on Taxation and the Bureau
of Economic Analysis (BEA) also use SOI
data extensively.
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EXHIBIT 3-2
TYPES OF STATISTICAL INFORMATION PROVIDED
BY SELECTED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
Type of Information
Examples
Periodic censuses
and surveys
Census Bureau. Censuses of pop-
ulation, housing, business,
agriculture, transportation, and
government.
BJS. Data series indicating the
data indicating the prevalence and
attributes of crime, juvenile
delinquency, and civil disputes.
NCES. Annual data on public schools,
higher education, students, and
indicators of educational
effectiveness such as test scores and
resources in schools.
BEA. National income and product
accounts; balance of payments and
associated foreign investment
accounts; input-output accounts;
wealth accounts; and personal income
and related economic series.
HUD. Data series on national,
regional, and local economic and
housing market conditions.
Administrative
data
ORS. Statistical information on all
social welfare programs administered
by the Federal government.
SOI. Annual income, financial, and
tax data based on individual and
corporate income tax returns.
Special studies
ERS. Analyses of agricultural and
rural policy issues of concern to
Congress and the Administration.
SOI. Special studies of estate gifts
and tax-exempt organizations.
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EXHIBIT 3-2 (continued)
TYPES OF STATISTICAL INFORMATION PROVIDED
BY SELECTED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
Type of Information Examples
Forecasts NASS. Estimates of future farm
production. Forecasts of demand for
seasonal workers, required to
implement the Immigration Reform
Control Act.
BEA. Forecasts of economic
developments based on measures such as
surveys of business investment.
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EXHIBIT 3-3
FORMS IN WHICH STATISTICAL INFORMATION IS PRESENTED
BY SELECTED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
(Note: Most programs publish data in several different forms.
The examples below serve to illustrate specific forms.)
Form of Presentation
Microdata
Statistical abstracts
Reports and technical
releases
SOI. The SOI Division provides
tax analysts in Treasury with
computerized microdata for
analysis.
NCHS. NCHS makes data available
through an extensive set of
public use data files. Most data
tapes contain microdata to allow
researchers to aggregate findings
in whatever format is appropriate
for their analyses.
Census Bureau. Comprehensive
summaries of statistics in all
areas addressed by the Census
Bureau are published in the
Statistical Abstract of the
United States.
ORS. ORS publishes data in the
Annual Statistical Supplement to
the Social Security Bulletin.
which is the most detailed and
comprehensive source on the
United States' social insurance
and social welfare programs.
NCES. The Digest of Education
Statistics has been published 23
times since 1962 and draws on
data collected by the National
Center for Educational Statistics
and many other sources.
HUD. Two major publications are
the Annual Housing Survey and the
Housing and Marketing Reports
series.
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EXHIBIT 3-3 (continued)
FORMS IN WHICH STATISTICAL INFORMATION IS PRESENTED
BY SELECTED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
(Note: Most programs publish data in several different forms.
The examples below serve to illustrate specific forms.)
Form of Presentation
Examples
BJS. BJS Bulletins present the
latest information from
continuing BJS series; BJS
Special Reports focus on specific
topics in criminal justice; BJS
Technical Reports address issues
of statistical methodology; BJS
Annual Reports present the latest
statistics and summarize BJS
activities; and the BJS Report to
the Nation on Crime and Justice.
was published in 1984 and 1988.
NCES. The Condition of Education
has been published annually in
response to the report of the
National Commission on Excellence
in Education to describe the
"health" of the educational
system.
BEA. BEA data are published in
two monthly publications, the
Survey of Current Business and
Business Conditions Digest.
Analyses
ERS. Publications total 25-
30,000 pages each year and
include professional and trade
journals including The Journal of
Agricultural Economics Research
as well as several magazines.
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4. INDEPENDENCE OF THE DATA
4.1 Introduction
The value of the data that is produced depends upon the
public perception of its scientific validity, hence its
scientific independence. This must be the primary concern in the
establishment of a statistics center. The data requires
independence in its production and in its publication. This point
was stressed by most of those interviewed. Their advisements are
given here to emphasize this point.
"Independence of the data and its release is the most
important thing." (Norwood, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
"Independence is absolutely essential for credibility. The
director must not be beholden to the Departmental head. EPA will
have to make a tough decision, they must be reconciled to the
notion that they may not like the statistics produced, but the
statistics must come out anyway." (Schlesinger, Bureau of
Justice Statistics)
"If you don't make it so your data is trusted, there is no
use putting it out. You must separate statistics from regulatory
function to ensure data's integrity and the public perception of
its integrity." (Reinsel, Economic Research Service, USDA)
"The people who use our numbers know they're put together
by career people. Public perception of integrity is important.
This is useful all around since the political appointees in
government in their own self interest want us to be free of
politics - not to muck up what the public sees as objective."
(Young, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce)
"There is a long tradition of no interference by the
policy people because this course protects the integrity of the
statistics... It is important that Congress continues to look at
Census as a neutral fact-finding agency for policy makers and the
public." (Waite, Census Bureau, Commerce)
The independence of the data is mandated in the following
section of the statute establishing the Energy Information
Administration of the Department of Energy:
"The Administrator (of the EIA) shall not be required to
obtain the approval of any other officer or employee of the
Department in connection with the collection or analysis of
any information: nor shall the Administrator be required,
prior to publication, to obtain the approval of any other
officer or employee of the United States with respect to the
substance of any statistical or forecasting technical
reports which he has prepared in accordance with law."
17
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The two basic basic requirements for data independence are
given in this statute - independence in the collection and
analysis of the data, i.e. in the programs of a statistics
agency, and independence in its publication.
4.2 Independence of the Program
A limitation on the free flow of informative statistics
can occur well before publication at the decision point of
whether to fund the collection or compilation that will produce
the data, i.e., the statistical center's program and its enabling
budget. There was divergence among those interviewed in their
perceptions of program autonomy. The major factors that were
identified the most often as helping agencies achieve this type
of independence are presented below:
1) Statutory definition of the program
When specific data collection functions are mandated by
law, there is leeway only in the procedures for fulfilling the
legal requirements. Under budget pressure these included reduced
staff to do the same work, reduced sample size thereby increasing
error, reduced survey frequency, i.e. biennial instead of annual
survey.
2) Statutory independence of budget
When Congress votes budget funding for specific parts of
the program, those parts are assured to be included. Those
statistics agencies whose programs are partially or entirely line
items in the Departmental budget have greater autonomy in
determining what studies they will conduct and what data they
will gather.
3) Relative autonomy of director within the parent
department
While there was no question that autonomy of the director
is a strong factor in independence of the data and program, there
was a divergence of views as to how best that can be obtained. On
the one hand the Director of BJS, a political appointee, said
that the center whose model follows a broader mission should have
a "strong director appointed by the president, with independent
granting and personnel authority." Other officials indicated
that career managers were preferred because they were more likely
to be technically knowledgeable and scientifically unbiased.
Clearly, the more direct the reporting line between the
director and the Department head, the greater the independence.
The Director of BJS stressed that, although he reports through
the head of the Office of Justice Programs to the Attorney
18
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General, he is not under him. The Commissioner of BLS stated that
the placement of the statistics agency is most important,
emphasizing that she has the rank of Assistant Secretary, and
hence reports directly to the Secretary.
Exhibit 4-1 shows the reporting paths for the heads of the
12 statistics agencies covered in this paper. The placement of
each agency within its home Department is shown in the
organizational charts given in Appendix B. In two cases the head
of the statistics agency reports directly to the Department
Secretary (BLS, AIE). The heads of six of the agencies have just
one reporting level themselves and the Department head (NASS,
ERS, Census, BEA, NCES, BJS). while the remaining four have two
reporting levels between themselves and the top (NCHS, ORS, HDA,
SOI). However, three of these four statistics agencies are in
huge departments, and their heads are within one reporting level
of the chief official of their "sub-departments" - the Public
Health Service, the Social Security Administration, and the IRS.
4) Primacy of statistics in the mission of the parent
organization
When the mission of the parent organization has little
need for statistics, such as the processing of income tax returns
(IRS), or the payment of benefits (SSA), the statistical centers
that simply use the by-products of the primary mission - the
"administrative data" - have difficulty competing for budget
resources for their programs. In the opposite case where the
statistical aspects are primary, such as the Census Bureau,
budget requests for specific statistical programs have high
profiles within the total budget picture. This factor affects the
ability of an Agency's to formulate its own programs, imposing
considerable constraint in the first case.
5) Influence of users of statistical center's products
Users of a statistical center's products within the same
Department, and even in other statistics agencies, will back
funding for the center's programs even at the expense of their
own funds, if their need for the product is sufficient. However,
this can be at the expense of some independence in defining the
center's program (SOI).
Extensive networking is done by some agencies that have been
successful in developing advocates for their programs. (Census,
SOI, NCHS). NASS has "50 political advocates" in the State
Agricultural Departments it serves. This builds a protective
shell around those components of their programs.
19
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,4.3 Independence of Publication
Independence of the data is by limited in a more direct way
by controlling its release or publication. But because this
approach is less ambiguous than limiting program independence, it
is easier to regulate by statute. OMB guidelines for statistical
data were cited by several of those interviewed as the basis for
limitations on political review of data release. Discussions
with, and material sent by, OMB's Statistical Policy Office
indicate that the applicable guidelines are the revision of
Guideline #3 in 50FR38932, September 25, 1985, and Directive No.
4, titled "Prompt Compilation and Release of Statistical
Information," which supersedes OMB Circular No. A-91. According
to an OMB official, J. Coffey, the intent of these documents is
to minimize the time between production and release of the data
in order to avoid any tampering with it.
Some of those interviewed stated firmly that there was no
political review of data releases, even in the absence of a
formal data release procedure, or that any political review was
only a formality.
9
"There is no political .review. A list of forthcoming
reports is sent to the politically appointed Assistant Secretary,
but there has never been a rejection." (Reinsel, ERS)
"We have independence of publication, since only career
staff see the data before it's released." (McGough, HDA)
"We have independence of publication of the data. The
Justice Department likes most of the statistics, but not all, but
they still can't do anything about it." (Schlesinger, BJS)
The Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Janet
Norwood) has established, over her ten years in that position, a
data-releasing procedure that is a model for insuring the
integrity of the data. Before the data is issued, she and her
staff have a review meeting that is strictly in-house, at which
the written release and her written testimony to Congress are
reviewed by all, arguments heard, and then sent directly to the
printer. While the President receives the report via his
representative - the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
- the day before public release, neither may comment until one
hour after the release. The Secretary of Labor first sees the
data at a briefing in the half hour before its release to the
press.
In addition, there is a half hour embargo on the data
release to the public by the press, so that professionals in BLS,
including the Commissioner, may answer questions concerning the
interpretation of the data. This is considered to be important to
20
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ensure correct transmission of the data to the public.
Because data released by the National Agricultural
Statistics Service are forecasts rather than survey results, and
hence have excessive effect on the commodities market, statutory
guarantee of the independence of statistical data release is
embedded into the whole process of developing crop estimates and
releasing them to the public. By law, following sequestered
deliberations of the Crop Reporting Board, the politically
appointed Assistant Secretary can see the results only during a
15 minute briefing prior to their release. He may withold their
publication only by going immediately to the press room with his
reasons.
4.4 Recommendations for EPA
In structuring the organization of a Bureau of
Envirnonmental Statistics, assuring public confidence in the data
should be the primary consideration. Without it, the consensus
is that the enterprise would serve no useful purpose. The Bureau
should take its place with the other Federal statistics agencies
in the credibility and confidence with which its output is
regarded.
Like the existing twelve Federal statistics agencies, the
Bureau of Environmental Statistics should be part of the
headquarters of the appropriate department or agency. It should
be located in Washington, D.C. or its immediate surroundings, as
are all the other statistics agencies, in order to make efficient
and maximum use of the resources that are critical to the quality
of its product and program. These include the following:
1) The centrality of the infrastructure of a national
headquarters is essential to coordinating the needs and
information coming from the Regional centers and from State
organizations;
2) Location convenient to the other Federal statistics
agencies is necessary to making full and efficient use of
potential cooperative programs and joint surveys with them;
(e.g. pesticides residue surveys with NASS agricultural surveys,
radon surveys with Census and HUD housing surveys, exposure
surveys with NCHS health surveys);
3) Convenience to the concentration of national scientific
organizations and professional associations enables more
effective utilization of the broad range of expertise they have
to offer.
It should be emphasized that a Federal statistics agency
is neither a computer center nor an academic center. Due to
21
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modern communications technology, it need not be attached to a
major computer facility (several of the statistics agencies have
their large computer facilities in the midwest). Neither is
close proximity to an academic center an advantage, since that
might tie it too closely to only one or two universities,
limiting its scope of scientific consultation. Instead, a Federal
statistics agency needs to be in the national capital, close to
the policy makers and other users of its products.
While the Bureau should reside within the EPA as its logical
home, its independence should be guaranteed by statute both with
regard to data publication and to budget. An excellent model is
the statute for the Energy Information Administration, quoted in
a previous section. The budget for a Bureau with this mission
should be mandated by Congress, with funding for specific ongoing
series as their importance becomes established over time.
The position of the Bureau within the EPA should be
consonant with the requirement of independence of its program. It
is essential that its program be disassociated from the EPA's
regulatory functions or monitoring processes that support them,
in order to guard against bias or perceived bias in the data.
(Reisel, ERS; Norwood, BLS) Of course, as with other statistical
centers, the "administrative data" that is collected in the
process of carrying out EPA's regulatory mission may be used by
the Bureau with the proper checks and controls.
This requirement for independence points to the BLS model,
i.e., placing the Bureau directly under the Administrator, with
its director reportable only to the Administrator. The
Commissioner of BLS attends staff meetings, and, while she does
not participate in policy discussions, she knows what is going on
in policy and is not "out of the policy loop." This permits the
Bureau to have a more informed picture of its broader mission and
to be a more effective part of the Labor Department. Similarly, a
broader and up-to-the-minute knowledge of the concerns of the EPA
would increase the effectiveness of its Statistics Bureau.
Although 8 of the 12 heads of these statistical centers
currently are career employees, the trend is toward political
appointment, but with statutory requirements of professional
competence, since the most recently constituted or reconstituted
centers (BJS, NCES, EIA) follow this model. The successful role
of the current Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has
inspired the most recent developments in defining the position of
director of a Federal statistics center. In particular, the
position of director of the National Center of Education
Statistics will go from a career position to a presidentially
appointed Commissioner in 1991. By the same statutory decree, the
Commissioner is required to be specifically qualified by reason
of extensive knowledge of the National Center's programs and
special expertise in the field. The statute also sets the
22
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Commissioner's 4-year term of office to overlap presidential
terms by only 2 years, thereby decreasing the political factor in
the presidential choice.
The model of statutorily-guaranteed data independence in the
establishment of the EIA is recommended for the Bureau of
Environmental Statistics.
The model for the position of its director, whether
political appointee or career employee, should entail as much
independence and as close a reporting line to the Administrator
as possible. If the position is by political appointment, the
statutory constraints in the NCES case, i.e. specific
professional qualifications and staggered term, should be
included. In addition, the BLS model should be used, in which the
Commissioner is appointed by the president with the Senate's
consent, but the appointment is not "at the pleasure of the
President", thereby allowing only malfeasance as cause for
dismissal. The term should be fixed, not less than 4 years, and
staggered so as not to be concurrent with the Presidential term.
It was emphasized by several of the officials that, in the
words of the Director of BJS, "a serious statistics center won't
happen at EPA without Congressional support." The statutory role
described in these recommendations is the sine qua non of the
establishment of a Bureau of Environmental Statistics. The first
step toward achieving Congressional interest and approval in the
case of the NCES was a study by the National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) that was commissioned by the Department of Education on the
advice of the legally constituted advisory committee for the
statistics center. A similar study by the NAS should be
commissioned by the EPA for the following reasons:
1) The NAS has the capability of providing impeccable
panels of experts to evaluate the situation;
2) The NAS is expert specifically in how statistics
agencies should operate, what the standards of data quality
should be, and what is the required professional level of staff;
3) Congress would pay close attention to any,
recommendations from a NAS study.
23
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REPORTING PATHS
STATISTICS HEAD OF
AGENCY STATISTICS AGENCY
NASS Administrator
(Career)
ERS Administrator
(Career)
CENSUS Director
(Political)
BEA Director
(Career)
NCES Commissioner
(Career)
(In 1991 Political)
EIA Administrator
(Political)
NCHS Director
(Career)
ORS Director
(Career)
HDA Director
(Career)
BJS Director
(Political)
BLS Commissioner
(Political)
SOI Director
(Career)
1 Administrative Authority Only
EXHIBIT 4-1
FOR FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCIES .
DEPARTMENT
• INTERMEDIATE LEVELS HEAD
Assistant Secretary
for Economics
Assistant Secretary
for Economics
Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs
Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs
Assistant Secretary
for Educational
Research and
Improvement
Director of CDC
Commissioner for
Office of Policy
Deputy Assistant
Secretary for
Office of Economic
Affairs
Assistant Attorney
General1
Assistant
Commissioner
for Taxpayer
Service and
Returns
Processing
(Career)
Surgeon General
of Public Health
Service
Administrator of
Social Security
Administration
Assistant Secretary
for Office of Policy
Development and
Research
Associate Attorney
General
Commissioner of
IRS
Secretary of
Agriculture
Secretary of
Agriculture
Secretary of
Commerce
Secretary of
Commerce
Secretary of
Education
Secretary of
Energy
Secretary of
Health & Human
Services
Secretary of
Health & Human
Services
Secretary of
Housing & Urban
Development
Attorney
General
Secretary of
Labor
Secretary of
the Treasury
24
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5. BUDGET, STAFFING, AND INTERNAL ORGANIZATION
5.1 Introduction
The twelve Federal statistical programs examined in this
report provide models for addressing issues about the prospective
budget, staffing, and internal organization of a Bureau of
Environmental Statistics. Key issues include:
. How large a budget is required at present? What are
potential sources of funding?
. How should resources be allocated among potential data
collection sources and other providers of statistical
services, including Federal staff, state and local
governments, and private industry?
. How large should the Federal staff be? What professional
specialties should be represented?
. How should a Bureau of Environmental Statistics be
internally organized?
This chapter discusses the practices of selected existing
programs, as they pertain to these issues. Three sections
follow: budget, staffing, and internal organization.
5.2 Budget
The Census Bureau exceeds all other agencies both in direct
funding, $453.9 million in FY 88, and in receipts from additional
sources, which included $88 million in FY 88 from other Federal
agencies for reimbursable studies. The second largest agency,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has less than one-half the
direct funding of Census, $217.9 million, and the other agencies
examined in this report range in direct funding from $9 million
to $61 million. (See Exhibit 5-1.)
Budgets of Federal statistical agencies reflect the
agencies' roles as providers of services to users outside their
own departments. With a few exceptions, the agencies examined in
this report obtain funding not only from Congress but from at
least one other source: state or local governments, the private
sector, foreign governments, or other Federal agencies. A few
programs receive funding from all of the above sources. Most of
this additional funding is provided by other Federal agencies as
reimbursement for special statistical studies performed upon
request. State and local governments provide funds mainly to the
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and to the Census
Bureau to support survey research of state and local interest.
25
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The Census Bureau receives most of the remaining outside funding,
primarily from foreign governments as reimbursement for
consulting services.
All of the agencies examined in this report purchase data
collection and other services outside their agencies. As shown
in Exhibit 5-1, these services are provided by state and local
governments, the private sector, and other Federal agencies.
Purchases outside the agency are a significant percentage of most
statistical agencies' budgets, as shown in Exhibit 5-2.
According to a recent OMB study, resources for statistical
programs and activities (including the 12 agencies discussed in
this report and other major programs) have remained fairly stable
in real terms during the 1980s. OMB reported that: "Decreases in
some areas and increases in others mainly reflect policy and
program changes that have created less demand for some kinds of
data and analysis and greater demand for others." (OMB, 1988.)
The OMB study reported that overall obligations for natural
resource and environment statistics remained about level from
1985 fee 1987, following several years of increases since 1980.
5.3 Staffing
The Federal statistical programs examined in this report
range widely in staff size. The smallest are the National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES), the Office of Statistical
Research (ORS) in the Social Security Administration (SSA), and
the Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR) in the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), each of which
has a total of 130 to 140 staff positions. The HUD statistical
group discussed in this report - Housing and Demographic Analysis
- is a 9-person division in OPRD. The Census Bureau is the
largest agency, with 11-12,000 staff positions, about one-half of
which are permanent. During a decennial census year, the Census
Bureau also employs as many as 400,000 temporary employees.
As shown in Exhibit 5-3, statistical agencies employ
professionals in a variety of areas. Almost all agencies employ
survey statisticians and mathematical statisticians. Economists
are also found in most agencies because of the need for monetary
evaluation of data results. Some agencies also hire staff with
specialized backgrounds in the agencies' fields of concern: for
example, epidemiologists at the National Center for Health
Statistics; agricultural economists at the Economic Research
Service (ERS) and the National Center for Agricultural Statistics
(NASS), both in the Agriculture Department. At most of the
Federal statistics agencies the professionals are predominantly
Ph.D.-level, with some at master's-level.
26
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5.4 Internal Organization
While a statistics agency's placement in its Departmental
organization will influence the extent and independence of its
program, its internal structure is influenced by its program.
The internal organization charts in Appendix B show a
variation among the statistics agencies that matches the
variation in the subject matter of their programs. It is clear
that the internal organization in each case is structured on the
agency's specific program areas. In some cases there also is a
separate section for the computer services, although the Census
Bureau finds this less efficient than assigning computer
personnel to individual programs/sections.
In some agencies data collection and statistical analysis or
subject research ae in separate sections. In others there is a
section for coordination with state and regional operations.
Those agencies that are actively engaged in aiding developing
countries to establish national statistical bases have a separate
section for international programs. The larger the statistics
agency and the more extensive its program, the more complex has
been the development of its internal structure.
5.5 Recommendations for EPA
Staffing and Budget Recommendations
Although it is obvious that a statistics agency should be
staffed by statisticians with academic credentials in the
discipline of statistics, the shortage of professionals in this
field has led to the practice of statistics by those with one or
two "cookbook" courses. Statistics is a demanding discipline,
and requires the same academic training, as well as experience in
its application, as do other professions. Therefore, every effort
must be made to staff the Bureau of Environmental Statistics with
highly qualified mathematical and survey statisticians. They
should be trained in the mathematical theory of sampling and
survey design, and in stochastic processes and time series
analysis. Some of the survey statisticians should have
considerable experience in all the phases of carrying out a
survey.
While some computer expertise would be needed, the major
processing of the data would be done in a computer center that
need be connected only electronically to the statisticians.
In its initial phase, just a small staff of statisticians
would be needed in order to investigate thoroughly an appropriate
and feasible national environmental data system - initial
longitudinal series, their periodicity, potential sources of the
data, users' needs, etc. The size of the staff would depend upon
27
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the extent of the initial coverage of environmental media.
Besides the salaries and expense money to cover the staff,
the major expense in the first phase would be travel expenses for
the staff to visit the Regions and the State agencies. Detailed
and extensive reports should be developed of potential users of
needs and of potential suppliers resources. Contracting with
States and with other Federal Statistics agencies should be
investigated. The groundwork would have to be laid thoroughly
and carefully before full scale data collection started. From
this initial work, apropriate plans could then be made for
allocating resources to the programs decided upon. Staff and
budget size determination would be part of an interactive process
in which potential program and cost and available resources would
be brought into balance.
Internal Organization Recommendations
The internal organizational structure of the Bureau of
Environmental Statistics should, of course, reflect a natural
division of its program. For world-wide comparability and
coordination, the Bureau's program should be compatible with the
format of the data collected by the UN Economic Commission for
Europe for its 1987 compendium of time series data and indicators
of environmental quality, "Environment Statistics in Europe and
North America." The following outline of appropriate sections is
taken from the compendium:
1. Environmental Resources
1.1 Land
1.2 Soils
1.3 Water
1.4 Fauna, flora, habitats
2. Generation and treatment of waste residuals
2.1 Emission of air pollutants
2.2 Generation and treatment of solid and hazardous wastes
2.3 Waste-water generation and treatment
3. Concentration of pollutants in environmental media
3.1 Ambient air
3.2 River water
3.3 Wet acidifying deposition
4. Topical Issues
4.1 Forest damage
4.2 Urban air pollution
4.3 Noise
4.4 Lake protection
4.5 Migratory species
4.6 Fertilizers, pesticides
28
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As the Bureau became established, an international
activities section would be needed to coordinate the U.S.
environmental data with those of neighboring countries, as well
as with world data. Also, as the Bureau grows, one or two
persons should be responsible for coordinating activities across
the Bureau sections, so that their relationships with the regions
and states.would be efficient and not involve redundant requests
or services.
A separate section for computer services is not recommended,
but rather it is advised that computer personnel be distributed
across the Bureau's sections and assigned consistently to the
same specific programs. This would, in the long run, be more
effective with respect to quality control, because of the
programmer's familiarity with those data series for which his
section is responsible.
29
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EXHIBIT 5-1
SOURCES OF FUNDING AND PURCHASES OF SERVICES FOR 12 FEDERAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
PURCHASES OF SERVICES
(Millions of Dollars)
DEPARTMENT
Agriculture
ULlllllcrOls
Education
Energy
HHS
HUD
JUSTICE
LABOR
TREASURY
DIRECT STATE/ PRIVATE OTHER FEDERAL STATE/
AGENCY FUNDING! LOCAL oovrs. SECTOR AGENCIES LOCAL GOVTS.
ERS
NASS
Census
BEA
NCES
EIA
NCHS
SSA (ORS)
OPRD3-
BJS
BIS
IRS (SOI)
48.4 - - 0.6 0.5
61.2 1.1 0.1 6.1 1.1
453.9 1.6 14. 42 88.0
23.6 - 0.4^ 0.8
27.5 - - 0.5 0.2
61.4 , - - 7.6
48.4 - - 4.6 9.9
8.6 - - 0.1
13.6 - - -
19.3 - - - 5.0
217.9 - 0.4 10.0 60.7
23.5 0.1 0.3 2.1
OTHER
PRIVATE FEDERAL
SECTOR AGENCIES
2.4 5.1
26.2 0.2
0.5 2.0
0.8
17.3 4.0
38.2 1.3
6.1 6.2
6.3
1.1 12.6
5.5 9.8
17.0 36.8
3.6 0.3
Source: "A Special Report on the Statistical Programs and Activities of the United States Government, Fiscal Year
1988," by The Statistical Policy Office, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget,
May 1988.
3 0
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NOTES TO^HIBIT 5-1
•* 1988 net obligations. For the following agencies, budgets as enacted by Congress are the source for direct
funding: ERS, MASS, Census, BEA, NCES, EIA, NCHS, BIS, and BIS. For other agencies, the source is the
President's budget for 1988.
2 Ihe funds received by Census and BEA from the private sector include funds from foreign governments of $9.3
million and $0.4 million respectively.
•2 The Office of Policy Development and Research (OPRD) includes the Housing and Demographic Analysis Division, the
main statistical agency of HUD.
3 1
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EXHIBIT 5-2
TOTAL FUNDING AND PURCHASES OF SERVICES IN FY 1988
BY TWELVE FEDERAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
(MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)
Department
Agriculture
Commerce
Education
Energy
HHS
HUD
Justice
Labor
Treasury
Total Funding Total Spent
From All Sources on Purchased
Agency Services Services
ERS
NASS
Census
BEA
NCES
EIA
NCHS
SSA (ORS)
OPRD
BJS
BLS
IRS (SOI)
49
68.5
557.9
24.8
28
69
53
8.7
13.6
19.3
228.3
29
8
27.5
2.5
0.8
21.5
39.5
22.2
0.3
13.7
20.3
114.5
3.9
Source: OMB, 1988
32
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EXHIBIT 5-3
STAFFING OF TWELVE FEDERAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES
Department
Agency
Staff in FY 1988
Staff Professionals
Agriculture
ERS
NASS
840 FTE; 600-700
Full-Time
1,000 Total
Economists, including agricultural
economists; econometricians;
statisticians; sociologists;
regional scientists
Agricultural economists; agronomists;
computer programmers; agricultural
statisticians
Commerce
HHS
Census
BEA
NCHS
SSA (ORS)
6,000 Permanent;
11-12,000 Total*
400 Total
500 Total
135 Total
Economists; survey statisticians
Economists
Education
Energy
NCES 130 Total Mathematical statisticians, survey
statisticians; psychometricians
EIA 470 Full-Time . ' Statisticians
Survey statisticians trained in
demography; M.D. epidemiologists;
computer programmers; writers
Economists; statisticians; computer
programmers; sociologists
HUD-
OPRD
140 Total
Economists; social scientists;
sociologists; planners
Justice
BJS
Statisticians; criminologists;
social science analysts
Labor
BLS
2,700 Total
Statisticians; survey statisticians;
economists
Treasury
IRS (SOI)
475 Staff Years
Statisticians; economists
Source: Discussions with high-level administrative personnel in each Agency.
* However, up to 400,000 temporary employees may be in the field during the decennial census.
33
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6. RELATIONSHIP WITH STATES AND OTHER NETWORKING
6.1 State Organizations
State organizations can be both users and suppliers of
statistical centers' data. Some Federal statistics agencies have
extensive interaction with state and local governments (NASS,
NCHS, Census, BJS, BLS, NCES). The agencies have worked out
various relationships for information-sharing with States and for
exercising quality control over the data, as shown in the
following examples:
NASS has formed cooperative agreements with every State
Department of Agriculture, under which NASS has carried out many
one-time surveys, and provided agricultural courses for them. In
addition to approximately 1000 Federal employees, NASS has 230
State employees. NASS uses approximately 3,500 part-time
enumerators through a private contractor hired by the National
Association of State Departments of Agriculture, paid by a
combination of Federal and State money. The States also pay
salaries and provide office space and data collection and
processing for the NASS program. The Administrator of NASS
called the States their "most important backing resource - 50
political aides."
The NCHS has set up a cooperative statistics program with
the State Centers of Vital Statistics to move towards common
definitions and improved quality of the data, e.g., they used
different coding systems for collecting health care data. The
program is voluntary for those States that are not mandated to
collaborate. Under reduced funding this program has been scaled
back, but there are 10-12 State centers that continue to
cooperate on matters of health promotion and disease prevention.
The BLS has a well developed Federal/State cooperative
program in which it contracts with State Employment Security
Agencies to collect data for the employment program, and with
State Labor Commissions to collect data for the occupational
safety and health program. They insure obtaining correctly
standardized data by saying to the states "here are the
deliverables, if you do it right you get paid." BLS1 eight
regional offices review the States' work and help them with
increased technology. In addition, the regional and area offices
collect data for business surveys directly from the business
community.
State and local governments produce most of the data for
the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and by statute the Bureau
is directed to give primary attention to their problems.
While States and localities do their own collection of
data on schools, the National Center for Education Statistics has
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tried to fill the gaps and provide crosswalks to make the data
fit standard definitions. The Federal Government now provides a
good budget allocation to enhance this cooperation. The Council
of Chief State School Officers is contracted to work through
standardizing definitions, by sending a handbook of common terms
to the States and asking which definitions were used. By
negotiating with each state, they are producing either consensus
definitions or crosswalks.
6.2 Other Networking
Besides the close relationships developed by some of the
Federal statistics centers with their State and local users,
similar bridges are built to other users of their data and
services, thereby -constructing very large networks of supporters
as well as providers of valuable feedback to the programs.
The National Center for Education Statistics provides an
effective model for addressing field concerns. In addition to
convening users groups, NCES has commissioned papers from
approximately 45 data users, including Federal and State
officials and researchers. The Commissioner of NCES sent letters
to several dozen associations, and received advice on data ;gaps,
qualitative needs, and increased detail with disaggregation of
data. The National Academy of Sciences called it such a good
process that it should be institutionalized, and thus this
querying is done regularly. During 1988, NCES convened 10
standing advisory panels totaling 105 members, plus 18 one-time
meetings, to request advice from 379 individuals.
The Census Bureau, the National Center for Health
Statistics, and the Statistics of Income Division in the IRS also
have developed extensive outreach programs to learn more about
their users' needs.
6.3 Recommendations for EPA
With the EPA's network of Regional Offices, there is a
framework through which a Bureau of Environmental Statistics
could work to reach the States and local communities in order to
learn their needs for national data and for degree of detail in
the disaggregated data. The models for building cooperation and
service between a central statistics Bureau and the field are
already given by several of the Federal statistics agencies, and
their ideas could be adapted for use by an environmental
statistics center. In particular, the BLS model, which involves
1) contracting with States to provide data paid for only on
conformation to the required standardization, and 2) oversight by
regional offices, could be adapted to EPA data collection by
State Environmental Protection Agencies, with oversight by the
EPA Regional Offices.
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7. ADVISORY COMMITTEES
7.1 Introduction
The Federal government receives advice from the private
sector through many types of committees that may be legally
constituted or ad hoc, but provide a mechanism for public
participation in determining policy or technical matters. It was
very clear from the discussions with these officials that
advisory and oversight committees of various types, whether
statutorily decreed or less formally established, can be
exceptionally valuable to the statistical centers that they
serve.
7.2 Federal Advisory Committees Under FACA
Some of the statistics agencies (NCHS, Census, BLS, NCES)
have advisory committees that operate under the provisions of the
Federal Advisory Committee (FACA) Act of 1972 (PL 92-453), and
function under the rules and oversight of the General Services
Administration (GSA). In two cases (NCHS and NCES) the
committees are Congressionally mandated. While the mandate for
an advisory committee was eliminated in the 1984 reauthorization
of the BJS and its advisory board dissolved, its Director has the
authorization to appoint a new board.
Members of these advisory committees are chosen in different
ways, most by the heads of the statistical agencies, but some by
the committees themselves (BLS). Technically, they are all
appointed by the Department Secretary, with varying degrees of
intervention. In some cases presidential clearance may be
exercised, even though not provided for in the statute.
Remuneration to committee members may include honorariums,
per diem and travel expenses, or no recompense at all (BLS).
Size of the committees also varies considerably, from 9 to 147
(Eldridge), with either 2- or 3-year,terms of office. Staff
support is provided by the statistics agency that is served.
These Federal Advisory Committees under FACA give advice on
policy matters as well as technical problems, and because they do
so, are required to be representative of the interested public
sectors. In one case (NCES) the statute requires that no more
than 4 be from the same political party. Under a new law
advisory committees were to be given authority to establish
standards to make sure that there was no political taint to the
statistics produced by a federal statistics agency. However, the
National Academy of Sciences said that this type of group cannot
establish standards themselves, but can review and advise on how
overall standards can be achieved without political influence.
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7.3 Advisory Groups of Federal Statistics Agencies
National Center for Health Statistics
Officials at the NCHS highly praised the support they
receive from their statutorily mandated advisory committee - the
National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics - and they
advised that EPA look to its authority and operation as a model
for an advisory committee to a Bureau of Environmental
Statistics.
This committee was originally viewed as a committee to
advise NCHS on technical problems and was composed mainly of
mathematical statisticians. In the mid '70's it was established
by law as being advisory to the Secretary of DHHS and mandated to
address all issues related to health statistics. Because of its
broader mission, its composition now is mixed, with members who,
preferably, are specialists in more than one of the related
professions. Their appointment is an interactive process between
the Secretary and the NCHS, the latter submitting a panel of
nominees to cover an area of need. The committee's composition
now is much more policy-oriented and the members select problems
to address that are not just NCHS issues, but may pertain to
other sectors of DHHS, such as the Health Care Financing Agency
(HCFA).
The committee acts as ombudsman for the NCHS, promoting
.its interests within and outside the Departmment, and provides
the structure with which to interact with the private sector and
through which to participate in international collaboration.
Census Bureau
The Census Bureau is so large that it has a whole battery of
advisory groups, of which their 9 advisory committees under FACA
are "just one wing." Four are associated with professional
associations the American Statistical Association (ASA), the
American Economic Association (AEC), the Population Association
of America (PAA), and the American Marketing Association (AHA).
Committee members are chosen by the presidents of these
professional organizations, from lists drawn up by the Bureau
Director. The Census Advisory Committee of the ASA, for example,
reviews the planning of censuses and surveys as well as the
policies and procedures of the Bureau's programs as a whole. The
AEC committee reviews the censuses and surveys with economic
content, and advises on the role of economic analysis within the
Bureau's programs. Once a year the four professional committees
meet in a plenary session, and then, for one and one-half days,
the committees meet individually or in pairs on specific topics,
with predetermined agendas and prepared papers.
Census has also a specific subject committee, the
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Agriculture Advisory Committee, whose members are suggested by
all the major agriculture associations, and whose one government
member is the administrator of NASS. This committee advises on
the Bureau's agricultural surveys, the kinds of information to be
obtained, and the data needs of the users of .the resulting
statistics.
In addition to the remaining four FACA committess, all
constituted to advise on improving census counts of minorities,
the Census Bureau it has committees that were organizewd by the
users of their data, such as foreign trade statistics, or housing
surveys. These outsider committees are official and give advice
on ethnic, racial, social, and political matters. The officials
at Census highly recommended this form of networking and added
that "the open book works best."
National Agricultural Statistics Service
The National Agricultural Statistics Service has its Crop
Reporting Board, whose advisory functions, described in an
earlier section, are critical to MASS'S procedures for carrying
out its mandate.
National Center for Education Statistics
The Advisory Council to the National Center for Education
Statistics played a crucial role in recognizing the severity of
the NCES1 decline, and in requesting the NAS study that
instigated the statutory basis for its re-emergence as a strong
statistical center. The Advisory Council by statute is required
to have 7 public members chosen by the Secretary, without
specifying how he was to choose them, and 4 identified by the
statute: the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; the
Director of the Bureau of the Census; the Chairman of the
National Commission on Library and Information Sciences: and the
Assistant Secretary for Education Research and Improvement (the
head of NCES's home Office). The Council reviews the program and
policies of the Center, and is responsible for establishing
standards for the quality of the data and statistical analysis,
and for ensuring that they are not subject to political
influence.
This Council was reconstituted 3 years ago by the Secretary
and Assistant Secretary to obtain a broad spectrum of higher
level professionals. While it is now a very good group, it has
only two statisticians, and the Director of NCES would like to
establish a more technical advisory group, similar to the one
used by the Energy Information Agency.
Energy Information Administration's "Utilized'1 Committee
The officials at Census and at NCES both pointed to the EIA
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technical advisory panel as a desirable model for obtaining high
level technical advice. In the year that EIA was established,
1978, the Director asked the ASA to set up an advisory panel of
statisticians to deal with difficult questions in statistical
theory. The panel members were of a very high calibre,
presenting prepared issue papers at meetings. Their
professionalism gave a high standing to EIA in the statistical
community early in its establishment. This type of committee is
now called by the GSA a "utilized committee," because it is an
ASA committee, made up only of ASA members appointed by the ASA,
and the EIA has no control over it "officially." However, the
Administrator of EIA can and does attend meetings and has the
right to close a meeting if he feels the discussion is
inappropriate. In contrast to the other advisory committees, a
utilized committee is not allowed to address policy measures.
For the EIA, the composition of this panel of statisticians
is chosen from industry and academia to cover the energy program
areas - coal, gas, oil, nuclear energy, as well as general
statistical expertise. The Agency prepares technical papers in
advance of the meeting, and everyone who wants to reads them.
One or two are invited to be formal respondents to the
presentations at the meeting, which is recorded and a transcript
produced by EIA. The Agency also prepares formal responses to the
panel. At the meetings the Administrator informs the panel about
new projects, Congressional requests, and rearranged priorities,
and there is joint decision on future topics. According to one
committee member, "there is tremendous cooperation and respect
between the Agency and the panel."
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The BLS has dual sets of advisory committees under FACA,
one for labor and one for business. Each set consists of a parent
advisory council and 6 supporting committees that reflect the
specific program areas of BLS. The Labor Research Advisory
Council advises on technical statistical problems, consults on
the programs, and provides the labor union viewpoint. The
Business Research Advisory Council advises on technical matters
of data collection from business establishments and its analysis
and reporting, as veil as providing the viewpoints of business
and industry users the data.
Since the .labor and business committees usually disagreed
with each other, the Commissioner put together a subcommittee of
members from both. The members are all technical professionals,
work hard, and are unpaid, even for travel expenses. While
technically they are Secretarial appointees, actually, each group
nominates and chooses its members themselves, and ensures their
credentials as labor and business economists.
Instead of technical or "utilized" committees, the BLS
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Commissioner prefers to pay experts with specific subject matter
specialities for 3 days a week of their time to write papers on a
particular issue, then bring them together to discuss what
they've found. This is not expensive, costing 3 to 4 thousand
dollars for 5 or 6 people.
7.4 Recommendations for EPA
It is clear that the Agencies have made valuable use of
several types of advisory groups. The official Federal Advisory
Committees provide a broad scope of services, consider policy
questions, form an official link to outside interests, and serve
as a creditable ombudsman for the Agency's interests. The
technical or "utilized" committees are needed to address
increasingly complex issues in statistical methodology.
Therefore, provision in the statutory establishment of a Bureau
cf Environmental Statistics should be made for one or more
Federal Advisory Committees under FACA, and funding for a
technology panel should be considered in any proposed budget,
either as a "utilized" committee from the American Statistical
Association, such as in the EIA model, or as paid individuals who
are convened on specific issues, as is done at BLS.
The BLS model of dual sets of advisory committees is
particularly appropriate to the needs of an EPA statistics agency
with its mission to consider both environmentalists and industry.
Dual sets of advisory committees representing both groups would
be established for each program area, and, given their strong
interests, would probably serve without pay as do the business
and labor advisory committees to BLS.
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APPENDIX A
SUMMARY REPORTS OF INTERVIEWS
WITH OFFICIALS OF TWELVE
FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCIES
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NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
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NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE, U.S. Agriculture
Department (USDA)
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
administers the collection and publication of national and state
agricultural statistics, including data on current year crops,
livestock, poultry, dairy, prices, and other aspects of the
agricultural economy. NASS data are published by the Agricultural
Statistics Board (ASB), which maintains computer data bases of
long-term data relating to crop acreage, yield, and production, hog
and cattle inventories, grain stocks, and county estimates for many
crop and livestock items.
Farm production estimates are a major NASS program. Based on
a sample of farmers surveyed in March, NASS issues an "intentions
report" on crops that farmers expect to plant. A larger survey is
conducted in June to determine what actually was planted. In
August, another survey is conducted to estimate anticipated yields.
Production is forecast for most crops at that time. The forecasts
are updated in September, October, November, and December, and
finally in January for citrus. A separate survey is conducted to
produce a status report on stored grain.
A major user of NASS data is the Economic Research Service
(ERS) of USDA, which publishes reports on all aspects of the
agricultural .economy of the United States and other countries.
In addition to crop forecasts, NASS conducts a wide variety
of other projects. The most important include the following:
NASS provides the rural portion of the Consumer
Expenditure Survey, coordinating base weights with the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Agricultural labor is not covered by BLS but by NASS.
NASS does a quarterly labor survey covering the number
of farms and the wage rates paid to farm labor for the
Labor Department, which uses this information to
determine what the "adverse effect" wage rate must be
(rate paid to H2A workers in order not to drive down
overall wage rates.)
To meet requirements in the Immigration Reform Control
Act, NASS forecasts demand for seasonal workers, based
in part on crop production forecasts.
NASS provides statistical consulting services to other
groups within USDA, including the Food and Nutrition
Service and the Human Nutrition Information Service, as
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NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE (continued)
well as to farmers' cooperatives.
NASS assists the U.S. Agency for International
Development (AID) and the World Bank as well as the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
NASS staff have participated in establishing centers for
agricultural statistics in several countries.
NASS studies sometimes address environmental issues.
For example, NASS cooperated with EPA in performing a
survey for ERS to estimate pesticide contamination of
water. NASS has also surveyed fuel tanks for EPA.
While NASS collects primarily national and state-level data,
tha Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Service (ASCS) of USDA
supports the collection also of county-level data by NASS. The
county-level data are used by ASCS to calculate crop yields within
counties, which are required to calculate the price supports to
farmers. Monthly_ price reports 'from- NASS containing prices
received and paid by farmers are also used in determining price
supports.
The functions of NASS most overlap those of the Bureau of the
Census, which performs a census of agriculture every five years.
Their work is also complementary, since Census uses data from the
NASS probability survey as a basis for estimating the
incompleteness of the five-year census of agriculture.
NASS does one-time surveys or complete crop counts paid for
by individual state agencies or industries. The Florida citrus
growers voted a tax on every box to pay for their biennial survey
of oranges, and in California the agricultural industries paid $1
million for their data collection. Altogether, NASS does $15.6 in
reimbursable surveys, in which they are required to obtain
estimates that are within 2% accuracy.
Some of the data they use is "administrative data" that is
collected by inspectors in the course of their work.
II. Legislative Authority
NASS was established in 1961 as the . Statistical Reporting
Service, along with the ERS. The principal authority was the
Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946.
Publication of their data is highly regulated by statute, not
only the exact data series and times of release, but the protocol
of secrecy surrounding their determination and release, and the
built in independence from political influence. For each set of
crop estimates, a Crop Reporting Board, established by law in 1905,
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NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE (continued)
and continually reconstituted with temporary members from the
Department and from the field, deliberates under severe cloistering
(locked doors, secured blinds, disconnected phones) from 3AM to
3PM. The politically appointed Assistant Secretary is
permitted to see the results only during a 15 minute briefing
before public release. He can stop their publication only by going
directly to the press room and giving his reason.
III. Organization
NASS is one of three statistical agencies within US DA with
budget independence, the others being ERS and the World
Agricultural Outlook Board. The three agencies all report to the
Assistant Secretary for Economics, who is appointed by the
President. The Office of Energy and the Economic Analysis Staff,
which also report to this Assistant Secretary, are funded from the
NASS budget.
NASS is divided into Programs and Operations. Under Programs
are the Statistical Standards Staff, the Estimates and the Data
Management Divisions, and the Agricltural Statistics Board Staff.
Under Operations are the Research and Applications Division, the
State Statistical Division, and the International Programs Office.
The State Statistical Division has oversight responsibilities
over the extensive network of cooperative agreements with every
State Department of Agriculture, and with the their national
association (NASDA).
IV. Personnel and Budget
NASS has a staff of about 1,000. In addition, about 230 state
employees are paid with NASS funds through cooperative agreements
with all 50 state departments of agriculture. These cooperative
agreements enable NASS to fund programs that otherwise would not
be undertaken because of Federal staffing ceilings.
The surveys that support the annual crop production forecasts
by NASS are undertaken by about 3,500 enumerators whose part-time
contracts are administered by the National Association of State
Departments of Agriculture and are funded by the Federal government
as well as by the States.
NASS is staffed by agricultural economists, agronomists, and
computer programmers, many of whom are sent to training programs
in statistics by NASS and frequently earn master's or PhD degrees.
Some staff members have the title "agricultural statistician," the
equivalent of survey statistician.
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NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE (continued)
NASS has budgetary independence from other organizations
within USDA. NASS1 proposed budget authority of $64.1 million in
FY 89 is $2.9 million above the FY 88 budget. The additional funds
will be used to initiate new agricultural labor survey activities
in response to the Immigration Reform and Control Act
of 1986. They will also pay increased costs of other statistical
work.
NASS has lost approximately 9 percent of its budget in real
terms since 1980 and has been forced to reduce its staff by
approximately 17 percent since then. Curtailed projects included
NASS work on many commodities and on aguaculture. Another result
of staff cutbacks is that peak workloads sometimes require staff
to work 18-hour days. Since 1984, NASS has economized by charging
fe?s for NASS publications; these fees have reimbursed the agency
about $1 million in postage and $100,000 in other expenses. At the
same time, there have been budget increases for certain activities,
such as the new immigration studies planned for FY 89.
V." History
NASS is one of the oldest Federal statistical centers. In
creating the Agriculture Department in 1862, Congress also
established requirements for statistical reporting. The first crop
report was published in 1863. Laws passed in 1905 set up the Crop
Reporting Board, made up of temporary appointees from within
Washington and in the states, which meet weekly and issue releases
containing the latest crop forecasts.
NASS achieved the status of agency in 1961, having previously
been a division or part of a bureau at various times. NASS
received its current name in 1986; formerly, it was called the
Statistical Reporting Service.
VT. Addenda
The definition of a farm, any unit that sells $1,000 or more
worth of its produce (1974), has strong political connotations
because appropriations are based on the farm population of a state.
Agriculture and Commerce must concur on any change in this
definition. The number of farms is estimated once a year by NASS
from a sample survey. These annual estimates indicate that about
15% of farms are missed in each 5-year census by the Census Bureau.
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ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
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ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE, Agriculture Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The Economic Research Service (ERS) is the primary analytical
organization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). ERS
produces economic and other social science information as a service
to the general public and to help Congress and the Administration
develop, administer, and evaluate agricultural and rural policies
and programs. ERS addresses a wide range of topics, including U.S.
and world agricultural production and demand, effects of Federal
farm policies, and agricultural institutions throughout the world.
The principal functions of ERS include research, situation
and outlook analysis, and development of economic and statistical
indicators. The situation and outlook analysis function entails
periodic reports that analyze the current situation and forecast
the short-term outlook for major agricultural commmodities,
agricultural exports, agricultural finance, agricultural resources,
and world agriculture. ERS also analyzes specific issues requiring
policy decisions by the Administration and Congress.
ERS publishes hundreds of documents each year, totalling 25-
30,000 pages. ERS publications include the peer-reviewed
professional journal, The Journal of Agricultural Economics
Research, research monographs, situation and outlook reports, trade
journals and several magazines.
The data used by ERS in its analyses come primarily from the
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), another statistics
agency with budget independence in the USDA. ERS conducts small
surveys from time to time; for example, ERS surveyed pesticide
manufacturers on production volume. From 8 to 10 percent of ERS1
budget is allocated to data acquisition, either directly from NASS
or through jointly managed projects. An example is the Farm Cost
and Returns Survey, which is funded annually with about $1.5
million from both ERS and NASS. ERS also uses data from the Bureau
of the Census.
ERS does not advise policy in its reports, but analyzes
different options and their potential consequences. (Politically
oriented position reports on the data are produced by the Economic
Analysis Staff under the same Assistant Secretary.) Each ERS
report goes through a clearance process that includes peer review
by three to five individuals from ERS, the Economics Management
Staff (another section under the Assistant Secretary for
Economics), and the American Agricultural Economics Association.
The World Agricultural Outlook Board, under the same Assistant
Secretary, coordinates all of the economic releases by USDA to
ensure consistency.
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ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE (continued)
There is no political review of their publications. They are
"free to do objective data collection and the best analysis they
know how." A list of forthcoming reports is submitted to the
Assistant Secretary/ but there never has been a rejection. Mr.
Reinsel was firm in his statement that "if you don't make it so
that your data is trusted, there is no use putting it out, the
agency could not survive."
The work performed by ERS consists mainly of analyzing and
forecasting demand and supply within agricultural markets,
covering three general topic areas: (1~) agricultural inputs, such
as seed, equipment, and pesticides; (2) production, aggregated to
state and regional levels; and (3) final demand, reflected in
supermarket prices.
ERS also does studies using environmental subjects from an
economic point of view, for example, using data on pesticide
residues on crops in determining the economic consequences of
banning a particular pesticide.
ERS complements NASS.. NASS develops production and price
statistics on a fast-turnaround basis, while ERS is responsible
for performing analyses and making forecasts based on these
statistics. ERS has the more flexible program of the two
organizations, anticipating future policy issues that may require
research,
II. Legislative Authority
ERS was established in 1961, principally under the authority
of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946. After undergoing
various transformations, it was re-established in 1981, as was the
Statistical Reporting Service, which is now NASS. The mission of
ERS is "to provide economic and other social science information
and analysis for improving the performance of agriculture and rural
America."
Only a few of the functions performed by ERS are statutorily
mandated. One is research to support USDA's contribution to the
national income and product accounts. In general, ERS has
considerable discretion over its research agenda.
Ill. Organization
ERS is one of six divisions reporting to the Assistant
Secretary for Economics, who is appointed by the President. The
Administrator of ERS is a career civil servant with a doctorate in
Economics.
Within ERS, there are four program divisions: Agriculture and
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ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE (continued)
Rural Economy, Agriculture and Trade Analysis, Commodity Economics,
and Resources and Technology.
IV. Personnel and Budget
During FY 88, ERS had 840 full-time equivalents and a full-
time staff of between 600 and 700, of whom about 120 are
administrative staff. ERS has approximately 400 economists,
including agricultural economists, a growing number of
econometricians, and a small number of statisticians, as well as
sociologists and regional scientists, who analyze the rural non-
farm aspects of the economy. About one-half of the ERS analysts
hold PhD degrees, and most of the remaining analysts hold master's
degrees.
They recruit their personnel from the land grant universities,
and also hire more from the outside world than does NASS, where
they promote more from within.
Funding for ERS was $48.2 million in FY 88. This was slightly
less than funding for NASS, which has a larger field staff. For
FY 89, the Administration proposes a funding level of $49.8 million
for ERS, an increase of $1.6 million over the previous year. Most
of the additional funds would be used for analysis of agricultural
and labor immigration reform and for analysis of the effects of new
technology. . •
ERS has unfilled staff ceilings but insufficient budget, the
opposite of NASS, which has the funds but not the openings. They
work closely with land grant universities in cooperative agreements
to obtain help in the data collection and analysis. Like NASS,
they are not a big contracting agency.
V. History
USDA's original concern was with data collection more than
analysis. In 1922, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics was
established, combining statistical research with economics into
one organization, which was the forerunner of ERS. This
organization began to assume a policy-making role in the 1940s but
was dismantled by Congress under the 1949 Reorganization Act, and
its functions dispersed throughout USDA. The various groups that
resulted from the dismantling were reconstituted in 1961 as two
entities similar to the current ERS and NASS.
ERS has undergone major staffing reductions, having a staff
of 11-12,000 at its peak in the 1940s. Most of the recent changes
have been done by internal Department memos under the authority of
the Secretary, citing the 1949 act.
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ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE (continued)
VI. Addenda
Mr. Reinsel stated strongly that a bureau's statistics must
be separated from the regulatory functions of 'its Department in
order to avoid bias and maintain credibility.
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CENSUS BUREAU
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
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BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, U.S. Commerce Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The Bureau of the Census in the U.S. Department of Commerce
conducts statistical programs to describe the changing structure
and characteristics of the'nation's economy and population. The
official statement of the Census Bureau's mission reflects the
breadth and importance of census data:
"In its best interests, a civilized nation counts and profiles
its"people and institutions. Doing so ably and objectively is the
abiding mission of the United States Census Bureau. We honor
privacy, shun partisanship, invite scrutiny, and share our
expertise globally. Striving to excel, we chronicle the Nation's
past, describe its present, and illuminate its future."
The Bureau's mission is also an integral part of the goal of
the Department of Commerce to "improve quality, scope, timeliness
and availability of Departmental statistics and analyses."
The information provided by the Census Bureau is fundamental
to the analytical and decision-making processes of government
agencies responsible for monetary, work force, and other broad
economic and social programs and policies. The Census Bureau
conducts periodic censuses in the fields of:
Agriculture;
Population and housing;
Business, construction, manufactures, and mineral
industries;
Transportation; and
State and local governments.
The Census Bureau also collects and publishes current data
for many areas covered by the periodic censuses plus the official
statistics on foreign trade.
Census Bureau programs provide essential information for
analyzing a wide variety of topics concerning economic conditions;
population growth, dispersion and characteristics; education/-
housing; and state and local government activity. Census Bureau
data provide the basis for the apportionment of state legislatures,
the determination of Congressional districts, the distribution of
billions of dollars from Federal programs, and many other major
decisions. As an example of the impact of census data on policy,
Census Bureau officials cite the recent trade bill, which was
proposed in part because of census data on the trade deficit.
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BUREAU OP THE CENSUS (continued)
The Census Bureau also considers these types of data to be
fundamental to the efficient operation of private business, labor,
and other organizations engaged in economic and social decision-
making.
The Census Bureau publishes comprehensive summaries of
statistics in the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Additional forms in which census data are disseminated include
reports, computer tapes, maps, microfiche, on-line information
services, and PC disks. So extensive are the Census materials
available in 1988 that their descriptions occupy a 392-page
catalogue.
The Census Bureau's publications undergo in-house reviews and,
in, addition, reflect a considerable amount of external
input. For example, leading economists frequently express their
views to Bureau management.
Census officials consider it to be important that Congress
regards the Bureau as a neutral fact-finding agency, responsive to
the needs of the public and policy-makers;. While they submit
monthly reports on economic indicators and foreign trade to the
President's designated representative (Chairman of the Council of
Economic Affairs) and give extensive briefings to key officials
within the Department well before public release, there has been
a long tradition of no interference. It is recognized that
political interference in reporting of this data would be "shooting
oneself in the foot." But it is very important to recognize that
this is a two-way street, and Census officials cannot make
political statements and evaluations of their data.
II. Legislative Authority
Congress established a permanent Census Bureau in 1902. Most
of the authorizing legislation pertaining to the Bureau's
statistical programs is encompassed in Title 13 of the United
States Code. The legislation tends to be extremely specific; for
example, one subchapter concerns the collection and publication of
statistics on cotton, including foreign cotton statistics. Other
parts of the legislation address broader areas in which censuses
must be performed (e.g., housing, manufactures), the frequency of
the censuses, and the types of information to be collected.
Ill. Organization
The Census Bureau is one of four agencies in the Commerce
Department under the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, who
reports to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary. The Bureau of
Economic Analysis (BEA), which is discussed separately in this
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BUREAU OF THE CENSUS (continued)
report, has the same organizational status as the Census Bureau.
Within the Census Bureau, only the Director is a political
appointee. Below the Director is a Deputy Director and six
Associate Directors, whose responsibilities are as follows:
. Demographic programs;
. Decennial census;
. Economic programs;
. Statistical standards and methodology;
. Management services; and
. Field operations.
Some programs administered by Associate Directors are divided
into numerous areas, some of which are managed by Assistant
Directors. Below the Assistant Directors are Division Chiefs, most
of whom are SES.
Oversight responsibilities within the Census Bureau are
concentrated in the decennial census program area, in which as many
as 400,000 temporary employees are in the field during peak data
collection periods. A separate organization, the 21st Century
Decennial Census Planning Staff, reports directly to the Deputy
Director.
Economists in the Economic Programs work closely with
statisticians from the Statistical Research Division on problems
such as seasonal adjustments and time series analyses. Within the
Economic Programs area, most of the economists are also survey
statisticians. Projects in which staff from different divisions
collaborate are jointly managed and and the staff are jointly
evaluated by the directors in both programs.
The Bureau has a large (approximately 1000 employees) computer
center is located in Indiana, where data from survey questionnares
are processed. Other programming staff are pooled
in sections attached to the larger program offices. However, they
are now moving away from the computer pool concept, and are
assigning individual programmers to specific subject matter
subsections to improve quality and efficiency of performance.
Advisory groups play an important, role in the Bureau's
operations although they are not part of the formal organization.
These groups include:
. Professional associations. The Census Bureau meets twice
a year with committees from the American Economic
Association, American Statistical Association (ASA),
Population Association, and American Marketing Association.
The committees are chosen by their
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BUREAU OF THE CENSUS (continued)
associations' presidents. They meet for 1 1/2 days with a
pre-determined agenda including a plenary session and then
individual or pairs of committees meet on specific topics.
. Agriculture advisory committee. Members are nominated by
all major agricultural associations. One representative is
sent by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
of the USDA.
. The National Academy of Sciences, the National Science
Foundation, and the NAS Committee on National Statistics.
. Committees organized bv users of census data. These include
users of foreign trade statistics and housing. They provide
advice on ethnic, racial, social, and political matters.
Census Bureau officials refer to the extensive activities of
outside advisory bodies as "networking," and recommend that a
statistical agency's operations be "an open book." The Census
Bureau also engages in extensive outreach activities involving
state and local offices.
IV. Personnel and Budget
The Census Bureau has a total of 11 - 12,000 employees, of
whom 6,000 are permanent. The largest program is field operations;
there, are 12 regional offices, each with about 50 permanent
employees, and 300-350 enumerators. A data preparation division
is also part of field operations, which has a total of over.3,000
employees. The Economic Programs area has about 1,200 employees.
The Demographic Programs area has about 700 employees, and
Statistical Standards and Methods has about 120.
The Census Bureau is the largest Federal statistical agency.
Its direct funding in fiscal 1988 was $453.9 million, which dwarfs
the funding of all other statistical programs. The second largest
statistical agency is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose budget
during fiscal 1988 was $217.9 million.
The budget is made up of the following components:
. Periodic censuses — 65.3 percent;
. Current demographic arid economic indicators — 17.3 percent ;
. Reimbursable studies — 17.4 percent.
The Department of Labor is the largest Federal purchaser of
services from the Census Bureau. The next largest are the
Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban
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BUREAU OF THE CENSUS (continued)
Development, and Justice, other Federal agencies reimbursing the
Census Bureau for services in FY 1988 include the Department of
Education, AID, the Veterans Administration, USDA, the Department
of Defense, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and
Department of Transportation.
The proposed FY 1989 funding level of $104 million for the
Census Bureau's current programs provides an increase of $9.2
million over FY 1988, an amount that will permit continuation of
ongoing activities. In addition, a proposed budget increase for
manufacturing statistics reflects the transfer of the Plant and
Equipment Survey from the BEA to allow for closer coordination with
other Census programs. A second proposed budget increase would
provide resources for the Census Bureau to assume responsibility
from the Social Security Administration for classifying new
businesses into the SIC coding operation.
V. Addenda
Other statements by the Census officials:
"There is a strong network of Federal data people in the
Washington area to be used as a resource."
"EPA must finally say that it is time for a statistics
center to do something independent from EPA programs. There must
be no reason to wonder if anyone manipulated the agency's published
numbers."
"In considering the establishment of an environmental
statistics bureau, formulate questions that address measurement of
environmental quality, current inadequacies to be overcome, the
statistical agency's most important clients."
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BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
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BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, U.S. Commerce Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in the Department
of Commerce is responsible for producing the principal statistical
measures of economic activity in the United States. The most
important of these measures are the national income and product
accounts, summarized in the Gross National Product (GNP).
BEA prepares many additional economic measures, including
the balance of payments and associated foreign investment accounts;
the input-output accounts, which trace the interrelationships among
industrial markets; the wealth accounts, which show the business
and other components of national wealth; and personal income and
related economic series by geographic area.
In addition, BEA provides measures relating to
environmental change within the framework of the national economic
accounts. Since the mid-1970s, BEA has collected and analyzed data
on spending on pollution abatement by industrial sector. BEA-takes
a comprehensive approach within the context of GNP accounts,
addressing cost to consumers, government, and business of
environmental spending related to all media.
Only about 15 percent of the work of BEA is data
collection, according to Allen H. Young, Director of BEA. The
majority of the data analyzed by BEA are collected by other
organizations. For example, the Internal Revenue Service provides
data used to develop the national income and product accounts.
The agency's overall goal is to give "a clear picture of
the U.S. economy" through these measures. To supplement the work
on the national economic accounts, BEA prepares and analyzes other
measures of business activity: for example, forecasts of economic
developments are prepared from their own econometric models using
data input from surveys of investment outlays and plans of U.S.
business.
BEA data and analyses are used in the formulation of
national fiscal policies. Business also uses BEA information in
planning production, price, and investment programs. Other users
include State and local governments, labor, universities, and
research organizations. The analyses prepared by BEA are
disseminated mainly through two monthly publications, the Survey
of Current Business (including periodic supplements) and Business
Conditions Digest.
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BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (continued)
II. Legislative Authority
BEA operates under various legal authorities. Most of
these authorities are related to laws requiring or permitting
certain types of studies to be undertaken. For example,
authority for mandatory balance of payments surveys stems from the
Bretton Woods Agreements Act and is contained in an executive order
issued in 1949. The Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 provided for the
mandatory collection of data on certain U.S. service transactions
with foreigners.
Ill. Organization
Data collection leading to the national income and
product accounts and, ultimately, the measurement of GNP,
originated during the 1940s. BEA, formerly the Office of Business
Economics, was one of four offices originally established within
the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in 1945. BEA's status
has changed at various times. At present, the agency is a primary
operating unit of the Department of Commerce, responsible to the
Under Secretary for Economic Affairs. Among the seven primary
operating units within the Department of Commerce (BEA, Census,
NOAA, Patent Office, National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Travel and
Tourism Administration, and National Telecommunications and
Information Administration), BEA is the only one whose director
is not a political appointee.
BEA's work was formerly coordinated with the work of the
Bureau of the Census and of the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the
Statistical Policy Office within the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) . However, since 1980 this role has not been
exercised, but BEA and Census do communicate and cooperate as arms
of the same department (Commerce).
BEA has a semi-formal relationship with State Economic
Development Offices through a regional program.
IV. Personnel and Budget
BEA has a staff of about 400. Most of the professionals
on the staff are economists with doctorates or master's degrees.
BEA had a separate budget until the late 1970s, when it
merged for budgetary purposes with several small units under the
Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs. At present,
BEA accounts for approximately two-thirds of Economic Affairs'
budget, but does not have its own budget. The FY 1989 budget is
expected to be $24.7 million, which will be $1.1 million above
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BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (continued)
the FY 1988 level. The FY 1989 total includes $1.7 million to
maintain accurate GNP estimates in areas where recent changes in
the economy and in data sources have been the most
significant.
V. History
BEA and the Bureau of the Census are the two statistical
centers in the Department of Commerce. They were equal in size in
the 1960s, but now Census is 10 times the size of BEA. In spite
of the downward trend in their funding since 1978, their program
responsibilities have not been cut. Although productivity has
increased, the reduced funding has brought a lack of necessary
Icng-term research and development and some deterioration in the
quality of their product. They are "starting to try to turn this
trend around."
The budget cuts have precluded two planned projects, one
was a state data study in which the states were interested, and the
second was a study to relate their data on- the cost to industries
for pollution control measures with the quantities of pollutants
actually removed. Since these costs represented "nonproductive
investment" by industry, the second study was removed from their
program. This important cost-benefit information could more readily
be obtained in a cooperative project between the BEA and a Bureau
of Environmental Statistics." (Currently, the Brookings Institute
is investigating whether environmental spending is a drag on
productivity.)
VI. Addenda
Mr. Young, a career government employee, emphasized that
he makes changes in the Bureau's GNP determinations purely on a
technical basis. He said "people who use our numbers know they're
put together by career people. The public perception of integrity
is important."
BEA maintains the integrity of its Survey of Current
Business publication without intervention from the political
appointees because the latter understand "it is in their own self
interest not to muck up what the public sees as objective."
In Mr. Young's view, the advantage of a Federal
statistics agency is that it generates respect and public trust and
provides data that is necessary to informed policy decisions. But
the agency must operate in such a way that it gains a reputation
for objectivity and competence. In addition, such a center will
attract professional talent to its staff.
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS, Education Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The mission of the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) is to collect and publish statistics and other information
on the condition and progress of education in the United States.
The Department of Education intends the Center's activities to
assist in making improved policy decisions about education. The
Center's principal goal is to provide data support to policy at
the Federal level; however, State and local decision-makers,
parents, and the general public are also viewed as users of the
Center's statistics. In the Center's view, "the broadest
dissemination of the best information is critical to debate and
decision."
Two continuing publications represent the culmination of much
of the Center's work. One is The Condition of Education, which
addresses a broad range of educational quality issues. Another is
the Digest of Education Statistics, which has been published
annually or biennially since 1962. Each publication is described
briefly, below.
The Condition of Education. Responding to the 1983 report of
the National Commission on Excellence in Education (A Nation at
Risk), the Center began evolving a set of indicators to describe
what it refers to as the "health" of the educational system.
Examples of indicators include test scores and other measures of
student performance, resources in the schools, and student
characteristics, including racial and ethnic composition.
The data are published using a graphic format to convey
statistical information in a nontechnical way to a general
audience. Every year, the number of topics on which indicators
are developed broadens. The Condition of Education draws on the
Center's continuing statistical program as well as on other data
collected within and outside the Federal government.
Studies conducted by the Center itself include annual surveys
to collect statistics on public schools and on higher education;
recurring sample surveys of recent college graduates; longitudinal
studies of students; and the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, which measures what students know in- various subject
areas. In addition, the Center is currently working with the
Bureau of the Census to develop an expanded and improved database
on elementary, and secondary education, through linked surveys of
school administrators, teachers, and parents.
Digest of Education Statistics. 1987. Twenty-three editions
of the Digest of Education Statistics have been published since
1962. Like The Condition of Education, the publication draws on
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS (continued)
data collected by the Center for Education Statistics but many
other sources as well, both public and private. The Center has
recently expanded the types of statistics reported and has improved
the comprehensibility of the data by a non-technical audience
through summaries and graphic presentations.
Data are reported in seven broad areas, described in chapter
headings as follows: All Levels of Education, Elementary and
Secondary Education, Postsecondary Education, Federal Programs for
Education and Related Activities, Economic Outcomes of Education,
International Education, and Learning Resources and Technology.
The main difference between the Digest of Education Statistics
and The Condition of Education is that the Digest covers many more
topics but with much less interpretation. To qualify for inclusion
in the Digest, material must only be "nationwide in scope and of
current interest and value." The Center compares the Digest to
Statistical Abstract, while The Condition of Education both
measures the size of the educational system and attempts to assess
how well the system performs.
A major effort of the Center is to standardize data collected
by states and localities. Educational institutions, including
higher education, consider it important to have statistics on
elementary and secondary education (e.g., enrollment, test scores)
with which to .compare their performance against comparable
institutions. The Center fills in gaps in state data and, where
it can, provides crosswalks among statistics gathered using
different terminologies. The Center contracts with the Council of
Chief State School Officers to work on achieving standardized
definitions of the educational concepts that they are measuring.
The Center also conducts special studies, in addition to
recurring surveys and studies. To develop special studies based
on prospective users' needs, the Director convenes users groups,
commissions papers, and solicits advice from professional
associations. In FY 88, the Center convened 10 standing advisory
panels comprising 105 members. Each advisory panel concentrated
on a single program. A total of 380 persons were interviewed in
18 separate meetings on ways to improve data quality.
The Center's data collection activities and analyses are
usually conducted independently of other offices within the
Department of Education because most other offices are
Congressionally mandated programs funded by specific types of
Federal aid. The Center also abstains from evaluating Federal
grant programs.
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS (continued)
II. Legislative Authority
A precursor to the Center was established in 1867 as the
"Office of Education," whose mission was to gather and disseminate
data from the states on progress in education. Authorization for
the Center is contained in the General Education Provisions Act:
"The purpose of the Center shall be to collect and disseminate
statistics and other data related to education in the United States
and in other nations. The Center shall... collect, collate, and
from time to time, report full and complete statistics on the
conditions of education in the United States; conduct and publish
reports on specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of
such statistics; ... and review and report on education activities
in foreign countries," — Section 406 (b) of the General Education
Provisions Act, as amended (20 U.S.C. 1221e-l).
The Center had been out of the mainstream in the Department
of Education until very recently, with a few exceptions. One
exception was the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) , .which measures what students know, by subject area. .The
NAEP originated in 1964 when Congress required that an "eguality
of educational opportunities survey" be conducted. The survey work
is performed by contractors, but the Center designed the survey,
does the analysis, and publishes the results.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Center lost further
ground. Even the National Assessment of Educational Progress was
reassigned to another part of the Department of Education. The
turning point came in 1984. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
was requested by the Center's statutorily mandated Advisory Council
to perform a full evaluation of the Center. . The NAS report
criticized the Center for lacking adequate standards for their data
and for failing to establish good relations with educators. It
pointed out that there had been 30 years of reports coming to the
same conclusions, and recommended that the Administration and
Congress must either revitalize the Center or transfer its
functions to the Bureau of the Census.
The Administration responded by increasing the Center's staff
from 100 to 130 and by proposing a large increase in the Center's
budget. Individual members of Congress, in particular, of the
Joint Economic Committee, spoke to the Joint Appropriations
Committee on behalf of the Center, resulting in authorization of
the budget increase and enactment of a new statutes that enlarged
the Center's authority and is broad enough to include promoting
education as well as reporting on its progress. Due to the NAS
study the legislation was substantive, and led to a more
coordinated and focussed program for the Center.
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS (continued)
III. Organisation
The National Center for Education Statistics is part of the
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), which is
headed by an Assistant Secretary, who reports directly to the
Secretary. Within the Center, four divisions report to the Office
of the Commissioner of NCES: the Elementary/Secondary Education
Statistics Division, the Elementary/Secondary Outcomes Division,
the Postsecondary Education Statistics Division, and the
Crosscutting Education Statistics and Analysis Division.
Although the Commissioner of NCES is a career civil servant
at present, the statute that established the Center will convert
th-2 Commissioner's position to that of a Presidential appointeeship
in 1991. However, the statute also requires the Commissioner to
have certain qualifications, including a strong knowledge of the
Center's programs and special expertise in the field of statistics
and education. The four-year term of a Commissioner is established
to overlap Presidential terms by two-years, thereby further
reducing the political factor.
NCES has a statutorily established Advisory Council which
operates under the regulation of the Federal Advisory Committee
rules. The statute requires that 7 of the 15 members be appointed
from the public by the Secretary of Education, and it specifies 4
of member from the government: 1) Commissioner of BLS; 2) Director
of Census Bureau; 3) Chairman of National Commission on Library and
Information Services; and 4) the Assistant Secretary to whom the
Commissioner of NCES reports.
The Advisory Council must meet 4 times a year, and originally
was given authority to establish standards in order to guard
against political taint. However, the NAS said this type of group
cannot establish standards themselves, but can review and advise
on how the Center achieves overall standards. Nothing is stated
in the statue about how the Secretary chooses the members. The
council was reconstituted three years ago because the Secretary and
Assistant Secretary were interested in getting a high quality
group. It now is a very good one, consisting of a broad spectrum
of professionals. But, since only two are statisticians, the
Commissioner would like to establish a more technical advisory
group, similar to the one the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) has with the American Statistical Association (ASA). This is
described in the EIA summary report in this Appendix.
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS (continued)
IV. Personnel and Budget
The Center's staff is comprised primarily of mathematical
statisticians, survey statisticians, and psychometricians.
Congress authorizes a specific budget for the Center, with a
separate line item for the National Assessment of Educational
Progress. The Center's funding has increased over the past two
years from $14.1 million in FY87 to $31.1 million for FY89. The
Commissioner of NCES attributes the increase to successful
intervention on the part of their Assistant Secretary (for
Educational Research and Improvement), who has argued
persuasively for the key role of statistical information in
improving policy decisions in education. Approximately one-half
of the proposed increase will fund projects that were previously
supported elsewhere within the Department of Education but are now
being transferred to the Center. The remaining half of the budget
increase will fund new surveys, studies, or analyses. In addition,
the Center will receive an estimated $6.6 million in salary and
expense funding.
While the Center's budget is subject to Departmental budget
review, it is left to the Commissioner of NCES to decide whether
a program area should be entered. The Department does second judge
him on whether that program area is a high priority for them, but
never on his technical approach to carrying out the program.
Currently, he has the funds, but not the staff openings, and may try
to get the fte's through contracts. For example, the Census Bureau
has the authority to put people on the payroll to do statistical
work at other agencies.
V. Addenda
The MAS report was "enormously useful" in turning things
around for the Center," according to the NCES Commissioner. It
"solidified the climate with Congress" and led to the appropriate
critical legislation and funding.
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ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
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ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION, Energy Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The mission of the Energy Information Administration was
defined in the following passage from the 1977 Act that established
it:
"The Administrator (of EIA) shall be responsible for carrying
out a central comprehensive and unified energy data and information
program which will collect, evaluate, assemble, analyze, and
disseminate data and information which is relevant to energy
resource reserves, energy production, demand, and technology, and
related economic and statistical information, or which is relevant
to the adequacy of energy resources to meet demands in the near and
longer term future for the Nation's economic and social needs."
The EIA produces reports on traditional fuel sources and
prepares short-term and intermediate-term forecasts with
accompanying analyses. EIA also maintains statistical systems on
subjects which cut across different sectors, including, the
international energy situation, energy supply and demand balances,
and economic and financial matters.
EIA provides statistical information to the U.S. Congress; to
other Departmental components such as the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Office, to
Executive Branch offices such as the Office of Management and
Budget, the Department of Interior, and the Federal Trade
Commission, to State and local governments, to industry and trade
associations, the media, university researchers, foreign
governments and international organizations, and to the general
public.
EIA manages the National Energy Information Center, which
distributes publications and responds to about 1,000 energy
inquiries each week.
II. Legislative Authority
The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 established
EIA as the single Government authority for energy information. The
Act incorporated the mandate of the Office of Energy Information
and Analysis, the forerunner of EIA, which had been authorized to
operate a National Energy Information System and perform other
functions. In addition, the Act established the Financial
Reporting System, an annual survey that gathers and reports
detailed energy industry financial data.
The Act gave EIA independence from the rest of the Department
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ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION (continued)
of Energy (DOE) with respect to data collection, and independence
from the whole of government with respect to the content of its
reports, in the following provision:
"The Administrator shall not be required to obtain the
approval of any other officer or employee of the Department in
connection with the collection or analysis of any information; nor
shall the Administrator be required, prior to publication, to
obtain the approval of any other officer or employee of the United
States with respect to the substance of any statistical or
forecasting technical reports which he has prepared in accordance
with law.
The statute further requires that:
"Information collected by the Energy Information
Administration shall be cataloged and, upon request, any such
information shall be promptly made available to the public in a
form and manner easily adaptable for public use, except ... matters
exempted from mandatory disclosure [by law]."
III. Organization
The Administrator of EIA is appointed by the President with
advise and consent of the Senate. However, it is statutorily
decreed that he "shall be a person who, by reason of professional
background and experieince, is specially qualified to manage an
energy information system. His position is further enhanced by the
fact that he reports directly to the Secretary of the Department,
and is under no one else.
EIA is - divided into seven program areas — oil and gas
information; coal, nuclear, electric and alternate, fuels
information; energy markets and end-use information; automated data
processing services; information services, which includes the
National Energy Information Center; statistical standards; and
policy and management, which includes all administrative agencies.
Rather than a policy-oriented Federal Advisory Council, the
first Administrator of EIA needed a technical advisory panel, whose
members were professiols technically proficient in specialized
fields of statistical methodology, to deal with tough statistical
questions that also had some political sensitivity. He asked the
American Statistical Association (ASA) for help and they created
such a panel from their membership, composed of 15 highly qualified
statisticians who were also knowledgeable in applications to the
fields of energy. This afforded the EIA, at a modest cost, very
high-powered consultation in mathematical statistics, and instantly
legitimized it in the statistical sense.
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ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION (continued)
This type of technical advisory council is now called a
"utilized" committee, and, in contrast to the Federal Advisory
Committees, is not permitted to address policy measures. Moreover,
its members are not chosen by the Agency, but are appointed by a
professional association, such as the ASA. However, in the case
of the EIA, the Administrator can and does attend meetings, and he
has the right to close a meeting if he feels inappropriate matters
have been introduced into the discussion.« The Agency prepares
technical papers in advance of a meeting, and everyone who want to
read them does. One or two members are invited to be formal
respondents. The meeting, consisting of oral presentations and
formal responses is recorded, and transcripts are sent out to
members which include formal responses prepared by EIA to the
council.
At meetings the Administrator fills in the council on the
progress of projects since the last meeting, rearranged budget
priorities, requests by Congress and the Joint Economic Committee,
and, at the close, they discuss what topics should be addressed
next. A member of the council stated that ."There has been
tremendous cooperation and respect between the Agency and the
council, and the Agecny always took the advice quite seriously."
IV. Personnel and Budget
EIA had the equivalent of 470 full-time staff members in FY
1987.
The Administration has proposed a budget 'totaling $62.9
million for EIA in FY 1989, an increase of $1.5 million from the
FY 1988 level. The proposed funding would allow EIA to continue
ongoing activities, placing primary emphasis on the maintenance of
the national energy information program. The FY 1989 request
provides increased funding for the most complex and costly of EIA's
triennial end-use energy consumption surveys, the Nonresidential
Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. A proposed increase in
funding for analytical activities would provide for national level
energy markets analysis and international capacity analysis in such
areas as petroleum refining and electric power.
V. History
The DOE was established in 1978 because of the fuel crisis.
Half the public said the big oil companies were causing the fuel
shortage in order to increase the price, the other half said the
Government was manipulating the price for political reasons.
Congress and the Administration said "enough," and enabling
legislation was enacted to create not only the Energy Department
but an independent statistics agency to provide the critical data
necessary to addressing the problem.
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS, Centers for Disease Control,
Public Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the
primary source of vital and health statistics for the United
States. NCHS is part of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
within the Public Health Service, an agency of the -Department of
Health and Human Services. NCHS produces information on the full
spectrum of concerns in health from birth to death, including:
Causes of death by county, by sex, age, and race
Births by county, sex and race, and age of mother
Overall health status;
Lifestyle and exposure to unhealthful influences;
The onset and diagnosis of illness and disability;
The use of health care and rehabilitation services.
Data are made available to the public in a number of
individual reports and publication series, special tabulations,
and data releases, and through an extensive set of public use data
files. Most data tapes released by NCHS contain microdata to allow
researchers to aggregate findings in whatever format is appropriate
for their analyses.
NCHS staff collects only about 5 percent of the data analyzed
in NCHS programs. Vital statistics are collected by the state
Public Health Agencies. Most of the other data collection is
contracted out to the Bureau of the Census or to private firms or
institutions. However, all studies are designed by the NCHS.
Besides its parent organization, HHS, many organizations use
NCHS data. These include other Federal agencies, Directors of
State Centers of Health Statistics, the National Association of
Health Data Organizations, the National Association of Private
Health Data Organizations, the American Public Health Association,
the Association of Schools of Public Health, the Association of
Territorial Health Offices, the Association of Vital and Health
Statistics, and the academic community. In private industry,
companies such as food and clothing manufacturers contact NCHS
directly for statistical information. Self-insurers for Health
Care, who have been hit hard by cost increases in health insurance,
see NCHS data as critical to their developing information on what
health care can provide.
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NATIONAL CliNTKk FOR HEALTH STATISTICS (continued)
The NCHS is the leader in coordinating the interaction between
providers and users of their data to move towards common
definitions and improved quality of health statistics (e.g.
different coding systems were used in health care). This involves
extensive networking with organizations at the state level that
have responsibilities in health promotion and disease prevention.
NCHS has developed guidelines for the establishment of these state
centers and taken action to fund broadbased problems in these
areas. The key concepts
in their networking activities are: cooperate, standardize> and
decentralize.
Most of the Public Health Service projects come to NCHS for
review, and resolution of territorial problems, before going to
OM3. NCHS also determined what should be in the Uniform Hospital
Discharge Data Set of the Health Care Financing Administration
(HCFA). This has had major impact on those who deal with payment
to hospitals and the concept of diagnostically related groups of
illnesses, promulgating the required data for Medicare.
The NCHS also does extensive theoretical research into the
statistical methodology of surveys and the appropriate analyses of
the data that is derived from them. The "rainbow" series of
monographs they publish on a variety of statistical methods are
unique in their quality and applicability to questions in survey
design and analysis.
II. Legislative Authority
Congress passed the first law requiring a decennial census in
1901 and, in so doing, required the collection of vital statistics
for the nation. The National Office of Vital Statistics was
created and administered by the Bureau of the Census until the
1940s, when the Departmental precursor of HHS was established. In
1956, Congress established requirements for National Health
Surveys. The two surveys were combined in 1960 as the
responsibility of NCHS, which was made part of the Centers for
Disease Control in 1987.
The Public Health Service Act contains provisions specifying
the types of statistics to be collected by NCHS. The Act also
provides for the establishment of the Cooperative Health Statistics
System "for the purpose of producing comparable and uniform health
information and statistics." The responsibilities of the System
include awarding grants to State and local health agencies. NCHS
is authorized to "prescribe guidelines to assure that statistical
activities within States participating in the system produce
uniform and timely data and assure appropriate access to such
data."
2
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NATIONAL CENTER -FOR HEALTH STATISTICS (continued)
III. Organization
Six offices report to the Director of NCHS:
The Office of Vital and Health Statistics Systems, which
includes divisions of vital statistics, health care
statistics, health interview statistics, and health
« examination statistics; .
The Office of Data Processing and Services Program, which
includes divisions of data processing and data services;
The Office of Analysis and Epidemiology, which includes
a division of epidemiology and health promotion and a
division of analysis;
The Office of Research and Methodology;
The Office of Planning and Extramural Programs; and
The Office of Management.
NCHS has a statutorily authorized Federal Advisory Committee,
called the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. The
Committee has a broad mission, which includes advising the
Secretary of HHS and acting as ombudsman for NCHS. It is a mixed
group, with some members officials of NCHS, and others selected and
appointed by the Secretary through an interactive process with
NCHS. They try'to have people who can represent two or three areas
in the field of health statistics.
The role of the Committee has changed since its inception in
1940. For about 30 years, it was responsible for technical
oversight of NCHS activities, and members were selected from among
mathematical statisticians. The Committee's functions, specified
in the Public Health Service Act of 1975, are now broader and more
policy-oriented. The Committee is free to address health
information issues whether they arise within NCHS or elsewhere
within HHS. It works toward promoting cooperation among interested
parties in standardizing definitions of what is to be measured and
what qualtiy can be achieved. The Committee serves as the
structure through which the NCHS can interact with the private
sector and collaborate with international organizations.
IV. Personnel and Budget
NCHS has a staff of about 500, who are predominantly survey
statisticians who are trained in demography, and increasing
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS (continued)
numbers of M.D. epidemiologists. The staff also includes computer
programmers and writers. NCHS recruits staff from other Federal
agencies, academia, and some state organizations.
NCHS is a line item in the President's budget to Congress,
but competes with other sections of the Department the first time
through the review process. Before this competitition started in
the 1970's, the NCHS was not pressed for funds, but had enough to
be comfortable even though they were constantly pressed to provide
more elaboration in their studies and data collection. In 1975,
though remaining a line item, they were incorporated into the
parent organization at Congressional budget hearings, and were
discussed the with smaller sectors, such as like the Indian Health
Service. Since most (95%) of the Department's programs are tied
to, entitlement, hence cost-of-living, they take priority in the
allocation of funds.
When OMB cut $6 million from their budget in FY 1988, NCHS
had two options, either to vastly curtail the Vital Statistics
data, or gut all their other programs. They chose the first option,
and when OMB began to write up the justifications for the cut, it
found the consequences "impalatable." The Secretary of HHS is
permitted to top up to 1% of the Public Health Service budget to
evaluate programs, gave $6 million of this to NCHS, using the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study to
effect the transfer.
For FY 1989, the President's budget request includes $48.9
million for NCHS, an increase of only $0.3 million over FY 1988.
In addition, the FY 1989 budget proposes that approximately $12.5
million in Public Health Service "evaluation funds" be made
available for several of NCHS' periodic surveys that will be due.
This funding will enable NCHS able to maintain its scheduled data
collection programs, including full funding of the national vital
statistics system, with additional data items resulting from the
revision of the standard certificates of vital registration. It
will also cover their programs on the 1988 National Maternal and
Infant Health Survey, NHANES, National Health Interview Survey,
and continuing surveys of hospitals and physicians.
As a result of reductions in the FY 1988 budget, NCHS has
deferred planned improvements in program operations such as
automation of office and data collection systems. Budget
constraints in FY 1989 will result in a reduction of the sample
size for the NHANES from the planned level of 45,000 persons to a
level of 30,000, resulting in decreased ability to provide data on
a number of population subgroups. NCHS also will delay plans to
implement the redesign and expansion of its surveys of health care
providers.
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NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS (continued)
In addition to its basic funding, NCHS receives approximately
$10 million in reimbursements for studies performed at the request
of other agencies.
Users of NCHS data sometimes lobby for the NCHS budget even
if it means reducing their own budgets. Outside users also testify
on behalf of NCHS concerning their need for the data it provides.
V. Addenda
Dr. Fischer strongly recommended looking at the statutory
authority and operations of NCHS as a model for a Bureau of
Environmental Statistics. She stated that a new statistical center
should have legislative authority, that without theirs, the NCHS
would have been terminated. It should be of interest to EPA that
a section of NCHS's statute would have authorized NCHS to tell EPA
what data it must collect for statistical and epidemiological
studies on the effects of the environment on health, if NCHS had
not rejected it. However, NCHS's current Director is very much in
favor of joint participation with EPA (voluntarily!) in this type
of study.
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS, Social Security Administration,
Health and Human Services Department.
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The Office of Research and Statistics (ORS) performs most of
the major statistical functions of the Social Security
Administration (SSA). The ORS conducts research and gathers data
on the programs of:
Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, including
Medicare and Medicaid and many other programs
administered by Federal, State, and local agencies;
Supplemental Security Income; and
Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
Statistical data and studies carried out or funded by ORS
appear in a variety of publications. Among these are a monthly
journal, the Social Security Bulletin, and the Annual Statistical
Supplement to the Bulletin. The latter includes statistical tables
and program descriptions, and is the most detailed and
comprehensive source on the United States' social insurance and
social welfare programs. In addition, ORS publishes statistical
releases, monographs issued as ORS research reports or staff
papers, and several other technical series.
ORS reports are based primarily on "administrative" data, i.e.
data that is generated through the day-to-day administration of SSA
programs. These statutorily defined programs of entitlement result
in the accumulation of data on applicants for social security,
supplemental security, and welfare benefits. ORS provides
aggregations of these data, and disaggregations down to the zip
code level, which are used by state, county and local officials
involved in planning for the aged and needy.
ORS also has data on workers' earnings because they pay in to
social security. It maintains large data files to track individuals
and their earnings. The W2 and W3 forms that are submitted by
employers to the IRS, are sent to SSA to process the data. A huge
part of ORS's operation is keeping track of earnings, but the
actual coding of the raw data is done in another part os SSA.
The Census Bureau gives the big picture on income. Its Current
Population Survey covers everyone, while SSA represents just a
subset. However, administrative data has a quality compared with
survey datae that gives it special value. Moreove, administrative
data continues to be collected, while surveys end.
ORS does utilize some survey research. The Bureau of the
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS (continued)
Census, through the Current Population Survey, provides ORS with
income data in many forms, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
provides multi-faceted data on the labor force. ORS also obtains
data elsewhere within the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), from the Departments of Treasury and Agriculture, and from
other Federal agencies such as the Railroad Retirement Board and
the Veterans Administration.
ORS used to give the Bureau of Economic Analysis its earnings
data on an annual basis, but had to stop because of the 1976 Tax
Reform Act. Major users now are the Executive Board and other
parts of the SSA, other parts of the Department of Health and Human
Services, the Office of Management and Budget, and Congressional
staff. Within HHS, one of the most important functions of ORS
is to provide a top management perspective on SSA operations. The
academic community is again interested after years of neglecting
research in this area.
Dr. Ross considers the ORS to be autonomous in some matters.
The monthly bulletin is "relatively autonomous." The actual data
is published with some amount of upper level knowledge. Articles
for publication are sent up the line to be cleared, as are proposed
projects. Most of the research and statistics are done in house,
allowing some independence.
ORS's programs are not independent. It proposes projects for
the annual research agenda, and the Commissioner comments as well
as decides on major issues, e.g. the degree of money build-up in
the social security trust fund; implications of change of
retirement age to 67.
II. Legislative Authority
Unlike most other Federal agencies' statistical centers, ORS
has no independent Congressional budget authority. Nor are many
ORS functions specified by law or in regulations. SSA regulations
only amplify a narrow range of statutory requirements for program
administration; for example, by prescribing length of benefit
coverage and methods for establishing proof of age.
The budget and staff size for ORS are determined by the Deputy
Commissioner of SSA. Other programs compete with ORS for
resources; consequently, the size and duties of ORS and earlier
statistical programs have expanded and contracted over the years.
Ill. Organization
The Director of ORS reports to the Associate and Deputy
Associate Commissioners for Policy, who are under the Deputy
Commissioner for Policy and External Affairs. The Deputy OFFICE
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OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS (continued)
Commissioner as well as the Commissioner of SSA are political
appointees. There are no political appointees in the Office of
Policy.
ORS is composed of 3 divisions plus a Publications Staff and
a Program Analysis Staff. The Economic Research Division has a
Modeling Branch and a Research Branch. The Statistical Analysis
Division has an Earnings and Employment Branch, and Branches for
Supplementary Security Income (SSI) and for OASDI analysis. The
Statistical Operations and Services Division has a Management
Branch, a Coordination Branch, and a Processing Branch.
IV. Personnel and Budget
ORS currently has a staff of 135, which includes Ph.D. and
master's level economists and statisticians, computer programmers,
and sociologists.
ORS has recently undergone a budget reduction to $2 million
as well as a reduction in funds for grants and contracts to $1
million per year. In 1983, 150 persons were transferred from out
of research and statistics into other departments of SSA, where
they are writing regulations and program instructions, etc. The
research program was cut in half. Research was discontinued on
disability, retired survivors, and supplemental security income
programs. As a result, many organizations that had used ORS
publications began performing their own analyses using raw data
supplied by SSA. Funding for increased academic research in this
area is how coming from the National Institute on Aging, which has
been expanding its grants.
Dr. Ross pointed out that "a research and statistics unit in
an operating agency has a tough life when you try to say what you
do for the agency." SSA's mission is "to get the checks out," and
it has a 3 to 4 billion dollar budget to do it. While ORS's budget
of 2 million dollars is a trivial part of that, it is difficult to
justify their budget for program-oriented information against the
management-oriented information (data on processing time, etc.)
collected by other sections competing for budget money. However,
Dr. Ross said that management at the Department level of HHS
appreciates having the "ability to stand back and get a
perspective" that is afforded by ORS's research and statistics.
V. History
ORS originated with other elements of the Federal social
insurance and social welfare program in 1934, when, in the short
period of 9 months, a small staff of academics and other members
of Francis Perkins1 Committee on Economic Security put together the
social security program, the unemployment benefits program and the
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS (continued)
welfare program. They were foresighted enough to include a
research function as an integral part of the new programs. The
research office was autonomous for about 20 years, and then was
incorporated into the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,
now HHS.
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HOUSING AND DEMOGRAPHIC
ANALYSIS DIVISION
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING
AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
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HOUSING AND DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS DIVISION, Department of Housing
and Urban Development
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The Housing and Demographic Analysis Division (HDA) is the
principal statistical office within the Department of Housing and
Development (HUD). Organizationally, the Housing and Demographic
Analysis Division is part of the Office of Economic Affairs, which
is within the Office of Policy Development and Research.
The Office of Policy Development and Research maintains
several major data series on national, regional and local economic
and housing market conditions. These data series contain
information on the physical and financial characteristics of
national and selected metropolitan housing inventories and the
characteristics of occupants; housing units under construction and
completed; new one-family home sales; market absorption of new
rental apartments and condominiums; the placement of new mobile
homes; and mortgage lending and commitment activity.
r
The main project of HDA is the Annual Housing Survey. Other
important products are the series of Housing and Marketing Reports.
A biennial national housing survey and regular surveys of housing
in metropolitan areas are required by Federal law. Metropolitan
area surveys are conducted annually on a four-year rotation basis,
in which a different set of 11 of the 44 metropolitan areas are
surveyed each year. The data obtained from these surveys are
included in a longitudinal survey that was designed jointly with
the Bureau' of the Census.
Mr. McGough said that there is independence in data
publication, because only career staff sees the data before it's
released. They also have program independence since they make
"internal decisions on data to be gathered and studies to be done."
Research projects of HDA fall into four general categories:
economic research, housing research, dissemination methods, and
miscellaneous. Proposed projects are discussed throughout the
Office of Policy Development and Research, and are ranked based on
goals that are suggested by the Office of Housing, by other offices
in HUD, and by outside users. HDA's research program is then
submitted for approval to the Secretary, who ranks the projects
according to Departmental policies, but actually he "just blesses
it."
Large projects are competed among contractors, whose proposals
are ranked by a Source Evaluation Board within HUD. HDA also
carries out large projects with the Census Bureau, which receives
60% of HDA's research budget, as well as with DOE and EPA. In
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HOUSING AND DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS DIVISION (continued)
addition, HDA gets assistance in its research from the National
Academy of Sciences in its research.
HDA produces reports for internal HUD use as well as reports
requested by to Congress. OMB uses HDA data to measure needs for.
program funding and, hence, is very supportive of them. Other
users include Congressional Research Services, the National
Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors,
the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Economic Research Service for
the Farmers Home Association, the Federal National Mortgage
Association, the Federal Mortgage Assistance Corporation, and
academic researchers nationally.
Local builders use the Construction Mobility Surveys published
by the HDA, and local communities occasionally use their
metropolitan area surveys, e.g. Alexandria's chief city planner.
II. Legislative Authority
The statutory requirement for a biennial national housing
survey, - the "American Housing Survey" - is in Section 512 of the
1982 Housing Act, although the survey had actually started in 1973,
when the Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR) was
established.
HUD was established by the 1965 Housing -Act, and surveys and
statistical research, including the Housing and Marketing Reports,
were carried out in the Deputy Under Secretary's Office of Economic
Affairs and the Office of Policy Development.. When these two
offices were combined with the Office of Research and Technology
in 1973 to form the current OPDR, the survey and statistical
responsibilities were settled there.
The overall research citation is in Title V of the HUD Act of
1970 (12 use 1701Z-1), which authorizes "research and data
gathering relating to the mission of HUD."
Ill. Organization
The Director of the Housing and Demographic Analysis Division
reports to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, who
reports to the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Policy
Development and Research. The Assistant Secretaries within HUD are
political appointees, as are the Deputy Assistant Secretaries,
except for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, who
was recruited from Treasury and prefers SES status to a political
appointment.
Within the Housing and Demographic Analysis Division, the
Census Construction Division studies new home sales, housing
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HOUSING AND DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS DIVISION (continued)
completions, and mobile home placements. The Census Housing and
Household Economics Division studies market absorption of new
apartments. The Census Population Division carries out the
American Housing Survey.
IV. Personnel and Budget
HDA has a line item budget. For statistical research at HUD
the budget was approximately $60 million during the 1970s, but
dropped to $17 million in FY 1988. Realization of the budget
reduction has been accomplished by performing more work in-house
and by conducting demonstration programs showing how to carry out
projects without using research money.
As a result of budget reductions, staff was reduced from 250
to 140. Subsequent reductions in the scope of the Division's
surveys included a scaling back from 60' to 44 metropolitan areas,
decreases in sample sizes, and a change from annual to biennial
surveys. Congress was upset, opposed further reductions, and
passed the 1982 Act that statutorily set specific requirements for
the biennial Housing Survey.
For FY 1989, the Administration has proposed a budget of $12.5
million for the housing and financial market statistical programs
at HUD. This level of funding will allow for continuation of the
data series on economic and housing market conditions at all
geographic levels, on housing units under construction and
completed, on sales of new single family homes and new mobile
homes, on market absorption of new rental apartments and
condominiums, and on mortgage loans.
Currently, HDA has a staff of 9 which includes the Director
and two secretaries. The professionals are economists, social
scientists, sociologists, and planners, most with advanced degrees.
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BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
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BUREAU. OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, Justice Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
Congress established the BJS to perform a number of functions,
including the following: "(T)o collect and analyze data that will
serve as a continuous and comparable national social indication of
the prevalence, incidence, rates, extent, distribution, and
attributes of crime, juvenile delinquency, civil disputes, and
other statistical factors" related to these occurrences, "in
support of national, State, and local justice policy and
decisionmaking."
BJS has developed more than two dozen data series with which
to perform this function. The largest is the National Crime
Survey, which provides the nation's only systematic measurement of
crime rates and the .characteristics of crime and crime victims
based on national household surveys. BJS publishes data collected
in these surveys in a growing number of publications, many of which
have a nontechnical format. BJS publications include:
BJS Bulletins, which present the latest information
from the continuing .BJS statistical series on
particular aspects of crime or the administration of
justice;
BJS Special Reports, which focus on specific topics in
criminal justice;
BJS Technical Reports, which address issues of
statistical methodology and have a more detailed and
technical format;
BJS Annual Reports, which both present the latest
statistics and describe BJS efforts to improve the
quality and coverage of data on crime, victims of
crime, and the criminal justice system;
The annual Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics;
and
— The Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice, which
was published in 1984 and 1988.
BJS disseminates information in other ways, responding to
information requests by telephone, issuing press releases, and
sponsoring an archive at the University of Michigan.
BJS collects little raw data; rather, it designs collection
programs and "enters into agreements to collect data with other
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BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS (continued)
Federal agencies (such as the U.S. Bureau of the Census), private
associations, and research organizations. For example, the Bureau
of the census undertakes much of the data gathering for BJS. BJS
undertakes the initial analysis of these data, however.
In addition to its work analyzing and publishing information
on crime, BJS provides financial and technical support to State
statistical and operating agencies. BJS also analyzes national
information policy on such issues as the privacy, confidentiality,
and security of criminal justice data and the interstate exchange
of criminal records.
The Director of BJS lists the following among the users of
justice statistics: Governors, crime policy-makers, attorneys
general, correction officers, police, court officers, and state
regulators.
II. Legislative Authority
BJS was established to fulfill requirements arising from the
1979 Justice System Improvement Act and the 1984 Justice Assistance
Act. In a BJS publication, these acts are described as addressing
"more than half a century of recommendations calling for an
independent and objective national center to provide . basic
information on crime to the President, the Congress, the judiciary,
State and local governments, the general public, and the media."
The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 'Act of 1968,
amended by the 1979 and 1984 acts, .provides BJS with authority for
a large number of possible functions. In addition to'analysis and
information dissemination, BJS is authorized to make grants and
award contracts needed to carry out its functions, recommend
national standards for justice statistics, conduct or support
research, and assist State and local governments in developing
justice statistics. The BJS budget is allocated among the many
possible functions at the Director's discretion. It is treated by
Congress as a separate item from the rest of the Justice Department
budget.
Ill. Organization
BJS is one of four offices within the Office of Justice
Programs, established by the amended Omnibus Crime Control and Safe
Streets Act of 1968.
The Director of the BJS is a political appointee and reports
directly to the Attorney General through the Assistant Attorney
General who heads the Office of Justice Programs. This Office
provides staff support to coordinate activities, but also
interferes in BJS's budget, contrary to Congressional intent which
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BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS (continued)
treats BJS as a separate budget item. Nevertheless, the
Director of BJS reports through the head of the Office of Justice
Programs, he is not under him, and has the statutory freedom to
award grants, make personnel decisions, and to formulate rules and
regulations. Budgetary considerations limit the extent to which
BJS can carry out the broad "laundry list" of projects cited in the
statutes. Choices for the Agency's program are made entirely at
the Director's discretion.
IV. Personnel and Budget
BJS employs a staff of statisticians, criminologists, and
social science analysts. Many have PhD or MS degrees.
Proposed budget authority for BJS during FY 1989 is $20.6
million, an increase of $1.3 million over FY 1988. The funding
will permit BJS to maintain ongoing programs and implement certain
new studies.
V. History
The statistical analysis currently performed by BJS was
originally done in the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
(LEAA). This was not a prominent function of LEAA, however; during
the 1970s, the Justice Department sought intervention from Congress
to provide more support for statistical analysis. Congress added
$2 million to LEAA's funding specifically for this, purpose.
The Justice System Improvement Act of 1979 focused the mission
of the BJS by requiring that primary attention be paid to problems
of state and local government. The Act also requires the
collection of data on the Federal judicial system. Top management
personnel in the Justice Department are permitted to see the data
collected by the BJS, but are prohibited-by statute from vetoing
release of the data. Another statutory requirement is that other
Federal agencies must provide information to the BJS.
Funding for BJS activities was at a minimum in 1980, when
approximately $7 million was available, about one-third of current
funding.
VI. Addenda
Director Schlesinger stated the following:
"There are two models for a statistics center: 1) an in-
house statistical shop with an SES at the head, that would grind
out numbers for internal use only; or 2) a center with a broader
mission with a presidential appointee at its head, that would put
out statistical reports for use by policy makers, the public, and
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BUREAU OP JUSTICE STATISTICS (continued)
in academic research."
"The EPA will have to make a tough decision - they must
be reconciled to the notion that it may not like some of the
statistics produced, but they must come out anyway. The Justice
Department .likes most of BJS's statistics but they cannot do
anything about those they don't like."
"Independence is absolutely essential for credibility.
It is very important for the statistics agency to have a strong
director appointed by the President, and who has independent grant-
making and staffing authority."
"The EPA must understand that a serious statistics center
won't happen without Congressional support."
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BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
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BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, Labor Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The mission of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a dual role:
1) as the statistical arm of the Department of Labor, providing
objective information to address the Department's needs; and 2) as
a Federal statistics agency in its own right, determining the data
system that is needed for the nation as a whole, independent of
Department programs.
The second role constitutes the core program of the BLS. It
is the principal data-gathering agency of the Federal government
in the broad field of labor economics. BLS produces primarily time
series rather than the cross sectional analyses of Census. Most of
BLS's data come from voluntary responses to surveys of businesses
or households conducted by BLS staff or by the Census Bureau, or
surveys conducted jointly with State and Federal agencies.
BLS collects, analyzes, and disseminates data on the
following:
Employment and unemployment;
Prices and living conditions;
Consumer expenditures;
Wages and employee benefits;
Industrial relations activities;
Productivity and technological change in U.S. industries/-
Projections of economic growth, the labor force, and
employment by industry and occupation; and
. Occupational injuries'and illnesses.
The statistics that BLS produces are extremely influential in
the economic policies of the Federal and state governments. For
example, a 1% change in the Consumer Product Index triggers a
change of 4.5 billion dollars in Federal Government expenditures.
BLS makes available the information it produces through a
broad publication program which includes news releases,
periodicals, reports, and bulletins. Some BLS material is
available on microfiche and magnetic tapes.
II. Legislative Authority
All of the Bureau's programs meet statutory responsibilities
assigned to the Bureau or the Department of Labor. The legislation
that established the Bureau in the late 1800s stated that "The
general design and duties of the Bureau of Labor Statistics shall
be to acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States
useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the more
general and comprehensive sense of that word.."
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BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (continued)
Additional statutory requirements about the reporting of
statistics on "the conditions of labor and the products and
distribution of the products of the same" appear in an act passed
in 1913. Many recent acts of Congress or joint resolutions require
the production of particular types of statistics by BLS.
The BLS data collection program is divided into two parts: 1)
employment, and 2) occupational health and safety. The first part
is accomplished by two work models. One is based on a well devloped
Federal/State cooperative program in which the State Employment
Security Agencies are contracted to carry out the major data
collection and processing tasks, and BLS Regional offices review
the states' work and help them with new developments in technology.
The states are told "Here are the deliverables - you will be paid
only if you do it right." This is how the standardization of the
data is maintained. The contractual funding for states'
participation is in BLS's budget.
Under the second work model employment data is obtained using
the basic unemployment insurance system to provide a frame
(complete list) of businesses. Funding for the development of this
nonagricultural frame was provided by OMB in order that it be made
available to all agencies. (NASS is doing the agricultural frame.)
The BLS employees in the Regional offices do this data collection
directly from the business community.
The second part of the BLS data collection program addresses
the responsibility of BLS for the statistical work of another
agency in the Labor Department - the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA). While there is a statistics provision in
the law creating it, OSHA can have responsibility only for
administering the law. To protect against bias, a separate agency,
BLS, has the responsibility for collecting the data and evaluating
OSHA's performance. It also contracts to do special studies for
OSHA so that they can set standards.
In most cases occupational safety and health is under the
State Labor Commission, and these state organizations are used by
BLS to participate in surveys that provide national data as well
as disaggregated state data. They do an annual survey of 200,000
establishments using workers' compensation records and daily logs
that record all injuries and absences with reasons. The Assistant
Secretary for OSHA is briefed on the survey results, but cannot
comment until one hour after their release.
BLS also does research on recollection, response analysis,
survey design, computer-assisted telephone surveys, and other
statistical methodology problems in surveys.
-------
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (continued)
III. Organization
The Commissioner of BLS has the rank of Assistant Secretary
and reports directly to the Secretary of Labor. This placement of
the Bureau within the Department gives it a high profile and a
large degree of independence. The Commissioner participates in
Department staff meetings, and, though a noncontributor to policy
discussion, knows what is going on in policy. This enables BLS to
know the Department's concerns and thus to provide valuable
information that directly addresses those concerns.
BLS has five major program offices:
Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics;
Office of Prices and Living Conditions;
Office of Compensation and Working Conditions;
Office of Productivity and Technology; and
Office of Economic Growth and Employment Projections.
In addition,, there are four support offices:
. Office of Publications;
. Office of Research and Evaluation;
. Office of Field Operations; and
. Office of Administration and Internal Operations.
Data collection is performed by BLS employees (agents), and
by State Employment Security Agencies with which BLS has
cooperative programs for collection of data on employment and on
occupational safety and health. Within the Office of Field
Operations are eight regional offices, which collect data directly,
mainly from the business community.
BLS has an Office of Research and Evaluation that is
responsible for keeping track of developments in academia of
applicable statistical methodologies.
BLS has two series of official Federal advisory groups, one
for business and one for labor. Each series consists of an
advisory council with several advisory committees, one committee
for a each subject matter/program. To resolve disagreement, she
has constructed subcommittees with members from both the business
and labor committees. Although technically they are Secretarial
appointees, actually they each are chosen by other members of the
committee, who review the adequacy of their credentials as business
and labor economists. They work hard and are unpaid, even for
travel.
The Commissioner does not use the "academic- type" advisory
committee, such as the "utilized" committee, but prefers to
-------
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (continued)
identify 3 or 4 specialists in the subject matter under study, pay
them for 3 days a week of their time, have each write a paper
independently, and then bring them together to discuss what they've
found. This is not expensive, costing between 3 and 4 million
dollars for 5 or 6 people.
IV. Personnel and Budget
BLS has about 2700 employees, many of whom are agents who do
the data collecting themselves. BLS does very little contracting
out for research, and has a professional staff of statisticians,
survey statisticians, economists, and sociologists who are at the
Ph.D. and Master's levels.
As an agency within a department, BLS submits its budget to
the Deputy Secretary, but defends it themselves before OMB and
Congress. The Commissioner considers this to be very important to
budget .and program independence. The appropriation that is made
to BLS cannot be touched by anyone else. BLS's budget is larger
than the Census Bureau's without the decennial census funding.
But 25% of BLS's budget is goes to the Census Bureau for contracted
data collection. Also, the BLS does work for the rest of the Labor
Department on contractual terms.
When the budget was cut-in the early 1980's, the Commissioner
refused to cut sample size and statistical quality of the survey
data, but instead, cut out 19 whole programs because they needed
improvements that would not be funded. She considers that the
quality of the data is more important than the quantity of data
output.
For FY 1989, the proposed budget authority of $236.7
million, an increase of $18.6 million over the estimated level
for 1988, would allow BLS to continue its core programs and to meet
mandatory increases in operating expenses. Three program increases
are planned: a revision of the International Price Program to
provide improved data on import and export prices, as well as new
monthly indexes for monitoring trade developments; a major
enhancement to the list of business establishments that would
permit better identification of the sizes of business
establishments within individual counties; and the collection of
data on the availability of American workers for seasonal farm
employment, a mandate included in the Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986.
V. History
Since the beginning of the BLS 104 years ago, it has been the
tradition that the Commissioner has the credentials for the
position. There is also a tradition of nonpartisanship and of
-------
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (continued)
longevity in the job. The present Commissioner, although appointed
by the President with the consent of the Senate, does not "serve
at the President's pleasure," but can be dismessed only for
malfeasance. She has served for 20 years, in both Democratic and
Republican administrations. She considers it important that the
term of the Commissioner is a fixed term of at least 4 years, and
that it not be concurrent with Presidential terms.
In compliance with OMB Circular A91, which was written in
response to attempts by the Nixon administration to manipulate
unemployment data, the Commissioner has established a strict regime
around the review and release of BLS reports that protects the
integrity of the data. BLS reports are reviewed only in-house, and
then go directly to the printer. On the day before public release,
the report is presented to the President's representative, the
Chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers, who cannot discuss
it until one hour after its release. The Secretary of Labor is
briefed on the contents just one half hour before release, when it
is also given to the press. During the following thirty minutes
professionals in the BLS are available to discuss the technical
properties of the data before its release to the public. This is
done on a regular basis so that reporters can better articulate the
meaning of the data.
VI Addenda
BLS has developed standardization and improvement of data
quality through the use of computer programs, through oversight by
the Regional offices, as well as by withholding payment to the
state organizations for data collection data. In addition, the
Commissioner has devoted much time to discussions with State
governors, pointing out the importance to them of reliable data
in their obtaining information for policy decisions.
Congress gave money to BLS to set up a National Academy of
Sciences panel on national occupational safety and health
statistics, which produced 40 recommendations. These were
presented in meetings with the states, resulting in some survey
redesigns and further protections against bias in data collection
related to regulatory function. The Commissioner said that Congress
and OMB don't really understand this bias problem.
BLS also discovered that at the state level the labor people
who are responsible for working conditions were not communicating
with the people who are responsible for public health. When BLS
invited both groups to a conference, the public health people were
especially grateful to be intoduced to the labor people in their
own states. Discussion groups were formed, and special studies
were funded.
-------
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (continued)
BLS and OSHA have had initial discussions with the National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on how to use the NCHS
health surveys. Period and extent of exposure to contaminants,
latency period of disease response, are factors that need to be
addressed, and the problems must be attacked in a more global way.
A Bureau of Environmental Statistics would be an important
participant in setting up an overall matrix of the necessary
coordinated data series for such a global attack on critical
national problems of toxic exposure and public health.
The Commissioner gave the following advice in establishing
a Bureau of Environmental Statistics:
"There are two characteristics besides professional ones
that are needed in a head of a statistics bureau: 1) willingness
to stand up tall and insist on what is considered right; and 2)
willingness to resign in protest."
Ask NAS's Committee on National Statistics to do a report
and send it to the appropriate Congressional Committees.
The Department head must be behind the Bureau.
What's really needed is conceptual or definement research,
i.e. what is the phenomenon to be represented by the data, how is
it defined? The initial efforts should be in research to identify
the problems, in how to define what data to collect. It must be
made clear that the statistics bureau's ongoing research would be
on measurement problems, on definition of that to be measured, on
methodological problems in survey techniques for the specific areas
covered. These nonsampling errors, which are errors in the
conceptual measures, are not sufficiently stressed by the
statistical community, but are critical in establishing a national
data system.
-------
STATISTICS OF INCOME DIVISION
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
-------
STATISTICS OF INCOME DIVISION, Internal Revenue Service, Treasury
Department
I. Products, Benefits, and Programs
The IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) program provides:
. Annual income, financial and tax data based on individual
and corporate income tax returns;
. Periodic studies based on returns such as those filed by
estates and trusts; and
. In-depth analyses of various tax-related computations,
including foreign tax credit and sales of capital assets.
The primary purpose of SOI is to provide the Federal
Government with income statistics that enable it to keep a close
watch on the composition of its aggregate income tax returns.
When the SOI program originated in 1916, reports were used
almost entirely for tax research and for estimating revenue,
especially by Treasury officials. Today, tax analysts in the
Treasury Department, particularly the Office of Tax Analysis
(OTA), and in the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation
continue to be the main users of SOI. Since the 1930s, the third
major user of SOI is the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which
relies on tax return data extensively for the national income and
product accounts. Other users of SOI data include Federal and State
governments, university researchers, and private industry, as well
as the general public.
Since the OTA, which is at the Secretarial Staff level in the
Treasury Department, is the largest user of SOI data, most of the
content of SOI's work is determined by them. These policy makers
have the prerogative to do interpretive analysis of SOI data, hence
their primary interest is in SOI's data files rather than in their
publications. Every June, OTA does a policy review of SOI's
product, and make suggestions about what should not be published.
While this limits the independence of publication of results, the
microdata files (raw data with identifying items removed) are
available to the public for its own analyses.
Demands for SOI data have increased since. the program's
inception. A contributing factor has been new tax laws requiring
separate reports to Congress. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 is also
expected to make heavy demands on the SOI program.
II. Legislative Authority
The first modern U.S. income tax law, the Revenue Act of
-------
STATISTICS OF INCOME DIVISION (continued)
1916, called for the annual publicationn of statistics on incomes
in the U.S. The wording contained in the 1916 Act has been
repeated, with practically no change, in each major rewrite of the
tax statute since that time.
III. Organization
The SOI Division is part of the Office of Returns and
Information Processing, which is part of the broader data
processing organization in IRS charged with the responsibility for
processing tax returns. This broader organization reports to the
Deputy Commissioner for Operations.
Within the SOI Division, four organizations report to the
Director:
. The Coordination and Publications Staff, which includes the
Mathematical Statistics Team, comprised of survey
statisticians;
. The Corporation Statistics Branch, in which the Returns
Analysis Section analyzes corporate returns, the Special
Projects Section examines partnerships, and the Research
Staff performs economic analyses;
. The Individual Statistics Branch, in which the Returns
Analysis Section examines individual tax returns, the
Special Projects Section looks at large schedules of
individuals, and the Research Staff does projects such as
the SIC code classification of returns;
. The Foreign Statistics Branch, in which the Special Projects
Branch looks at estate gifts and tax-exempt organizations.
Computer processing of SOI data is currently the
responsibility of a consolidated data processing services
organization, but the SOI Division plans to integrate processing
services into subject matter sections of the three SOI branches.
The SOI Division both collects and interprets data. Data
analyses address primarily changes and anomalies observed in the
data.
For three years, the SOI Division has been advised by an
Advisory Committee established jointly with the Brookings Institute
at no cost to IRS. Brookings provides facilities for meetings of
the Advisory Committee and recommends members.
-------
STATISTICS OF INCOME DIVISION (continued)
IV. Personnel and Budget
The SOI Division is comprised of a staff mostly of
statisticians and economists who work with major users to determine
the content of each program and report, to design the statistical
samples used, and to develop processing procedures. The Division
had a total of 475 staff-years during FY 1988.
For FY 1989, the Administration has proposed a total budget
authority of $21.4 million for the SOI program, an amount that
exceeds the FY 1988 estimate by $3.7 million. The increase in
funding requested for FY 1989 would be used primarily to meet
policy research needs in evaluating the Tax Reform Act of 1986, as
well as to address longer range plans for tax research. The SOI
Division expects to have 510 staff years during FY 1989.
Approximately 200 staff members of the SOI Division are in
Washington, and the rest are in field positions.
The SOI Division does not have independent Congressional
budget authority but is combined in a single budget item with the
Returns Processing Division, which .holds a dominant position as
executor of the primary mission of IRS. In particular, the
Taxpayers' Service sector has had its budget insulated from
Treasury-wide cuts. For incremental needs, such as implementing
the tax reform, SOI officially has the right of appeal, but this
can be done only under threat. They are told, "unofficially, to
go along with the funding, or take a cut."
SOI submits its budget request to its own Assistant
Commissioner (for Taxpayer Service and Returns Processing), who
usually sends it all up to the IRS Assistant Commissioner for
Planning, Finance, and Research. He and an Assistant at the Deputy
Commissioner level invite the SOI Assistant Commissioner to
participate in reviewing.the budget items. It is then sent to the
top level of the Treasury for inclusion in the Departmental budget.
At that point their primary users, the OTA, act as sponsors to
obtain sufficient funds for SOI to produce the statistics that OTA
needs. OTA, working through the Treasury Finance Department, can
overrule the Commissioner of IRS, whose primary concern is for
funding the processing of returns, rather than SOI needs.
Congressional committees who. are large users of SOI data, such
as the Joint Economic Committee and the Joint committee on
Taxation, as well as other customers, can put pressure on OMB, or
even add funds to SOI's budget. The Director of SOI cultivates
clientele among academia and nonprofit organizations, as well as
lobbying Congress. (SOI pointed out that the Census Bureau is well
rewarded for their strong lobby on the Hill.
-------
STATISTICS OF INCOME DIVISION (continued)
In recent years, the SOI Division's budget has been reduced
by approximately 25 percent. The Division has responded by
adopting more sophisticated processing techniques, such as using
specialized samples or using longitudinal files to assist in error
resolution. Additional cost-saving measures include the
installation of a mini/micro computer system in the regional
service centers for processing smaller SOI projects, which will
eliminate certain manual operations and will free resources at the
Data Center in Detroit for use on larger projects. At first the
money saved by these measures went into a general pot, but now it
is returned to SOI.
The SOI Division anticipates increasing use of computers to
extract administrative data (that is, data obtained from returns
for tax administration purposes). costly manual processing
operations are expected to be dramatically reduced as a result.
The Division also envisions increasing use of innovative techniques
such as artificial intelligence.
V. History
Within IRS, statistical processing of tax return data has
historically been a separate off-line operation, divorced from the
mainline processing of tax returns for administrative purposes..
Statistical processing was strongly affected by the advent of
automatic data processing of tax returns in the early 1960s.
Statistical abstracting was decentralized to the 10 regional
service centers, where taxpayers file returns and the returns are
processed by computers.
A Data Center was established in Detroit to relieve regional
service centers of all processing not directly related to the
administrative processing of returns. The Data Center assumed
responsibility for SOI processing. The SOI Division evolved into
one of planning, coordinating and overseeing a field operation.
The Division also continued to meet with users to identify their
data needs and publish the SOI reports.
VI Addenda
The SOI Division does a study for EPA, published annually
since 1980, of environmental excise taxes that were authorized to
be collected under CERCLA and now under Superfund (SARA). It is
the only source that provides detailed tabulations by chemical.
(SOI is puzzled that each time they do this study they are
audited.)
Mr. Wilson considered the National Cancer Institute and the
National Academy of Sciences to be likely users of data from a
Bureau of Environmental Statistics.
-------
APPENDIX B
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARTS
FOR
TWELVE FEDERAL STATISTICS AGENCIES
-------
NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
-------
United States Department of Agriculture
1
Under Secretary
international Aflatra and
Commodity PICO/MB*
a Agricultural
Tnnaarealion Sarvica
• Foreign Agricultural
Saivica
» Office ol MamaflonaJ
1
Office ol Budget
end Prog/am
Analytic
1
ONica ol the
General Countel
Secretary
Deputy Secretary
1 I 1
OHIce ol Under Secretary
Judicial Olticer Inapector Ganeral S"»«u Community and
, • . Rural Development
e Fa/m*ra Home
. Admlnlalrauon
• Federal Crop
Inaurance
Corporation
AdmlnltUalion
1
Admmuualion
a Board ol Contract
rp**"
a Olticaol
AammtMf alive)
e Ollica ol Advocacy
endEntatpriae
a OHica ol FWianee
a Oflicaol
Q
» Ottica ol Oparauona
• Orhca ol P*» aomet
1
Aaaialanl Sacrelary
Cconotnice
a Economic Analytit
Sun
a Economic*
Management Stall
a Economic Hataarcrt
Service)
a Ottic* ol Energy
a National Agricultural "K
Slalitlica Sarvica
a World Agricultural
Ouiioofc BoMd
1
Attitlani secretary Attitlanl
Food and Conaumer Cove'nlnj
Service* Public AH
e Food and Nutrition ,* 9"'c* *
S"vlc« • Public A
* Human Nutrition
Inlormalion
e Office ol the
Contumer Advitor
1
Secretary Ataitlanl Secretary
intal and Uarketing and
"'• Inapecllon Servicea
1 * Agrlculluial
en a ana CooperalUe
e Agriculluial
Marketing Service
Int pectlon Sarvica
* Federal Grain
Inspection Service
e Food Salely and
Intpecllon Service
e OHice ol Traniportation
* Packert and Slockyarda
Admlnlalralion
1
AatltUnfSecreury
Natural Retourcea
and Environment
e Foretl Service
a Soil Conservation
Service
1
AtalaUnt Secretary
Science and Education
• Agricultural Reaaarcti
Service
• Cooperative Stale
HeMarch Service
• EjlentKxi Service
* National Agricultural
Library
ScpUmbe* 8, 10M
-------
NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE
I AGRICULTURAL
STATISTICS BOARD
Richard Q Allen
IOviirpcnon
I. DualM Ja«Mll
I Sacratary
AGRICULTURAL
STATISTICS
BOARDSTAFF
O.JawaJI
Dinner
ESTIMATES
DIVISION
OQD..W M. B
Oirtctor
ADMINISTRATOR
Charles E Caudill
DEPUTY
ADMINISTRATOR
.FOR PROGRAMS
Richard Q Allan
STATISTICAL
STANDARDS
STAFF
VKArandi
Director
1
DATA
MANAGEMENT
DIVISION
Phillip L Zdl«r»
PROGRAM
SUPPORT
STAFF
JI.Cluip«t
OirKtar
RESEARCH &
APPLICATIONS
DIVISION
Retort 0. Tenor*
Director
ASSISTANT TO
ADMINISTRATOR
R. Liles
DEPUTY
ADMINISTRATOR
FOR OPERATIONS
RiymondR. Hancock
INTERNATIONAL
PROGRAMS
OFFICE
l.Slven
Dinctor
STATE
STATISTICAL
DIVISION
Fradaric A. Voo»l
Oiractor
9,/as
-------
ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
-------
United States Department of Agriculture
1
Unoer Secretary
International AHair* ana
Commodity Programa
e Agricultural
Stabduation and
Conservation Service
• Foreign Agricultural
Service
• Office ol International
1
1
onic* ol the
General Counsel
Secretary
Deputy Secretary
i i i
Office ol Under Secretary
Judicial OHIcer taspecioi General Small Community and
Rural Development
e Farmer* Home
Admlnlalraiion
e Federal Crop
Insurance
Corporation
e Rural EtecUUicauon
Administration
Development
1
Aatiuanl Secretary
AdnuruaUabon
e Board ol Contract
A ni*M ill
vvff^Metej
e Onweol
Aommtalrab**
L»« Judge*
e Ollice ol Advocacy
and Enterprise
» Office ol Finano*
and Management
• Oflice ol
Inlormaljon
Retource*
» Office ol Operation*
» Office ol Per aorme!
1
Aaaiauni Secielary
EfiOAOOUCC
e Economic Analyal*
Stall ,
e Economic*
Management SUM
e Economic Reteaicn _w
Service r>
• OMic* ol Energy
e national Agricultural
Statialic* Service
e World Agricultural
/Vi^^ji Board
1
Attlatanl aecrelary
Food and Contumer
Service*
e Food and Nutrition
Service
e Human Nutrition
Information
Service
e Oflice ol the
Contumer Advltor
A*(l(lanl Secretary
Governmental and
Public AHalr*
• Office ol
Governmental and
Puoilc Allali*
1
Aitltunl Secretary
Uarkellng and
Inipecllon Service*
e Agricultural
Cooperative
Service
e Agricultural
Marketing Service
e Animal and
Plant Health
Intpecllon Service
e Federal Grain
Inipecllon Service
•e Food Safety and
Inspection Service
e Otflce ol TraniportaUon
e Packer* and Stockyard*
Administration
1
AMltlant Secretary
Natural Resource*
•nd Environment
e Forest Service
e Soil Conservation
Service
1
Asalalant Secretary
Science and Education
e Agricultural Research
Service
e Cooperative State
Research Service
e Extension Service
e National Agricultural
Library
, ISM
-------
TR5 New
Economic Research Service
USDA
Deputy Administrator
Kenneth Clayton
(202) 786 3308
Administrator
John Lee
(202) 786-3300
Associate Administrator
Bob Robinson
(202) 786-3302
Senior Staff
Analysis Coordinator
Milton Ericksen
(202) 786 3309
Commodity Economics
Division
Director
Patrick O'Brien
(202)7861800
< Livestock. Dairy. & Poultry
1 Crops
1 Fruits. Vegetables. Sweeteners.
& Tobacco
Food Marketing & Consumption
Economics
Commodity Trade Analysis
Situation & Outlook
Coordination Staff
Agriculture & Trade Analysis
Division
Director
T. Kelley White
(202) 786-1700
Agriculture & Trade Policy
Agriculture & Trade Indicators
Centrally Planned Economies
Developed Market Economies
Developing Economies
US. Agricultural Policy
Agriculture & Rural Economy
Division
Director
Kenneth Deavers
(202) 786-1530
Farm & Rural Economy
Farm Sector Financial Analysis
Finance & Tax
Human Resources
National Economy & History
Government & Development
Policy
Resources & Technology
Division
Director
John Miranowski
(202) 786-1455
Inputs. Technology, &
Productivity
Land
Resource Policy
Soil & Water
The Economic Research Service (ERS) produces economic and other social science information as a service to the general
public and to aid Congress and the Executive Branch in developing, administering, and evaluating agricultural and rural
policies and programs.
ERS-produced information is made widely available to the general public through research monographs, situation
and outlook reports, professional and trade journals (including the E.RS \ouinal. Agricultural Economics Research],
magazines (including the ERS magazines. Agricultural Outlook, farmline, National Food Review, and Rural Development
Perspectives), radio, television, newspapers, direct computer access, and frequent participation of ERS staff at various
public forums.
-------
CENSUS BUREAU
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
-------
U.S. Department of Commerce
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
CONGRESSIONAL AND
INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
INSPECTOR GENERAL
OFFICE OF BUSINESS LIAISON
OTHER DEPARTMENTAL
OFFICES
Secretary
Deputy Secretary
UNDER SECRETARY FOR
OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE
ADMINISTRATOR OF
NATIONAL OCEANIC
AND ATMOSPHERIC
ADMINISTRATION
UNDER SECRETARY FOR
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
ADMINSTRATION
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC POLICY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
TRADE ADMINISTRATION
DIRECTOR GENERAL
U.S. AND FOREIGN
COMMERCIAL SERVICE
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
TRADE DEVELOPMENT
ASSISTANT SECRETARY AND
COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS
AMD TRADEMARKS
PATENT AND
TRADEMARK
OFFICE
DIRECTOR
NATIONAL
BUREAU OF
STANDARDS
GENERAL COUNSEL
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICE OF PUBUC AFFAIRS
UNDER SECRETARY
FOR
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
CHIEF ECONOMIST
UNDER SECRETARY
FOR TRAVEL AND
TOURISM
UNITED STATES TRAVEL
AND TOURISM
ADMINISTRATION
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR PRODUCTIVITY,
TECHNOLOGY, AND
INNOVATION
DIRECTOR
NATIONAL TECHNICAL
INFORMATION SERVICE
DIHECTpR
BUREAU OF
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
DIRECTOR
BUREAU OF
THE CENSUS
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR COMMUNICATIONS
AND INFORMATION
NATIONAL
JELECOMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
DIRECTOR
MINORITY BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ADMINISTRATION
-------
u.s. bEi'AirniFirr OF
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
1
D. U
1
Of fic» of
Product Ivity.
fVrhr.oloqy &
Innovation
01 III WILLIAMS
Un».l«r
Gccietaty
JARRY DE RINGER
I
1
tanlnt Sec let
ricx'uctivlty,
Technology A
Innovation
Under fSnci
Economic
ROULRT
irpuiy Under
Tor Hcttiom]
. 1RAV1S
Office? of
Analysis
KUCC HLRR1F1LLD JOHN CRLIIEANS
1 .1
Office oC
F?ilecal
lee In 10 logy
llaiingement
JOSLPII ALLEN
lint lot i-il
Technical
InfouiKitlon
Geivice
JOSEPH CAPO*
110
Uuiemj
% of the
Censuo
cknry lor
(Al'lnlin , ;,.
oniMtn Office ot I/
/\( lull nlctrnt Ion
• Occrel.nry
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RConcinlc F.coii'.inlc
Tolicy Coii'.lltlons
JtrrRLY IIAYtR CARL COX
•
Huteau of.
Rconomlc
AnulyBia
JOHN ICCANC
ALLAN YOUflG
I/ Iliis Office (a) provides, or ensures provision of, budftct nnd support ecrvlcea to nil milts on this
cli.irt. c::cept for Census and NT1S; and (b) provides specific services ond oversight with respect .
to Census end HTIS.
-------
U.S.
qf COMMERCE
ct
jicli ^1. l:inti
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-------
BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
-------
U.S. Department of Commerce
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
CONGRESSIONAL AND
INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
INSPECTOR GENERAL
OFFICE OF BUSINESS LIAISON
OTHER DEPARTMENTAL
OFFICES
Secretary
Deputy Secretary
UNDER SECRETARY FOR
OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE
ADMINISTRATOR OF
NATIONAL OCEANIC
AND ATMOSPHERIC
ADMINISTRATION
UNDER SECRETARY FOR
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
ADMINSTRATION
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC POLICY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
TRADE ADMINISTRATION
DIRECTOR GENERAL
U.S. AND FOREIGN
COMMERCIAL SERVICE
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
TRADE DEVELOPMENT
ASSISTANT SECRETARY AND
COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS
AND TRADEMARKS
PATENT AND
TRADEMARK
OFFICE
DIRECTOR
NATIONAL
BUREAU OF
STANDARDS
GENERAL COUNSEL
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
UNDER SECRETARY
FOR
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
CHIEF ECONOMIST
UNDER SECRETARY
FOR TRAVEL AND
TOURISM
UNITED STATES TRAVEL
AND TOURISM
ADMINISTRATION
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR PRODUCTIVITY,
TECHNOLOGY, AND
INNOVATION
DIRECTOR
NATIONAL TECHNICAL
INFORMATION SERVICE
DIRECTOR
BUREAU OF
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
DIRECTOR
BUREAU OF
THE CENSUS
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR COMMUNICATIONS
AND INFORMATION
NATIONAL
JELECOMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
DIRECTOR
MINORITY BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ADMINISTRATION
-------
o.s. bEi'AirniFirr OF
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Umlsr
Gecietaty
UARRY DER1NGER
^.'5^ir^^. Sec Icr
Piw'uctivlty,
TcrCliiiohrjy A
Innovation
D. BRUCE I1LRR1F1F.LD
Of.No? of
Product ivily,
•.•»«•:! it ;o I (igy &
Innovation
Office o£
Feiletal
leclinology
Under flncrelnry lor
Economic Affnlio
RCXJLRf ORINLR
Deputy liiider OccrnLnry
for KcciiomJc AMnlro
IRAVis DUN6AN
Office of i/
MiiiinJGtrntiuii
Office? of
HusJiiess
Annlysia
JOHN
Jlntlonnl
Ted mi ceil
Infoiiixitlon
Getvice
J01III UILL IAIIS
JOSLPII ALLEN JOSEPH CAJ'ONIO
0. JLROIIL JACKSON
Uuienu
of tlie
Censuo
JOHN KEANE
Ultleu oC
fJttnLoglc
HuGouicera
(lil.-f
f.'c'.)i ii-in ist
ORCUfT DKIIRY
Office oC
Fconcintc
I'ollcy
Office of
Ecoii'.inlc
Coi I'.l i t ioi is
JLrPREY IIAYLR
CARL COX
Hut eon of.
Economic
Auulyala
ALLAN YOUfIG
I/ liiis Office (a) provides, or ensures provision of, budget nnd support scrvicca to nil units on this
ch.nrt, e::cept for Census and NT1S; and (b) provides specific services and oversight wlt'« respect
to Census and UTIS.
-------
THE BUREAl
'ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
The goal of lha Bureau ol Economic Analysis (BEA) is to provide a clear picture
of the U.S. economy through the preparation, development, and interpretation
of the national income and product accounts, summarized by the gross national
product (GNP); the wealth accounts, which show the business and other
components of .national wealth; the input-output accounts, which trace the
interrelationships among industrial markets; personal income and related
economic series by geographic area; the U.S. balance of payments accounts and
associated foreign investment accounts; and measures relating to
environmental change within the framework of the national economic accounts.
The work on the national economic accounts is supplemented by the preparation
and analysis of other measures of business activity, including various tools for
forecasting economic developments, such as surveys of investment outlays and
plans of U.S. business, econometric models of the U.S. economy, and a system
of leading, coincident, and lagging economic indicators. The data and analyses
prepared by BEA are disseminated mainly through its monthly publications, the
Survqy of. Current Business including periodic supplements to the
Survey, and Business.-C.QDdJlio_os._fiigeiL
The measures and analyses produced by BEA are used in the
formulation and execution of fiscal, financial, international, and
other policies related to the major economic goals of the Nation.
Business plans its production, price, and investment programs with
the aid of the information provided by BEA. This information is
essential also for economic decisionmaking by State and local
governments, labor, and other economic groups; and by the growing
number of individuals who need a better orientation in an economic
world that is becoming increasingly complex. Universities and
research organizations also rely in their teaching ' and research
programs on the information provided by BEA.
CHIEF STATISTICIAN
Frank de Leeuw
DIRECTOR
Allan H Young
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Carol S. Carson
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR
NATIONAL ECONOMIC
ACCOUNTS
Robert P. Parker
National Income and Wealth
Division - Carald F. Donahoe
Interindustry Economics
Division - Paula C. Young
Government Division -
Joseph C. Uakefield
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR
NATIONAL ANALYSIS
AND PROJECTIONS
Edward K. Smith
Business Outlook
Division - George R. Green
Statistical Indicators
Division - George R. Green
(Acting)
Environmental Economics
Division - Gary L. Rut Iedge
CHIEF ECONOMIST
Jack E. Triplet!
Computer Systems
and Services Division
James P. Doyle
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR
REGIONAL ECONOMICS
Daniel H. Garoick
Regional Economic Analysis
Division - Hugh U. (Cnox
Regional Economic Measurement
Division - Linoea Hazen
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
Jack J. Bame
Balance of Payments
Division - Christopher L. Bach
International Investment
Division - Betty L. Barker
Current Business
Analysis Division
Gurmukh S. Gill
August 198S
U.S. Department of Commerce
Bureau of Economic Analysis
-------
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
-------
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
ApprovSBTOepuly Under Secre
lor Management
September 1987
CHIEF OF STAFF
tMUUM IRIS1M
4111. *OM
m-MN
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
JUUCCM*
4*1. KM I
IB-UN
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
PRIVATE EDUCATION
CHMUS J. 0 HUUH
4131. FOM TO 4JU
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
WILLIAM J. BENNETT
4ui. rot i m 3
UNDER SECRETARY
VAUNT
an. rot i mi
GENERAL COUNSEL
MMKU I. HH.UK
RMM 4MI. FOI I
ranw
DEPUTY UNDER
SECRETARY FOR
PLANNING. BUDGET AND
EVALUATION
IRUCf M. CMNf S
••••40* FOi I
msus
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
ELEMENTARY AND
SECONDARY EDUCATION
MMSf II
RMMK tilt. FOI «
TO Sill
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
totm 4ou. ROI man
INSPECTOR GENERAL
JUKI • IHOMM. JH.
M«i4N4. MfS
4U-4UI
DEPUTY UNDER
SECRETARY FOR
MANAGEMENT
MMVM. MSI
ItoMi lUt. f 0§4 I4M1B
DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY
FOR INTERGOVERNMENIAL
AND INTERAGENCY AFFAIRS
n fid M. OMfH
•MM Mil. FM4
'I43IM4
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND
IMPROVEMENT
CHISIf R f. FINN. M.
RlM 4111. FOI«
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
SPECIAL EDUCATION AND
REHABILITATIVE SERVICES
MADELEINE C. Will
M. MIS
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
VOCATIONAL AND ADULT
EDUCATION
MMNIE H GUIIDN
noom tn RIP
must
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
LEGISLATION
FRANCE > M MORRIS
RMIH JIM FOI I
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
CIVIL RIGHTS
liCRII S OANKU
Room SOW. MS
m»u
DIRECTOR OF BILINGUAL
EDUCATION AND MINORITY
LANGUAGES AFFAIRS
AIICU c com
RIP
m saw
-------
OPERATIONS
STAFF
POLICY &
PUNNING STAFF
OFFICE OF
EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH AND
IMPROVEMENT
NATIONAL COUNCIL
ON EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH STAFF
1
INFORMATION
SERVICES
1
LIBRARY
PROGRAMS
PROGRAMS FOR
THE IMPROVEMENT
OF PRACTICE
1
OFFICE OF
RESEARCH
#
1
CENTER FOR
STATISTICS
(NCES)
-------
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
Advisory Council on
Education Statistics
Elementary/Secondary
Education Statistics
Division
General Surveys
and Analysis Branch
Special Surveys
and Analysis Branch
OFFICE
OF THE
COMMISSIONER
Elementary/Secondary
Outcomes Division .
Education Assessment
Branch
Longitudinal and .
Household Studies
Branch
Postsecondary Education
Statistics Division
General Surveys
and Analysis Branch
Special Surveys
and Analysis Branch
Longitudinal Studies
Branch
Crosscutting
Education Statistics
and Analysis Division
Compilations, Projections
and Special Studies
Branch
Indicators and
Multilevel Studies
Branch
5/6/88
-------
ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
DEPARTMENT OFENERGY
-------
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
F«d«ral Enarfjy
Roguletory Commission *, m m m — — — —
Cha!'nan
Rtymond J. O'Connor
Pot
1
OfliCo Of
cy, Planning
l, Analytla
V*c«iu
Secretary
John 1). Harrington
Deputy Secretory
Danny J. Bogc*
Under Secretary
. , l"^^"^"™ g
Qzncritl
Counsel
J. Mlchxl Ferril
Insptctor
Q«n«ral
« Oo!«n
Acslstnnt Secretary,
Dolonta Progromo
WiW»m W. Mooirat
1
0(llc« of
CIvRlan tladloactlva
Watte MansgoT.ont
B«nC. rtuich*
i
™~™^"^TI
Aeslttant Secretary,
Congrce«lor..«l.
Intergovcrnmantnl &
Public Alfalrt
Trtaoaor* J. Otrtlih
1 \
Aeslctant Socratery,
Environment,
Sofaty & Hoalth
Wiliam A. V«ush«n
""' 1
oriico o»
Energy Dee aarch
Ahln W. Trlvelplac*
Operations Offlcos
• Albuquirqu* « Oak flidg J
• CMcejp • Rlchlend
• Idaho • San Fronclsco
9 Novada • Savennsh Rivor
Assistant 36cret«ry,
ntsrnatlonel Aitnlre &
Energy Emorgonclci
O«org« J. Bradfoy
(Aclkng)
J::n> 1CCO
-------
The Energy Information
Administration
Administrator
Or. H.A. Merklein
Deputy Administrator
L.A. Pettis
/•^••••••••••••••••••••••••**t**«***<
.«t«««ti«t*»t**««**t****«***«««»**««'
Office of Planning,
Management, and
Information Services
William A. Dorsey
Automated Data
Processing
Services Staff
Kenneth A. Vagts
Office of Statistical
Standards
Yvonne M. Bishop
Office of Oil and Gas
Jimmie L. Peterson
•i**it«*•»•*
<••*•••*••••*\
Office of Coal,
Nuclear, Electric and
Alternate Fuels
John C. Geldl
Office of Energy
Markets and End Use
W. David Montgomery
-------
NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
-------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
OFFICE
SUPPOF
DIRECT
Gltnda
OFFICE
BIOSAF
• DIRECT
John W.
CENTER FOR
PREVENTION
SERVICES
DIRECTOR
Alan R. Hlnman, M.D. (t
OF PROGRAM
IT
OR
S. Cowarl (HCAS)
•
OF
ETY
OR
McVlear, D.V.M. (HCA1)
v^nix i cno rv-»n UMOCMOC v/umnuu \n\j)
OFFICE OF THE
DIRECTO
Jamta O. Mason, r.
Deputy Dlrtclor • Welter R. Dowdle
Deputy Director (AIDS) - Gary H. N
Assistant Dlrtclor, Washington • C
Assistant Dlrtclor, Public Health Pr
Assistant Dlrtclor, Inltrnallontl Hti
Assistant Dlrtclor, Science - Mary
Aaaoclalt Dlrtclor, Policy Coordlnal
I I
EPIDEMIOLOGY
PROGRAM
OFFICE
DIRECTOR
Carl W.Tyler, Jr., M.D. (HCB)
INTERNATIONAL
HEALTH PROGRAM
OFFICE
DIRECTOR
Jot H. Davis, M.D. (HCG)
DIRECTOR
H
I.D.. Dr.P.H.
Ph.D.
obit M D
torgt E. Hardy, Jr., M.D.
•diet - Jtllrty P.- Koplan, M.D.
llh - Billy G. Crises
E. Gulnan, M.D.
Ion • Elvln R. Hllyar
(HCA)
•
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)C WASHINGTON
FFICE
RECTOR
orge E. Hardy. Jr., M.D. (HCA6
OFFICE OF PROGRAM
PLANNING AND EVALUATION
DIRECTOR
Martha F. KaU (HCA4)
—
OFFICE OF
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
DIRECTOR
Donald A. Btrralh (HCA2)
.
TRAINING AND
LABORATORY
PROGRAM OFFICE
DIRECTOR
Paul J. Wltsner, M.D. (HCH)
1 1 1
CENTER FOR NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH
HEALTH AND OCCUPATIONAL PROMOTION AND
INJURY CONTROL SAFETY AND HEALTH EDUCATION
DIRECTOR DIRECTOR DIRECTOR
«M) VernonN. Houk.M.D. (HCN) J. Donald Millar, UD. (HCC) Dennis D. Tolsma (HCK)
1 1
CENTER FOR '"JC NATIONAL
INFECTIOUS CENTER FOR
DISEASES HEALTH STATISTICS
DIRECTOR DIRECTOR
Frederick A. Murphy, ' Manning Ftlnlslb. M.D..
D.V.M..Ph.D. (HCR) Di.P.H. ("W
-------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
Centers for Disease Control
National Center for Health Statistics
Office of Management
Associate Director
Stephen E. Nleberdlng
Division of
Vital SUlUllc*
Director
John E. Patterson
1
Office of Vital and
Health Statistics Systems
Associate Director
Peter L Hurley
Division ol Health
Car* Statistic*
Director
W. Edward Bacon
1
Division ol Health
Interview Statistics
Director
Owen T. Thornberry
Office
of the Director
Director
Manning Felnleib
Division ol Health
Examination
Statistics
Director
Robert S. Murphy
I—
Office of Research and
Methodology
Associate Director
Monroe G. Sirken
Office of Planning and
Extramural Programs
Associate Director
Gail F. Fisher
1 - 1
Office of Data Processing
and Services Program
Associate Director
George A. Senna ck
Office of Analysis and
Epidemiology
Associate Director
Jacob J. Feldman
i 1 , . 1 .
Division ol
Data Processing
Acting Director
Gary Sandara .
Division ol
Data Services
Director
Phillip R. Seattle
Division ol
Epidemiology snd
Health Promotion
Director
Ronald W. Wilson
i
• Division ol
Analysis
Director
Joel C. Kleinmsn
-------
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
-------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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Publications Staff
Marilyn Thomas - Director
(GM-14)
Office of Research and Statistics
John Hambor - Director
(GM-15)
Division of Economic Research
Benjamin Bridges-Acting Director
(CM-IS)
Division of Statistical Operations
and Services
Warren Buckler - Director
(GM-15)
Under the
Office of Policy
of SSA
Program Analysis Staff
Martynas Yeas-Acting Direct.
(GM-14)
Division of Statistics
Analysis
Jack Schmulowitz - Director
(GM-15)
-------
1
OASDI Analysis
Branch
Barbara Lingg - Chief
(GM-14)
Division of Statistics Analysis
Jack Schmulowltz - Director
(GM-15)
Earnings and Employnent
Analysis Branch
William Nelson - Acting Chief
(GM-14)
SSI Analysis
Branch
Richard Bell -. Chief
(GM-14)
-------
1
Management Statistics
and Services Branch
Barry Bye - Chief
(GM-14)
Division of Statistical Operations
and Services
Warren Buckler - Director
(GM-15)
Statistical Coordination
and Services Branch
Joe Dorsey - Chief
(GM-14)
1
Statistical Processing
Branch
Vacant - Chief
(proposed Barry Bye)
(GM-15)
-------
Division of Economic Research
Benjamin Bridges-Acting Director
(GM-15)
Modeling Branch
Benjamin Bridges - Chief
(GM-15)
Research Branch
Selig Lesnoy - Chief
(GM-15)
-------
HOUSING AND DEMOGRAPHIC
ANALYSIS DIVISION
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING
AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
-------
Secretary, Housing and Urban Development
General
Counsel
Administration
Office of
Housing
Offioe of
Public
and Indian
Housing
Office of
Community
Planning
and
Development
Government
National
Marketing
Association
Oomuittee
Office of
Policy
Development
and Research
Office of Policy Development
Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Policy
Office of Research
Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Research
Office of Economic Affairs
Deputy Assistant Secretary
Economic Market
Analysis Division
Housing Finance
Division
Economic Development
and Public Finance
Division
Housing and Demographic
Analysis Division
-------
BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
-------
U.S. DEPAKSfENT OF JUSTICE
ATTORNEY GENERAL
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
FEDERAL BUREAU
OF
HVESTI6ATION
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JUSTICE ASSISTANCE ACT AGENCIES
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Director
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-------
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
-------
Office
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Affairs Cooperative Programs
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Services Administration Statistics ^
O«t«: 3/87 U.S. Department of Ubor
-------
BUR'BVOF LABOR STATISTICS
Organisational Chart
IOffic* of lh«
Commitsioncr
JMMI L. Norwood
1 1
. Otlice ol Employment
and Unemployment
Slaitalic*
Aitociate Commiuione*
Thom*a J. Pleww
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John E Biffffi
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Kenneth V. D*lon
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Kathleen MocOonald
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A Wuf king Condiliont
Astittani Convnittionei
William M. Eixnhtig
•Ollice ol Compentanon
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and Inioni
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Jetome A Mwk
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Ronald € KutKhei
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William G. Ba»on
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Wniey L Vi>aiU*
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Aaiti*n| Canmitiiontf Aiiif l«ni Conwni»«ion«i
Williom 0 Sl««d C..I J. to««
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Oinjclorale ol Technology 1
and Computing Services 1
Director 1
Oirector ate ol
Survey Processing
Director
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AnocHjm Commmiot«t
Laura B. King
1
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•otton- Anthony J. Ferrc
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Allanla— Oonetd M C«u«e
Chicago- Lota Orr
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January
-------
STATISTICS OF INCOME DIVISION
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
-------
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE ORGANIZATION CHART
Department of the Treasury
Assistants to tne
Commissioner'
Assistant to the
Deputy Commissioner
IRS
Commissioner
Senior Deputy Commissioner
Deputy
Pianmng 4
Deputy Commrtawner
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-------
Statistics off Income Division Organization Chart
Coordination
and
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Director's
Olllce
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T«am
Publications
Team
Technical
Team
Mathematical
Statistics
Team
Corporation Statistics
Branch
Returns Analysis
Section
Special Projects
Section
Operations
Section
Research Staff
tmm
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Individual Statistics
Branch
•
Returns Analysis
Section
Special Projects
Section
Operations
Section
Research Staff
Foreign Statistics
Branch
Returns Analysis
Section
Special Projects
Section
Operations
Section
Research Stall
------- |