APPENDIX B
Organization of the Federal Statistical System

OVERVIEW

This appendix begins with a brief overview of the U.S. statistical system as a whole, including history, structure, and budget. It then briefly summarizes the statistical functions of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the principal statistical agencies and other recognized statistical units, and a brief description of statistical programs in the departments represented on the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP).⁵⁹

Brief History and Structure of the U.S. Federal Statistical System

The U.S. government collected and published statistics long before any distinct federal statistical agency was formed (see also Anderson, 2015; Citro, 2016; Duncan and Shelton, 1978; Norwood, 1995). The U.S. Constitution mandates a decennial census of population; the first such censuses (beginning in 1790) were conducted by U.S. marshals as one of their many duties. The Constitution also mandates reporting of federal government receipts and expenditures, which led to early collection by the U.S. Department of the Treasury of foreign trade statistics because of the reliance of the federal government on tariffs for revenues in the 19th century. A census of manufactures was first taken in conjunction with the 1810 population census, and the 1820 population census laid the

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⁵⁹ The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 expanded the ICSP from the heads of the principal statistical agencies to also include statistical officials at Departments subject to the Chief Financial Officers Act.

groundwork for additional economic statistics by asking for the number of household members principally employed in agriculture, manufacturing, or commerce.

In the 1860s, Congress enacted laws providing for the compilation of statistics on agriculture, education, and income. It established the Bureau of Labor (forerunner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics) as a separate agency with a mandate to respond to widespread public demand for information on the conditions of industrial workers in 1884. It established the Census Bureau as a permanent agency in 1902.

Many federal statistical agencies that can trace their roots back to the 19th or early 20th century, such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the National Center for Health Statistics, which were organized in their current form following World War II. Other agencies organized since then include the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Energy Information Administration, and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.

The United States has a highly decentralized statistical system, in contrast with other developed countries (see Norwood, 1995). Essentially, the system grew by adding separate agencies whenever the need for objective empirical information on a particular aspect of the economy, society, or environment came to the fore. Periodic recommendations from presidential commissions and other initiatives to consolidate one or more of the principal statistical agencies have never been adopted.

Today, OMB, through its Statistical and Science Policy Office (which has roots going back to the 1930s), coordinates the work of federal statistical agencies. The chief statistician, who heads the office, chairs the ICSP, which was created by OMB in the late 1980s and authorized in statute in 1995. The current ICSP membership includes the heads of the 13 principal statistical agencies and statistical officials from the other CFO Act agencies. Figure B-1 depicts reporting relationships for the 13 principal statistical agencies, from the relevant congressional appropriations subcommittee to the cabinet secretary and any other intermediate levels of authority.

Budget for Statistical Activities

For fiscal 2020, OMB estimated that the President’s budget provided $11.9 billion in direct funding for the entire federal statistical system,

including $6.5 billion for the decennial census and $2.4 billion for the nondecennial funding for the 13 principal federal statistical agencies (see U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2020). “Direct funding” covers congressional appropriations to an agency. Some agencies (e.g., the Census Bureau) carry out statistical activities for other agencies on a cost-reimbursable basis. The funding for these activities is allocated to the sponsoring agency and not to the data collection agency.

U.S. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

At the center of the federal statistical system is the Statistical and Science Policy (SSP) Office, which is part of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), in OMB. SSP is headed by the chief statistician, which is a senior executive civil service position.

As noted in Appendix A, OMB establishes statistical policies and standards, identifies priorities for improving programs, evaluates statistical programs for compliance with OMB guidance, reviews statistical agency budgets, approves information collections for many of the principal statistical agencies, and coordinates U.S. participation in international

statistical activities.⁶⁰ It currently has a staff of seven professionals (Chief Statistician plus six), often augmented by professional staff from other agencies who are working on particular initiatives. Appendix A provides background information on the authority of OMB over federal statistics, statistical policy directives, and other legislation and OMB guidance that affect the U.S. statistical system.

PRINCIPAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES

This section covers the 13 principal statistical agencies identified by OMB (see U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2020, p.6) that are all members of the ICSP. The information presented here includes origins, authorizing legislation or other authority, and status of agency head (presidential appointee, career senior executive service official). The agencies are discussed in alphabetical order.

Bureau of Economic Analysis

The BEA (see https://bea.gov/) is part of the Department of Commerce (as is the Census Bureau). The BEA director is a career senior executive service appointee. BEA’s history traces back to 1820, when the Secretary of the Treasury was directed by Congress to compile and publish statistics on U.S.-foreign commerce. Three 20th-century predecessors of BEA were all located in the Department of Commerce: the Bureau of Statistics (1903–1912); the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (1912–1945); and the Office of Business Economics (1945–1972).

BEA produces statistics on the performance of the nation’s economy. Although it collects some source data, it primarily compiles data from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and other agencies as input to estimating the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs), which include estimates of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and related measures. GDP, which was recognized by the Department of Commerce as its greatest achievement of the 20th century in a December 2009 ceremony, has major influence on U.S. financial markets.

Since the NIPAs were first developed in the aftermath of the Great Depression, BEA has extended its estimates to cover a wide range of economic activities for the nation, regions, and industries and also for

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⁶⁰ See https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-regulatory-affairs/statistical-programs-standards/. [February 2021]

the nation’s position in the world economy. BEA also produces “satellite accounts” in such areas as health care, outdoor recreation, travel and tourism, and arts and culture production. Satellite accounts provide a framework for testing alternative economic assumptions without disruption to BEA’s core economic accounts.

Bureau of Justice Statistics

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS; see http://www.bjs.gov/), in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), was formally established by the Justice Systems Improvement Act of 1979 (P.L. 96-157). It inherited statistical functions that had previously been vested in an office of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (which had been established in 1968).

BJS is housed in the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), which also contains the National Institute of Justice (a research agency) and other agencies that are primarily focused on providing grant and technical assistance to state and local governments and law enforcement agencies. BJS’s director is a presidential appointee (not requiring Senate confirmation—a change as of August 2012) and reports to the assistant attorney general for OJP.

The centerpiece of BJS’s data collections is the National Crime Victimization Survey (originally the National Crime Survey), which has served as one of the nation’s principal measures of crime (particularly crime not reported to police) since its full-scale implementation in 1972. Data collection for most BJS surveys is conducted by the Census Bureau or private contractors.

BJS publishes annual statistics on criminal victimization, populations under correctional supervision, law enforcement management and administration, case processing in the state and federal courts, and sexual violence in prisons under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act. Its periodic data series covers the administration of law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities, prosecutorial practices and policies, state court case processing, felony convictions, criminal justice expenditure and employment, civil case processing in state courts, and special studies on other criminal justice topics.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

The BLS (https://www.bls.gov/) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, which is responsible for the production of some of the nation’s

most sensitive and important economic data, including unemployment statistics and consumer and producer price indexes, which are closely watched by the public, Congress, other federal agencies, state and local governments, businesses, and labor organizations. The BLS commissioner is a presidential appointee, subject to Senate confirmation, and serves for a fixed term of 4 years.

The history of the BLS dates back to 1884, when the Bureau of Labor was established in the Interior Department to collect information about employment and labor. It was made an independent (subcabinet) agency by the Department of Labor Act in 1888; it was made part of the Department of Commerce and Labor (as the Bureau of Labor) in 1903, and it was transferred to the newly created Department of Labor in 1913.

BLS programs use a variety of data collection methods and sources. Certain wage, benefit, employment, and price data are collected by BLS staff in offices throughout the country, who contact employers, households, and businesses directly. BLS also has contractual arrangements with various state agencies to collect much of the data it publishes on employment and workplace safety and health. Its contractual arrangements with the Census Bureau support the collection of data for several programs, including the Current Population Survey (the source of monthly unemployment statistics) and the Consumer Expenditure Survey (the source of the market baskets for the Consumer Price Index [CPI]). Some BLS data, such as those for the various national longitudinal surveys, are collected by private contractors.

BLS’s surveys, indexes, and statistics fall into four main categories:

1. Consumer expenditures and prices, including the CPI, the producer price index, and U.S. import and export prices indexes;
2. The labor force, including monthly data on employment from households and business establishments, monthly and periodic data on unemployment, time use, job openings and labor turnover, occupational employment and projections of trends, and longitudinal data on the work experience of cohorts of the population;
3. Compensation and working conditions, including the employment cost index, workplace injuries and fatalities, employee benefits, and occupational requirements; and
4. Productivity.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS; https://www.bts.gov/) is under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Research and Technology (OST-R) in the U.S. Department of Transportation. OST-R also includes the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office; the Office of Research, Development, and Technology; the Transportation Safety Institute; and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

BTS’s director is a career senior executive service appointee who reports to the assistant secretary. Prior to 2004, the director was a presidential appointee with a fixed term of 4 years who reported directly to the secretary of the department.

BTS was established by the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act and began operations in late 1992. It was moved to the newly created Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) by the Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004. BTS moved with the rest of RITA to OST-R in 2014. The 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (P.L. 114-94) authorized the reorganization of BTS and strengthened its ability to produce statistical products free of political influence.

In regard to independence, Section 6017 of the FAST Act specified that the BTS director did not need the approval of the department for data collection or analysis or for the substance of any statistical data product or press release. The act charged the BTS director with a “significant role” in allocation of the BTS budget, hiring, and grant and contract awards, with the exception that the secretary was to direct external support functions, such as coordination of activities involving BTS and other departmental administrations. Finally, the act charged the departmental chief information officer to consult with the BTS director to ensure that information technology decisions protected the confidentiality of BTS statistical information in accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA).

Prior to the establishment of BTS, statistical programs of the Department of Transportation focused exclusively on specific modes of transportation (highways, airlines, railroads, etc.). The exception was the first 10 years of the department’s existence (1967–1977), when the Office of the Secretary funded intermodal surveys on commodity flows

and long-distance personal transportation. BTS is charged to produce an annual report on transportation statistics, develop intermodal data on commodity and passenger flows, administer the National Transportation Library, and carry out other functions to ensure that the department, the states, and other federal agencies have available comprehensive information on the nation’s transportation systems. BTS also operates the Office of Airline Information, which was transferred to it from the now-defunct Civil Aeronautics Board in 1995. The 2015 FAST Act added a new Port Performance Freight Statistics Program to BTS’s portfolio. BTS contracts with the Census Bureau for major surveys.

Census Bureau

The Census Bureau (see http://www.census.gov/) is part of the Department of Commerce (as is BEA). It conducts population and economic censuses and a wide array of surveys.

The first censuses were conducted by U.S. marshals under the authority of the Secretary of State. Beginning in 1850, a separate census office was established each decade to supervise the census. In 1902 a permanent Census Bureau was established; it was made part of the new Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903, and it moved to the newly created Department of Commerce in 1913. Title 13 of the U.S. Code includes the major legal provisions related to the Census Bureau, including strict provisions for protecting the confidentiality of population and business information.

The director of the Census Bureau is appointed by the President with Senate confirmation for a fixed 5 year term that can be renewed once (to begin in years ending in 2 and 7).⁶¹

The major periodic activity of the Census Bureau is the decennial population census, which in 2020 consisted of basic questions on age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, relationship to household head, and housing tenure (own, rent). As part of the decennial census program, the Census Bureau also conducts the continuous American Community Survey, which includes questions previously part of a long-form sample in the decennial census. Population and housing estimates are updated annually using administrative records in cooperation with state and local governments.

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⁶¹ The fixed term was signed into law in August 2012; previously, the director served at the pleasure of the President.

The Census Bureau also has a large portfolio of censuses and surveys about businesses, nonprofit organizations, and federal, state, and local governments. The economic census of businesses and the census of governments takes place every 5 years (in years ending in 2 or 7). The Census Bureau also has a portfolio of demographic surveys, including surveys it conducts jointly with or for other statistical agencies. The Census Bureau produces annual estimates of poverty, median income, and health insurance coverage using the Current Population Survey, which BLS uses to produce the unemployment rate. The Census Bureau also does the data collection for the American Housing Survey (for the Department of Housing and Urban Development), the Consumer Expenditure Survey (for BLS), the National Crime Victimization Survey (for BJS), and the National Health Interview Survey (for NCHS).

Economic Research Service

The Economic Research Service (ERS; http://www.ers.usda.gov/), along with the National Agricultural Statistics Service and two other agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), reports to the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics. The administrator of ERS is a career senior executive service appointee.

The origins of ERS trace back to 1905, when USDA established the Office of Farm Management, which was renamed the Office of Farm-Management and Farm Economics in 1919. The office’s research areas included farm organization, cost of production, farm labor, farm finance, land economics, agricultural history, and rural life studies. Several reorganizations took place, and in 1961 USDA created ERS, assigning it responsibility for conducting economic research and policy analysis to inform program and policy decisions throughout USDA. The agency’s mission is to anticipate food, agricultural, agri-environmental, and rural development issues that are on the horizon and conduct peer-reviewed economic research so that research findings are available when issues require decisions by policy makers. As a statistical agency, ERS does not make recommendations: it designs its research to show the consequences of alternative policy or programmatic choices.

ERS is also the primary source of statistical indicators on food and agriculture, such as those that gauge the health of the farm sector (including farm income estimates and projections), assess the current

and expected performance of the agricultural sector (including trade and productivity), measure food insecurity in the United States and abroad, and measure dimensions of food availability and access. ERS jointly funds two primary data collection efforts: (1) the Agricultural Resources Management Survey on farm household and business income and crop practices, also funded by the National Agricultural Statistics Service; and (2) the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, which focuses on American households’ food purchase and acquisitions behavior, also funded by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.

Energy Information Administration

The Energy Information Administration (EIA; http://www.eia.gov/) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); its administrator is a presidential appointee with Senate confirmation.

EIA was created by Congress in 1977 as part of the newly established Department of Energy. Its mission is to provide policy-independent energy data, forecasts, and analyses in order to promote sound policy making, efficient markets, and public understanding regarding energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. To assure EIA’s independence, the Department of Energy Organization Act specifies that EIA’s products are not subject to clearance by executive branch officials: in particular, the administrator does not need to obtain the approval of any other DOE official for data collection and analysis, and he or she does not need to “obtain the approval of any other officer or employee of the United States” before publishing energy data and analysis reports (42 USC 7135(d)).

Many EIA data products, such as weekly, monthly, and annual data on petroleum and natural gas supply, deal with specific industries; others contain data on all fuel types. EIA’s mandatory energy supply surveys are conducted by private contractors, who survey energy producers, users, and transporters, and certain other businesses. Data on energy consumption are collected for households, commercial buildings, manufacturing, and transportation. Analyses prepared by EIA staff cover energy economics, technology, production, prices, distribution, storage, consumption, and environmental effects.

EIA forecasts cover all energy types and include supply, consumption, prices, and other factors. Short-term forecasts cover 1–2 years;

20-year projections are also developed and often serve as the baseline for independent analyses of policy proposals that are prepared by EIA at the request of Congress or the administration. More than three-quarters of EIA’s resources are used for energy data collection and dissemination; the rest is used to support forward-looking forecasts, projections, and analyses.

National Agricultural Statistics Service

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS; https://www.nass.usda.gov/) is under the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics in USDA (as is ERS). The administrator of NASS is a career senior executive service appointee.

The foundation of NASS began with the establishment of USDA in 1862. Agricultural supply information was one of the purposes of the new department. The first official report on the condition of crops was issued in July 1863. NASS’s mission of providing timely, accurate, and useful statistics continues today through its agriculture estimates and census of agriculture programs. In its agricultural estimates program, NASS provides the USDA forecasts and estimates for numerous commodities. The census of agriculture is conducted every 5 years and provides comprehensive information about the nation’s agriculture down to the county level, which provides a foundation for farm policy among its many uses.

Slightly more than one-third of the agency’s staff is located at its Washington, DC, headquarters; the rest of the staff is located at the National Operations Center near St. Louis, Missouri, and in 12 regional offices, each of which is responsible for the statistical work in several states. All field and telephone interviewing staff are obtained through contracting with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). NASS researchers also collaborate with researchers, largely from land-grant universities and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, to improve statistical methodologies and practices of both the agricultural estimates and the census of agriculture programs.

NASS provides data services for many agencies inside and outside USDA. It collaborates with state departments of agriculture and land-grant universities to meet state, local, and national needs for agricultural statistics. Through cooperative agreements going back as far as 1917 and memoranda of understanding, NASS provides data collection

and statistical services to other federal agencies, and it provides statistics to the public through trust fund agreements with private producer organizations when federal funding is inadequate.

NASS works with its regional field offices to carry out hundreds of surveys every year and prepares reports covering virtually every aspect of U.S. agriculture. Examples include production and supplies of food and fiber, prices paid and received by farmers, farm labor and wages, farm finances, chemical use, and changes in the demographic characteristics of U.S. producers.

National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES; http://nces.ed.gov/) is part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of Education; IES also includes three research and evaluation centers. The NCES commissioner is a presidential appointee for a fixed term of 6 years.⁶²

NCES’s origins date back to 1867 when Congress established a Department of Education and gave it a primary mission of “collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching” (P.L. 39-73, 14 Stat. 434). The legislation also charged the department’s commissioner to issue an annual report. However, only 2 years later the department was abolished, and an Office of Education was established in the U.S. Department of the Interior, where it remained through 1939. The Office of Education was part of the newly created Federal Security Agency from 1939 to 1953, when it was made part of the newly created U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. A separate Department of Education was reestablished in 1980.

A major function of the Office of Education throughout its history was the collection and publication of education statistics. NCES was established in 1965 as a staff office reporting to the Commissioner of Education. NCES received statutory authority in 1974; in 1980 it was made part of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, which in 2002 became the IES. Supporting the independence of NCES, the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, which created IES, stipulated

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⁶² Senate confirmation is no longer required, a change that was made in August 2012.

that “each Commissioner [head of one of IES’s constituent centers], except the Commissioner for Education Statistics, shall carry out such Commissioner’s duties…under the supervision and subject to the approval of the Director” of IES (20 USC 9517(d)).

NCES has an extensive survey program, including longitudinal surveys that follow the educational experience of cohorts of the U.S. population from early childhood through adulthood, periodic surveys of adult literacy, and international studies of educational achievement. It also collects the “Common Core of Data” from administrative records of state and local K–12 educational agencies, and it collects data for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. It regularly assesses the educational knowledge and achievement of primary and secondary school students in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It also administers the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems program, which provides grants to the states to develop longitudinal databases of student records for analyzing student performance and for identifying methods to improve achievement.

National Center for Health Statistics

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS; https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/index.htm) is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The NCHS director is a career senior executive service appointee.

NCHS’s roots lie in two formerly separate historical strands for the provision of national health statistics. The first strand includes vital statistics on births, deaths, and other life events; its origins trace back to 1902, when Congress gave the newly created permanent Census Bureau the authority to establish registration areas to produce nationally comparable vital statistics by working with state agencies. This function was transferred in 1946 to the Federal Security Administration, which was folded into the new U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953, which subsequently was split into two federal departments. The second strand concerns general statistics on the nation’s health and was authorized in the 1956 National Health Survey Act.

NCHS was created in 1960 as the merger of the National Office of Vital Statistics and the National Health Survey Division; it was relocated every few years in DHHS until its last relocation in 1987, when it was

made part of CDC. In 2005 it became one of three centers reporting to the newly created Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service in CDC. In 2013, further administrative reorganization placed NCHS within the new CDC Office of Public Health Scientific Services (78 Federal Register 70049, November 22, 2013).

NCHS has four major data collection programs:

1. The National Health Interview Survey, in continuous operation since 1956, which collects a wide range of information on self-reported health status and conditions and use of health care services by the population;
2. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which ascertains self-reported information on health and dietary intake and also, by use of mobile examining units, obtains extensive information from physical examinations and laboratory tests;
3. Healthcare surveys of various providers, including hospitals, outpatient facilities, and long-term care providers; and
4. Vital statistics, which are collected and maintained by the states.

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES; https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/) is part of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Its director is a career senior executive service appointee.

NCSES was formerly the Division of Science Resources Statistics, and before that it was the Division of Science Resources Studies. It became NCSES with passage of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Section 505; 42 USC 1862), with an expanded mandate to serve as a “central Federal clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, analysis, and dissemination of objective data on science, engineering, technology, and research and development.”

NCSES’s history began in 1950, when the newly created NSF was charged to maintain a register of scientific and technical personnel so that the nation would be able to mobilize the scientific and technical workforce in the event of a major war. Although no longer required to maintain a complete register, NSF has continued (by the terms of its founding act, as amended) to have responsibility “to provide a central clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data on

scientific and engineering resources and to provide a source of information for policy formulation by other agencies of the Federal Government” (42 USC 1862). NSF also has a congressional mandate from 1980 to provide information on women and minorities in science and engineering.

The NSF mandates provide the basis for statistical programs in NCSES. The center is called on to support the collection of statistical data on research and development trends, the science and engineering workforce, U.S. competitiveness, and the condition and progress of the nation’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM education; to support research using the data it collects and on methodologies in areas related to its work; and to support the education and training of researchers in the use of its own and other large-scale, nationally representative data sets. NCSES designs, supports, and directs a coordinated collection of periodic national surveys and performs a variety of other data collections and research, providing policy makers, researchers, and other decision makers with high-quality data and analysis on research and development, innovation, the education of scientists and engineers, and the science and engineering workforce. NCSES also serves as staff to the National Science Board in producing the biennial congressionally mandated Science and Engineering Indicators Report, which uses data from all NCSES surveys.

Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics, Social Security Administration

The Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics (ORES; https://www.ssa.gov/policy/index.html) is located in the Social Security Administration (SSA). ORES reports to the SSA Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy. ORES is headed by an associate commissioner, who is a career senior executive service appointee.

SSA began as the Social Security Board in 1935; it became part of the Federal Security Agency in 1939, part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953, and part of DHHS in 1980; it regained independent agency status in 1995. From the outset, SSA has had a research, statistics, and evaluation function.

ORES produces numerous recurring statistical publications about the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs, such as the Annual Statistical Supplement. ORES also produces statistical

publications about earnings and employment and other topics related to Social Security, such as the Income of the Population 55 or Older and the Income of the Aged Chartbook.

ORES conducts and sponsors research and evaluation on the effects of the Social Security and SSI programs and proposed changes in those programs on individuals, the economy, and program solvency. It develops and operates microsimulation models to assess the distributional effects of proposed reforms to the Social Security and SSI programs. ORES also conducts comparative analyses of social insurance systems in other countries. The research generated by ORES often is published in its in-house journal, the Social Security Bulletin. In addition, ORES funds two external research networks through cooperative agreements, the Retirement Research Consortium (RRC), and the Disability Research Consortium (DRC).⁶³ The RRC and DRC promote research on a wide range of topics related to Social Security retirement and disability policy at universities and think tanks.

Finally, ORES performs a significant data infrastructure function in support of policy research. ORES is responsible for working with outside research partners to create restricted-use research datasets by linking survey and other external data to Social Security program data. ORES also supports epidemiologists by providing vital status data on subjects of health research.⁶⁴

Statistics of Income Division, Internal Revenue Service

The Statistics of Income Division (SOI; see https://www.irs.gov/uac/tax-stats) is housed in the Office of Research, Analysis, and Statistics of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The director is a career senior executive service appointee.

SOI’s history traces back to the enactment of authority to levy individual income taxes in the 16th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1913. Section 21 of the Revenue Act of 1916 mandated the annual “publication of statistics reasonably available with respect to the operation of the income tax law” (39 Stat. 776); identical language is found in the current Internal Revenue Code (see 26 USC 6108).

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⁶³ See https://www.ssa.gov/policy/rrc/ and https://www.ssa.gov/policy/drc/index.html. [February 2021]

⁶⁴ See https://www.ssa.gov/policy/about/epidemiology.html. [February 2021]

SOI provides income, financial, and tax information data products to the user community that are based largely on individual and corporate tax returns and on returns filed by most tax-exempt organizations. It also provides periodic data derived from other returns and schedules, such as estate and gift taxes, foreign income and taxes, and gains and losses from sales of capital assets.

On written request, SOI tax return data are available to staff in the Department of the Treasury and the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation for policy analysis and revenue estimation. SOI data are also available to the Congressional Budget Office for modeling Social Security and Medicare programs, but not for any other purpose. Selected tax return data are also available, under strict confidentiality protection provisions, for use by the Census Bureau, the BEA, and the National Agricultural Statistics Service: the purposes of this access are for structuring censuses and national economic accounts and conducting related statistical activities authorized by law.

OTHER AGENCIES WITH STATISTICAL OFFICIALS

As noted in Appendix A, agencies without principal statistical agencies or units were required under the Evidence Act to designate qualified statistical officials, who would also serve on the ICSP. We briefly describe some of the statistical programs within each of these agencies below.

Department of Defense

The Department of Defense (DoD) is a source of federal current demographic, economic, health, and transportation statistics. The largest statistical program is the Office of People Analytics (OPA), which was created to utilize big-data analytics to better understand key components of service members’ career paths, and how policy or environmental changes affect the performance and composition of the DoD workforce.⁶⁵

Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a source of federal safety, crime and justice, current demographic, and current economic statistics. DHS has statistical programs in several agencies. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects entry data on aliens entering and denied admis-

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⁶⁵ See https://opa.defense.gov/. [February 2021]

sion to the United States. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) evaluates victims’ satisfaction with emergency relief services, and provides statistics on fires. The Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) collects and disseminates statistical information and analysis useful in evaluating the social, economic, environmental, and demographic impact of immigration laws, migration flows, and immigration enforcement.⁶⁶

Department of Housing and Urban Development

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is a source of current federal economic statistics. The largest statistical program is the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), responsible for maintaining current information on housing needs, market conditions, and existing programs, as well as conducting research on priority housing and community development issues.⁶⁷ The Office of Housing and the Office of Public and Indian Housing also collect and analyze data in support of their programs.

Department of the Interior

The Department of the Interior is a source of federal statistics on energy and minerals; environment; and soil, forest, fish, wildlife, and public lands. The department’s largest statistical program is the U.S. Geological Survey, which conducts applied research on the environment and provides data on streamflow, floods, drought, earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, the Landsat program, and geomagnetism.⁶⁸

Department of State

The Department of State is a source of federal health statistics, and it has one statistical program—the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC)—which provides data related to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.⁶⁹

Department of Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a source of federal current demographic and health statistics. VA has large statistical programs in the Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administra-

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⁶⁶ See https://www.dhs.gov/office-immigration-statistics, [February 2021]

⁶⁷ See https://www.huduser.gov/portal/about/pdrabout.html. [February2021]

⁶⁸ See https://www.usgs.gov/. [February 2021]

⁶⁹ See https://www.state.gov/pepfar/. [February 2021]

tion, but its primary statistical unit is the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics,⁷⁰ which develops descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive analytics on a broad range of topics about veterans and VA programs; collaborates with other federal agencies to survey and analyze the veteran population; and sponsors the National Survey of Veterans.

Environmental Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a source of natural resources, energy, and environment statistics. EPA monitors the quality of the air and of drinking, surface, and ground-water; ecosystem status; and the use and release of toxic and hazardous substances.

General Services Administration

The General Services Administration (GSA) provides a host of data center services, research tools, and other services to federal agencies.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a source of federal environmental statistics. NASA collects remotely sensed data on climate, weather, and natural hazards and supports the National Climate Assessment.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is headed by a five-member commission⁷¹ that formulates policies and regulations governing nuclear reactor and materials safety, issues orders to licensees, and adjudicates legal matters brought before it. The program offices ensure that the commercial use of nuclear materials in the United States is safely conducted and conduct inspection, enforcement, and emergency response programs for licensees.

Office of Personnel Management

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the focal point for providing statistical information about the federal civilian workforce. OPM’s FedScope is an online tool that allows customers to access

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⁷⁰ See https://www.va.gov/vetdata/. [February 2021]

⁷¹ See https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/organization/commfuncdesc.html. [February 2021]

and analyze the most popular data elements from OPM’s Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) Data Warehouse.

Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a source of federal economic statistics. SBA supports and produces statistics on small business characteristics and contributions.

U.S. Agency for International Development

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) leads international development and humanitarian efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, and help people progress beyond assistance. USAID conducts rigorous evaluations to track the progress, results, and effectiveness of international development programs.⁷²

OMB-RECOGNIZED STATISTICAL UNITS UNDER CIPSEA

Implementation guidance issued in 2007 for the 2002 Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) (see Appendix A) recognized 12 principal statistical agencies—the 13 agencies identified as principal statistical agencies that serve on the ICSP, with the exception of the Social Security Administration Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics.⁷³ The guidance provided a mechanism by which other agencies or units can be recognized as statistical agencies or units for the purposes of CIPSEA (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2007, p. 33368).⁷⁴ As noted in Appendix A, OMB is required to issue guidance on how agencies may be designated as statistical agencies or units.

Using criteria from the 2007 CIPSEA Implementation Guidance, OMB recognized four additional units as statistical units for purposes of CIPSEA: the Office for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics of SSA; the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality of the

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⁷² See https://www.usaid.gov/evaluation. [February 2021]

⁷³ CIPSEA adopted the designation of 12 agencies from the Order Providing for the Confidentiality of Statistical Information, issued by OMB in 1997 (see Appendix A).

⁷⁴ In addition to the requirements for designation as a statistical unit spelled out in the quoted paragraph, Statistical Policy Directive No. 1 (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2014b) applies to recognized statistical units in addition to principal statistical agencies. This directive requires a statistical agency or unit’s department to recognize the agency or unit’s independence (see Appendix A).

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Microeconomic Surveys Section of the Federal Reserve Board; and the National Animal Health Monitoring System Program Unit of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The last three units are described below.

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

The Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality (CBHSQ)⁷⁵ is the lead federal agency for behavioral health statistics, and it is housed in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration In DHHS. CBHSQ conducts the continuing National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which is the nation’s primary data system for collecting information on the incidence and prevalence of substance abuse and adverse health consequences associated with drug abuse from the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States for people ages 12 and older. NSDUH (formerly called the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) was fielded periodically from 1972 to 1990 and then annually beginning in 1991. Other CBHSQ statistical programs include the Behavioral Health Services Information System and its associated surveys, which are the primary data sources for information on the nation’s substance abuse treatment system and outcomes; the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), a public health surveillance system that monitors drug-related visits to hospital emergency departments, as well as drug-related deaths investigated by medical examiners and coroners; and other programs.

Microeconomic Surveys Section, Federal Reserve Board

The Microeconomic Surveys Section of the Division of Research and Statistics of the Federal Reserve Board conducts research in a variety of areas, including consumer finances, financial markets, general applied microeconomics, survey methodology, and other statistical methodology.⁷⁶ The section has responsibilities for a number of the surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Board, including the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, which ascertains detailed information on fami-

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⁷⁵ See https://www.samhsa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/offices-centers/cbhsq. [February 2021]

⁷⁶ See https://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/rsmecs-staff.htm. [February 2021]

lies’ balance sheets, pensions, income, and demographic characteristics from an area probability sample of households supplemented by a list of samples from federal income tax records of high-income families that hold disproportionately large amounts of assets.

National Animal Health Monitoring System Program Unit, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA

The Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture established the National Animal Health Monitoring System Program Unit (NAHMS) in 1983 to collect, analyze, and disseminate data on animal health, management, and productivity across the United States.⁷⁷ The NAHMS staff conduct national studies on the health and health management of U.S. domestic livestock and poultry populations. Each animal group is studied at regular intervals, providing up-to-date and trend information needed to monitor animal health, support trade decisions, assess research and product development needs, answer questions for consumers, and set policy.

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⁷⁷ See https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/monitoring-and-surveillance/nahms/about. [February 2021]

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