Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency Fourth Edition (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Organization of the Federal Statistical System
Appendix A: Organization of the Federal Statistical System
Pages 65-90
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From page 65... ...
OVERVIEW Budget Levels and Trends For fiscal year 2008 OMB estimates $5 billion in budget authority for government statistical programs, covering those carried out by designated statistical agencies and by policy, research, and program operation agencies, excluding the 2010 decennial census, which had another $1 billion in budget authority. This estimate includes the more than 100 agencies with direct funding for statistical activities of $500,000 or more, defined by OMB to include not only survey and census design and data collection, but 65
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From page 66... ...
OMB's annual compilation of statistical programs generally includes the entire budget for each of the 14 agencies represented on the ICSP; other agencies determine which parts of their budgets should be included according to the OMB definition of statistical activities. The nominal threshold of $500,000 for reporting statistical activities in 1998 is $734,500 in 2008 dollars, so that the budget authority for statistical activities may be underreported for 1998 compared with 2008.
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From page 67... ...
Fiscal Fiscal Department or Year Year Percent Agency 1998 2008 Changea Agriculture Economic Research Service* 103.0 77.4 –25 National Agricultural Statistics Service*
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From page 68... ...
2,046.2 2,088.8 +2 Other agencies 2,006.1 2,869.5 +43 TOTAL, including decennial census 4,607.6 5,962.4 +29 Major statistical agencies (starred above) 2,601.5 3,092.9 +19 Other agencies 2,006.1 2,869.5 +43 NOTES: Amounts represent actual and estimated direct budget authority for 1998 and 2008, respectively.
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From page 69... ...
In dollar terms, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Center for Health Statistics dedicate the largest amounts of their budgets to purchasing statistical services; by percentage of budget authority, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Science Resources Statistics Division, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the National Center for Health Statistics are the largest users of purchased services. These patterns have remained roughly constant over the past decade (see U.S.
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From page 70... ...
There are other such examples of consequential statistics throughout government and the economy. Some statistical programs may lack clear-cut links to public and private sector financial outlays, but they nonetheless serve other important purposes: • Providing information to inform policy makers and the public about the social and economic health of the nation, states, and localities -- for example, the Bureau of Economic Analysis provides estimates of gross domestic product not only for the nation each quarter, but also for states and metropolitan areas each year, and the Census Bureau's American Community Survey provides estimates of educational attainment, median income, immigration, poverty, and many other characteristics for large and small geographic areas annually.
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From page 71... ...
. Figure A-1 shows the major statistical programs in the executive branch of government by cabinet department: about 100 agencies or offices with statistical activities that have at least $500,000 direct budget authority in fiscal year 2008 (counting each NIH institute or center as a separate agency)
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From page 72... ...
Department of Homeland Security Statistics, National Science Foundation • Other offices and programs FIGURE A-1 Organization of principal federal statistical agencies and programs, by department, fiscal year 2008. • Member, Interagency Council on Statistical Policy.
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From page 73... ...
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, provides guidance to OIRA desk officers who review statistical information requests from other federal agencies, and coordinates U.S. participation in international statistical activities.
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From page 74... ...
74 principles and practices for a federal statistical agency FIGURE A-2 Members of the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy: Organizational Location and Relevant Congressional Appropriations Subcommittee based on subcommittee jurisdictions in the 110th Congress.
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From page 75... ...
and OMB publications -- on 13 of the 14 members of the ICSP, excluding only the Office of Environmental Information in the Environmental Protection Agency, which is not a self-contained statistical unit. The information provided for the 13 agencies includes origins, authorizing legislation or other authority, status of head (presidential appointee, career senior executive service official)
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From page 76... ...
Data collection for most BJS surveys is conducted by the Census Bureau or private contractors. OMB estimates that 86 percent of BJS's 2009 budget authority will be spent on purchased services (the same percentage as a decade earlier)
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From page 77... ...
Contractual arrangements with the Census Bureau support collection of several programs, including the Current Population Survey (the source of monthly unemployment statistics) and the Consumer Expenditure Survey (the source of market baskets for the Consumer Price Index)
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From page 78... ...
RITA 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 now a career senior executive service appointee who reports to the head of RITA; prior to 2004, the director was a presidential appointee with a fixed term of 4 years who reported directly to the Secretary of Transportation.
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From page 79... ...
The Census Bureau has a substantial portfolio of reimbursable work for other agencies, which is primarily for the conduct of surveys, such as the Current Population Survey, the American Housing Survey, the Consumer Expenditure Survey, and many others. OMB estimates that reimbursable work will account for almost $250 million of the Bureau's fiscal year 2009 budget, which represents more than 50 percent of its budget authority
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From page 80... ...
. The administrator of ERS is a career senior executive service appointee; the agency has a staff of about 430 (a decrease from about 510 in 1998)
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From page 81... ...
, along with ERS, reports to the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics in USDA. The administrator of NASS is a career senior executive service appointee; NASS has about 1,100 staff (about the same number as in 1998)
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From page 82... ...
to oversee the physical security of the reports and to provide expert judgment on crop forecasts. A USDA reorganization in 1961 led to the creation of the Statistical Reporting Service, known today as the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
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From page 83... ...
NCES contracts for a substantial portion of its work, including not only data collection, but also data analysis and preparation of reports. In 2009, 97 percent of its estimated budget authority will be used for data and analysis from state agencies, the Census Bureau, and private contractors (about the same percentage as a decade ago)
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From page 84... ...
In 2009, according to OMB, 76 percent of NCHS's estimated budget authority will be used to purchase data collection and reporting services from state and local governments, the Census Bureau, and private contractors (slightly more than a decade earlier)
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From page 85... ...
. Its director is a career senior executive service appointee; it has a staff of about 50 people (comparable information is not available for 1998)
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From page 86... ...
It also provides periodic data derived from other returns and schedules, such as estate and gift tax returns and schedules of gains and losses from sales of capital assets. SOI data are available to staff in the Department of the Treasury and the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation for policy analysis and revenue estimation, and to the Congressional Budget office for modeling Social Security and Medicare programs. Selected tax return data are also available, under strict confidentiality protection provisions, for use by the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the National Agricultural Statistics Service in conducting business and agriculture censuses and surveys and producing the National
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From page 87... ...
OTHER MAJOR STATISTICAL PROGRAMS This section lists and briefly describes six major statistical programs that are conducted or sponsored by agencies of the federal government other than the principal statistical agencies. The intent is to illustrate the range of the federal government's statistical portfolio.
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From page 88... ...
The NASS infrastructure is also used for special studies and surveys, such as a recently completed National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (NMVCCS) , which sampled police accident reports in real time and obtained on-scene information in addition to the information reported by the police.
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From page 89... ...
The budget for statistical activities of SAMHSA, which includes not only NSDUH, but also the Drug and Alcohol Services Information System and its associated surveys (the primary data source for information on the nation's treatment system and outcomes) , the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)
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From page 90... ...
It is conducted by the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan. While the PSID's original funding agency was the Office of Economic Opportunity of the Department of Commerce, the study's major funding source is now the National Science Foundation.
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