| Overview Statistics
produced by the federal government serve as a base for research in a broad spectrum
of scientific disciplines. Population and vital statistics are central to the
work of political scientists and demographers; employment, financial, and production
data are essential for economists; and information on education and crime is used
by sociologists and psychologists. Responsibility for the collection, analysis,
and dissemination of federal statistics is spread throughout the departments and
independent agencies of the executive branch; each of some 70 agencies and departmental
units annually spends $500,000 or more on statistical activities. Within this
decentralized system that generates statistical information, a more limited number
of agencies have the creation of statistics as their principal mission. It is
these agencies that are responsible for producing statistics on major economic,
demographic, and social developments and trends that are the focus of discussion
in this chapter. In general, the funding levels for FY 2007 that have been proposed
for the principal statistical agencies provide increases over the resources appropriated
in FY 2006. For details of the funding history in fiscal years 2005 through 2007
please see Table 1. The balance of this chapter provides further details on FY
2007 programs. Bureau
of the Census The
Bureau of the Census collects, compiles, and publishes a broad range of statistics
on the population and the economy. Budget authority for the Census Bureau is provided
in two appropriations: one covers current programs, including demographic surveys,
international programs and data on construction, manufacturing, retail and wholesale
trade, services, foreign trade, and state and local government finances and employment;
the other covers periodic programs, including the decennial census of population;
and the quinquennial economic censuses and the census of governments. Table
1: Principal Federal Statistical Agencies
(total
direct funding in millions - includes R&D and non-R&D components) 
FY 2005 FY 2006 FY 2007
Actual Estimate Request Bureau of the Census: Current Programs $196.1 $195.5 $184.1
-Periodic
Programs
548.7 606.4 694.1
Bureau of Labor Statistics 529.0 537.1 563.3
Bureau
of Economic Analysis 72.6 75.3
76.5
Statistics of Income, IRS 38.5 40.5 41.5
National Agricultural
Statistics Service 106.0 110.2 116.0
-
Census of Agriculture 22.4 29.1 36.6
Economic Research Service,
USDA 74.2 75.2 82.5
Energy Information Administration
83.8 85.3 89.8
National
Center for Health Statistics 1/, 2/
109.0 109.0 109.0
National
Center for Education Statistics 2/
90.9 90.0 93.0
Bureau of Justice Statistics 46.7 46.2
59.8
Bureau of Transportation Statistics 26.3 26.7 27.5
Science Resources Statistics,
NSF 31.0 33.0 36.0 Notes:
1/ All funds are from the 1% Public Health Service Evaluation Funds.
2/
Funding levels shown from NCHS and NCES do not include Salaries and Expenses (S&E)
funding from other departmental sources. For
FY 2007,
funding is requested for the Census Bureau’s ongoing economic and demographic
programs and for a re-engineered 2010 Census. For the Census Bureau’s economic
and demographic programs, funding is requested to: (1) develop the collection
instruments and processing systems for the 2007 Economic Census; (2) collect and
process data in the organization phase of the Census of Governments, prepare and
initiate data collection and processing in the employment phase, and collect and
process data for the start of the finance phase; and (3) design a new data collection
system on income and wealth dynamics that will meet the policy and operational
needs of the country and replace the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
For 2010 Census planning, funding is requested to continue to: (1) conduct planning,
testing, and development activities to support a re-engineered 2010 Census; (2)
improve the accuracy of map feature locations for an additional 690 counties;
and (3) continue to conduct the American Community Survey program to provide small
area demographic data on an ongoing basis rather than waiting for once-a-decade
censuses. Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS) The
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the principal fact‑finding agency in the
federal government in the field of labor economics, has a dual mission: to provide
general purpose statistics that support the formulation of economic and social
policy decisions in the business and labor communities, in legislation, and other
programs affecting labor; and to serve the program needs of the Department of
Labor and other federal agencies that use the BLS data and research findings to
administer and evaluate on‑going programs, develop legislative proposals,
and analyze economic and social problems. To meet these objectives, BLS collects,
processes, analyzes, and disseminates data on employment and unemployment, projections
of economic growth, the labor force, and employment by industry and occupation,
prices and cost of living, consumer expenditures, wages and employee benefits,
occupational injuries and illnesses, collective bargaining activities, and productivity
and technological change in U.S. industries. For FY 2007, funding is requested to support
program operations to measure the economy through producing, disseminating, and
improving BLS economic measures, including activities to: (1) begin updating continuously
the housing and geographic area samples in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which
will improve the accuracy and timeliness of the CPI; (2) continue to modernize
the computing systems for monthly processing of the Producer Price Index (PPI)
and U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes (IPP); and (3) expand the Business Employment
Dynamics data within the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages to cover State
level measures of gross job gains and gross job losses. Bureau
of Economic Analysis (BEA) The
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) provides a picture of the United States economy through the preparation, development and interpretation
of the economic accounts. These accounts consist of the national income and product
accounts, summarized by the gross domestic product (GDP); the wealth accounts
that show the business and other components of national wealth; the input‑output
accounts that trace interrelationships among industrial markets; State and regional
income and product accounts; and the United States balance of payments and associated international investment
accounts. These economic accounts provide key information on economic growth,
regional development, and the nation’s position in the world economy. These data
are vital ingredients in major decisions affecting such areas as monetary and
fiscal policy, social security projections, and business planning and investment. For
FY 2007, funding
is requested to: (1) complete BEA’s five-year program to improve the accuracy
and timeliness of the National Income and Product Accounts, including acquiring
and incorporating real-time data into the accounts to provide more current and
reliable estimates and accelerating the release of gross state product and metropolitan
personal income; (2) augment the scope of the international economic accounts
by improving the comprehensiveness of international service statistics; (3) continue
to update the input-output accounts and industry estimates; and (4) improve and
enhance regional economic statistics. Statistics
of Income, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) The
Statistics of Income (SOI) Division program provides for compilation of annual
income, financial, and tax data from samples of tax returns filed by individuals,
corporations, partnerships, sole proprietors and tax-exempt organizations. SOI
also provides periodic data based on other returns, such as those filed by estates,
for estimating the wealth of the living top wealth holders, as well as on various
other tax and information returns and schedules, for producing such estimates
as U.S. investments abroad, foreign investments in the United States, and gains
or losses from sales of capital assets. For FY 2007, funding is requested to: (1) maintain and modernize
tax data collection systems, including developing interfaces with modern electronic
tax return filing systems; (2) implement a data bank repository for SOI and IRS
population file data to more efficiently build longitudinal databases and enable
sub-national estimates; (3) examine means to more effectively mask individual
records to minimize the possibility of identification in the Individual Public
Use Sample files; and (4) modernize and expedite dissemination of data and publications,
including enhancement of products and features on the www.irs.gov Taxstats website. National
Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) The
U.S. Department of Agriculture published its first crop report in 1863, and further
strengthened this responsibility in 1905 by creating the Crop Reporting Board
(now the Agricultural Statistics Board). The National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS) has the responsibility for collecting and publishing current national,
state and county agricultural statistics. NASS collects and reports data on a
wide range of production, inventories, prices paid and received by farmers, costs
of production, farm labor usage and wage rates, agricultural chemical use, and
other agricultural statistics. Beginning in FY 1997, NASS is responsible for the
census of agriculture program, which provides comprehensive data every 5 years
on all aspects of the agricultural economy down to the county level. FY
2007 funding is requested to: (1)
continue restoration and modernization of the agricultural estimates program to
ensure state, regional, and national level agricultural estimates of sufficient
precision, quality, and detail to meet the needs of a broad customer base; and
(2) finalize preparations for data collection associated with the 2007 Census
of Agriculture, including collection of data to measure coverage of the mailing
list and the preparation of all materials for data collection in 2008. Economic
Research Service (ERS) The
Economic Research Service (ERS) is a research‑oriented statistical agency
that provides economic and other social science information and analysis related
to the supply, demand and performance of domestic and international food and agricultural
markets; indicators of food and consumer issues; economic and environmental indicators
of agriculture production and resource use; and socio‑economic indicators
of the status and performance of the farm sector and the rural economy. For
FY 2007,
funding is requested to:
(1) implement
an Agricultural and Rural Development Information System, a comprehensive data
collection and research program to ensure that sufficient data will consistently
be available to monitor the changing economic health and structure of the farm
and rural economies and to assess the economic well-being of farm and non-farm
households in rural areas; and (2) extend ERS’ integrated and comprehensive data
and analysis framework, the Consumer Data and Information System, to include data
on the consumption of food away from home, which will improve the ability of policy
officials to understand, monitor, track, and identify changes in food supply and
consumption patterns. Energy
Information Administration (EIA) The
Energy Information Administration (EIA) collects, analyzes, and disseminates information
on energy resources, production, distribution, consumption, technology, and related
international, economic, and financial matters. EIA produces reports with statistical
time series, projections of future energy trends, analyses of topical energy issues,
and supports the energy information requirements of the Department of Energy (DOE)
and other federal agencies. The primary customers of EIA services are public policy
makers in DOE and the Congress. Other customers include other federal agencies,
state and local governments, the energy industry, educational institutions, the
news media, and the public. For FY 2007, funding
is requested to: 1) fully fund EIA’s three quadrennial Energy Consumption Surveys,
2) maintain on-going core energy data programs and forecasting systems needed
to provide accurate, reliable, and timely data, analysis, and forecasts. In addition,
the request will: 1) increase global oil and gas data and modeling capabilities;
2) redesign key petroleum and natural gas surveys to improve data reliability
and statistical accuracy; and 3) begin scoping and redesign activities on a next-generation
U.S. energy model to replace the current National Energy Model System, to improve
the ability to assess and forecast supply, demand, and technology trends impacting
U.S. and world energy markets. To provide the resources needed for these priorities,
EIA will discontinue operation of the EIA-767, Steam-Electric Plant Operation
and Design Report, which collects design parameters and annual operations data
on steam-electric plant boilers, generators, and cooling systems. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) The
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) monitors the Nation’s health
and use of health services and explores the relationship between risk factors
and disease. Data sources include the Nation’s vital statistics system and surveys
involving personal interviews, physical examinations and laboratory testing, and
information from health care providers. The mission of NCHS is to provide statistical
information that will guide actions and policies to improve the health of the
American people. Data from NCHS include the use of hospitals, nursing homes, physician
services, financial and non‑financial barriers to health care access; the
health of racial and ethnic population groups; infant mortality, access to prenatal
care; death from diseases such as cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS; health insurance
coverage, immunization status, and other measures used to help design and monitor
the impact of programs and policies that affect health and the health care system. For FY 2007, funding is requested to: (1) continue
data collection, analysis, and release for key national health data systems including
the National Vital Statistics System, National Health Interview Survey, National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and National Health Care Survey; (2)
continue gains in timeliness by implementing systems improvements in data collection
and processing; (3) complete efforts to expand the content of surveys, particularly
those addressing the health care delivery system; (4) implement the sample redesign
for the National Health Interview Survey, NCHS’ largest population survey; and
(5) work collaboratively with states and other agencies on upgrading the technology
for collecting data from state birth and death certificates. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) The
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) collects, analyzes and
reports statistics on education in the United States, and conducts studies on comparisons of international
education statistics. NCES also provides leadership in developing and promoting
the use of standardized terminology and definitions for the collection of education
statistics. In
FY 2007, funding is requested to support: (1) on-going longitudinal studies, including
the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of Birth and Kindergarten Cohorts and the
Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002; (2) the Common Core of Data, which collects
information on enrollment, completions, and finances from public elementary and
secondary institutions; (3) the Integrated Education Postsecondary Data System,
which collects information on enrollment, completions, and finances from postsecondary
institutions; (4) the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, a comprehensive
study that examines how students and their families pay for postsecondary education;
(5) U.S. participation in international assessments that compare educational achievement
in the United States with that in other countries; (6) the Schools and Staffing
Survey, which provides information on public and private schools, the principals
who head these schools, and the teachers who work in them; (7) a new longitudinal
study that will follow an eighth grade cohort through the year following timely
high school completion, and (8) expansion of the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), the only nationally representative and continuing assessment
of what American students know and can do, to produce State estimates for grade
12. (For more on NCES, see Chapter 20.) Bureau
of Justice Statistics (BJS) The
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is responsible for the collection, analysis,
and publication of statistical information on crime, criminal offenders, victims
of crime, and the operations of justice systems at all levels of government and
internationally. The mission of the Bureau is to provide accurate and timely justice
data and to support the emerging capacity of State and local governments in the
use of these data for their justice programs. For FY 2007, funding is requested to provide
for BJS’s core statistical programs, including: (1) sample restoration for the
National Crime Victimization Survey to support estimates of annual rates of change
in most types of violent crime; (2) cybercrime statistics on the incidence, magnitude,
and consequences of electronic and computer crime to households and businesses;
(3) law enforcement data from over 3,000 agencies on the organization and administration
of police and sheriffs’ departments; (4) nationally representative prosecution
data on resources, policies, and practices of local prosecutors; (5) court and
sentencing statistics, including federal and state case processing data; and (6)
data on correctional populations and facilities from federal, state, and local
governments. Bureau
of Transportation Statistics (BTS) The
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) legislative mandate covers: 1) The Intermodal
Transportation Database; 2) The National Transportation Atlas Database; 3) The
National Ferry Database; 4) The National Transportation Library; 5) The Transportation
Statistics Annual Report; 6) Statistical guidelines, standards, and research;
7) The Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics; and 8) An information needs
study by the National Research Council (due in 2007). BTS is now within the Research
and Innovation Technology Administration (RITA) of the Department of Transportation
(DOT). For FY 2007, funding is requested to: (1) conduct the Commodity
Flow Survey, a major national benchmark survey of shippers; (2) release monthly
trade statistics on the commodities and mode of transportation used with our largest
trading partners; (3) produce a core set of economic data and indicators including
the Government Transportation Financial Report, multi-factor productivity measures,
the State Transit Expenditure Survey, the Transportation Services Index, and the
Air Travel Price Index; (4) produce and release the National Transportation Atlas
Data Base, a compendium of national geospatial transportation data; (5) provide
statistics in reference reports such as the Annual Report to Congress, the Pocket
Guide to Transportation, the National Transportation Statistics Report, and the
Transportation Services Index; and (6) carry out a national transportation information
needs assessment, a new Congressional mandate to prioritize transportation data
needs and data collections, and estimate their implementation costs. Sciences
Resource Statistics, National Science Foundation The
legislative mandate for Science Resource Statistics (SRS), as stated in the National
Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended, is, “¼to 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 government¼.” To meet this mandate, SRS provides policymakers, researchers and other
decision makers with high quality data and analysis for making informed decisions
about the nation’s science, engineering, and technology enterprise. The work of
SRS involves survey development, data collection, analysis, information compilation,
dissemination, and customer service to meet the statistical demands of a diverse
user community, as well as preparation of the biennial reports Science and
Engineering Indicators and Women and Minorities and Persons with Disabilities
in Science and Engineering. For FY 2007, funding is requested for: SRS’s
participation in a new NSF initiative on science metrics. This initiative will
develop the data, tools, and knowledge needed to develop a new science of science
policy with the goal of reaching a point where the nation’s public and private
sectors are able to evaluate reliably the returns they have received from past
research and development (R&D) investments and to forecast, within tolerable
margins of error, likely returns from future investments. The SRS component of
this NSF initiative will involve enhancements and additions to current SRS surveys
of R&D and the S&E workforce and will include improving the comparability,
scope, and availability of international data, coordinating with efforts in other
nations and international agencies (such as the Organization for
Economic Co-operation
and Development) to deal with similar concerns and with an eye to the globalization
of science and technology. As part of these efforts, SRS will pursue activities
to address a major gap on S&E personnel, which is information about those
in post-doctorate positions, who play multiple roles within the U.S. research infrastructure.
Other improvement activities in FY 2007 include
continuing activities related to the Survey of Graduate Students and Post-doctorates
in Science and Engineering that will lead to ongoing implementation of redesigned
components of the survey on a flow basis after significant pilot and testing activities.
SRS will continue activities examining the present taxonomies in place for describing
fields of study/science. SRS is leading a cross-agency effort to update the 1978
OMB Directive No. 16 - Standard Classification of Fields of Science and Engineering.
Of major concern are developing crosswalks between existing taxonomies and any
potential new taxonomy, developing methods to better include cross-disciplinary
and multi-disciplinary fields. SRS will continue to collect and disseminate breakthrough
data on the characteristics of cyber infrastructure in the nation’s academic and
biomedical facilities. |
