[7/10/14 update: The ASA Submitted its comments July 9. Read the letter here.
11/26/14: Statistical Policy Directive #1 is signed, per an email from U.S. Chief Statistician, Katherine Wallman. See the Memorandum for the Heads of Selected Executive Departments. This will soon appear in the Federal Register Notice (12/2/14) and at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_statpolicy (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-12-02/pdf/2014-28326.pdf).
1/8/14: See also this Amstat News article from January 2015, White House Issues Policy Directive Bolstering Federal Statistical Agencies.]
In a May 21 Federal Register notice, the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) solicits comments on a
proposed new Statistical Policy
Directive affirming "the
fundamental responsibilities of Federal
statistical agencies and recognized
statistical units in the design, collection,
processing, editing, compilation,
analysis, release, and dissemination of
statistical information." Comments are due July 21 and the ASA will be strongly supporting the proposed directive.
The proposed directive, which makes up two of the notice's five pages, delineates four responsibilities of federal statistical agencies and units to "provide a framework that
supports Federal statistical policy and
serves as a foundation for Federal
statistical activities, promoting trust
among statistical agencies, data
providers, and data users." The four responsibilities are
- Produce and disseminate relevant and timely
information.
- Conduct credible and accurate statistical activities.
- Conduct objective statistical activities.
- Protect the trust of information providers by ensuring the confidentiality of their responses.
The first page of the Notice summarizes succinctly the importance of the federal statistical system and protecting public trust in it. The summary, for example, states, "To operate efficiently and effectively,
the Nation relies on the flow of
objective, credible statistics to support
the decisions of governments,
businesses, individuals, households,
and other organizations. Any loss of
trust in the accuracy, objectivity, or
integrity of the Federal statistical system
and its products causes uncertainty
about the validity of measures the
Nation uses to monitor and assess its
performance, progress, and needs by
undermining the public’s confidence in
the information released by the
Government."
The second and third pages of the Federal Register Notice provide an excellent overview of numerous policies (legislative actions and executive orders) currently in place to "to maintain public confidence in the
relevance, accuracy, objectivity, and
integrity of Federal statistics", including:
- Paper Work Reduction Act
- Title V of the E-Government Act of 2002, and OMB's accompanying Implementation Guide
-
The Privacy Act of 174 and the Privacy Act Implementation, Guidelines
and Responsibilities
- OMB’s Circular
A–130
- OMB Government-wide Information
Quality Guidelines
- OMB’s Directive on Standards and
Guidelines for Statistical Surveys
- OMB's Statistical Policy Directive No.
3, Compilation, Release, and Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic
Indicators
- OMB's Statistical Policy Directive No.
4, Release and Dissemination of
Statistical Products Produced by
Federal Statistical Agencies
- The President’s Memorandum on the
Preservation and Promotion of Scientific
Integrity.
The Federal notice also summarizes the guidance provided by the
National Research Council of the
National Academy of Sciences in its document, Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency (the fourth and fifth editions of which the ASA Board has endorsed), the European Statistics Code of Practice, and the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.
The propose directive would apply to the 13 ICSP Statistical Agencies (BEA, BJS, BLS, BTS, Census, EIA, ERS, NASS, NCES, NCHS, NSF NCSES, SSA ORES, and IRS SOI), the Federal
Reserve Board's Microeconomic Surveys Unit, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Behavioral Health Statistics
and Quality (Department of Health
and Human Services), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's National Animal Health Monitoring
System (Department of
Agriculture), and
"Federal statistical agencies and
statistical units newly recognized
after the issuance of this Directive."
In her message to the federal statistical community announcing the directive, U.S. Chief Statistician Katherine Wallman said the "Directive affirms the fundamental responsibilities of Federal statistical agencies and recognized statistical units in the design, collection, processing, editing, compilation, analysis, release, and dissemination of statistical information... [and] is intended to provide a unified, concise framework for governance of official statistics."
To see the COPAFS comments on the directive, click here. AERA's comments are here.
For more on ASA's support of the federal statistical system, please see this ASA webpage, Support of Federal Statistical System.
See other ASA Science Policy blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter.