The Obama Administration announced this morning its budget request for Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13), which begins October 1. The table below has the request number for 13 federal statistical agencies along with their FY10, FY11, and FY12 budgets.
|
Agency
|
FY10
|
FY11
|
FY12
|
FY13 request
|
| |
BEA |
$93M |
93
|
92.2
|
97
|
| |
BJS |
60
|
60
|
45
|
60
|
| |
BLS |
611 |
610 |
609 |
618 |
| |
BTS |
|
24 |
25
|
38 |
| |
Census |
7225 |
11521 |
942.31
|
970.41 |
| |
EIA |
111
|
96
|
105
|
116 |
| |
ERS |
82 |
81.8 |
77.7 |
77 |
| |
NASS |
162
|
156.4
|
158.6
|
179
|
| |
NCES (S+A)
|
247 |
247 |
247
|
248
|
| |
NCSES |
41 |
42
|
44 |
42 |
| |
NCHS |
139 |
138.7
|
138.4
|
162
|
| |
ORES |
28 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
| |
SOI |
|
39 |
40
|
40 |
Levels in millions of dollars; Agency abbreviations listed below
Source:
FY2013 Analytical Perspectives, "Strengthening Federal Statistics" Chapter, p. 346.
1The sources for these numbers is the Census Bureau
Congressional Budget Justification and includes the $55 million transfer from the Census Working Capitol Fund (CWCF) in FY12. Other sources don't include the CWCF transfer and so make the FY13 request increase appear to be 10%.
Overall, the federal statistical agencies do well, with respectable requested increases for BEA, BJS (33%), BTS (50%), EIA, NASS and NCHS. BLS, ERS, NCES, NCSES, ORES, and SOI are flat-funded or see small decreases. The Census Bureau would see a 3% increase. (The steep decrease in Census Bureau budget since FY10 reflects the winding up of the 2010 decennial budget.)
According to the
DOT FY13 budget request documentation, the BTS budget “includes $3 million for the re-establishment of a National Long distance Travel Data Program, $2 million for a Safety Data and Analysis Initiative, and $8 million for the Freight Statistics Program.” It also restores the $1.8 million (6.7%) cut to BTS's FY12 budget (from the FY11 level).
The NASS requested increase ($40 million; 13%) includes $21 million for the 2012 Census of Agriculture. The
USDA FY13 Budget document also notes an "increase of $3.4 million for the county estimates program which is offset by operational efficiencies and the opening of the National Operations Center."
In the $23 million (17%) requested to increase the NCHS budget, according to the
HHS FY13 budget information,
$16,450,000 will enable CDC to begin to phase in full implementation of the electronic death records in as many jurisdictions as possible (initial target of 15 to 17 states). The $23,150,000 increase will also support full implementation of new questions on sexual orientation into the full National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data collection pending the successful conduct of the pretest and the development and implementation of new sample designs for population-based surveys following the 2010 Census, as well as improvements and expansions of data collection methods.
The BJS increase can be attributed to restoration of funding cuts in FY12. The EIA request would make up for a steep cut to the EIA budget in FY11. Indeed, according to the
Department of Energy FY13 Congressional Budget Justification,
the 2013 request restores most EIA data collection and analysis activities, including the 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), that were suspended in FY 2011 and takes steps to modernize and streamline data collection processes; improves the analysis of energy market behavior and the interrelationship of energy and financial markets; and improves responsiveness to customers’ needs.
The largest proposed increases for Census programs are for the quinquennial Economic Census (an increase of $40 million to $153 million) and the 2020 Decennial Census program (an increase of $64.8 million to $131.4 million). The FY13 budget also proposes $55 million for the 2010 Decennial Census Program (a decrease of $51.6 million); $242 million for the American Community Survey (a decrease of $11 million); and $66 million for Geographic Support/MAF-TIGER (a decrease of $15 million.)
According to BEA sources, the $3.9 million requested increase for BEA is for two "initiatives to significantly improve BEA's measurement of the U.S. economy. Quarterly GDP by Industry will provide real-time information on the health and stability of sectors within the U.S. economy. Decomposition of Personal Income will provide an improved understanding of how the business cycle affects U.S. households’ ability to consume.
[I will post Congress's actions on the FY13 budget in a separate blog entry, similar to what I did for FY12, to be created upon Congress's first actions on the statistical agency FY13 budgets.]
See also:
Statistical Agency abbreviations
BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis
BJS Bureau of Justice Statistics
BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics
BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics
ERS Economic Research Service
EIA Energy Information Administration
NASS National Agricultural Statistics Service
NCES National Center for Education Statistics
NCHS National Center for Health Statistics
NCSES National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF
ORES Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics, SSA
SOI Statistics of Income Division, IRS