Data Agencies Propose Increases For 2009 As They Cope With Cuts

Still coping with reduced spending levels for major programs in the current fiscal year, the three major federal statistical agencies are proposing increased funding for fiscal year 2009, as spelled out in the Bush administration’s fiscal 2009 budget submitted to Congress on Feb. 4.

All three agencies continue to work out how to adjust their spending this year in keeping with reduced appropriations that resulted from passage of the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2764) or omnibus bill in December.

Both the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau, part of the Commerce Department, saw their budget requests for the current fiscal year reduced in the omnibus bill, with the result that there is no funding for continuing development of the research and development statistics at BEA or service sector expansion at Census.

In the case of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the Labor Department, funding for fiscal 2008 failed to provide for sample updates to the consumer price index for the second consecutive year.  In response to the lower appropriations level, BLS announced it was forced to reduce the survey sample for the current employment statistics program, the national compensation survey, and international price data.  Plus, BLS has instituted a freeze on hiring and discretionary spending, including training for staff.

“The quality and quantity of some BLS data will be diminished, as fewer resources are available to collect and review data or to perform data analysis.  This will result in lowered response rates, fewer published estimates, and a loss of detail in many data series.  The reduced funding level also will result in a decline in customer service, as fewer federal and state staff will be accessible to respond to data inquiries from the public, other federal government agencies, and Congress,” BLS said in a statement posted on its website shortly after President Bush signed the consolidated appropriations bill on Dec. 26.

BEA Seeks R&D Funding, Health Care Improvements

The fiscal 2008 appropriations package provided BEA with a total of $77.5 million, about $4 million less than requested in the president’s budget.  An R&D measurement improvement was not funded, putting that project on hold.

As they continue to evaluate how the reduced spending level will affect other programs, BEA officials said the agency has cut discretionary spending for the rest of this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.  Officials said that in deciding how to absorb the funding cuts, they must work within parameters that do not impact the agency’s core mission, which includes data that are part of the gross domestic product, are required by law, or used to implement federal programs.

The consolidated appropriations bill for 2008 calls on BEA to “expand and improve timeliness of regional data to benefit state and local officials and economic development organizations.”  Agency officials said this will include developing gross metropolitan product data and accelerating the availability of county-level income data.  Also, the legislation directs BEA to study the economic effects of off-shoring; techniques for improving the measurement of intangible assets in the national income and product accounts; and the effects of data collection methods on the estimates of economic growth, domestic manufacturing output, and productivity.

Under the proposed budget for fiscal 2009, which begins on Oct. 1, 2008,  BEA’s funding level would increase by $9.8 million from 2008 to a total of  $86.9 million.  This proposed increase includes funding for the annual cost of living adjustment, $2.5 million for the R&D initiative that was not funded in 2008, and $3.2 million for an initiative to more accurately measure health care in BEA’s economic statistics.

Census Bureau Asks For SIPP, Services Data Increases

The fiscal 2008 omnibus bill provided a total of $1.2 billion, which includes $202.8 million for salaries and expenses (including $151.8 million for current economic programs), and about $1 billion for its periodic censuses.  While the agency said the funding level is “sufficient to carry on the operations of all our current statistics programs,” it was not enough to allow for the proposed expansion of service sector data that would have begun in the current fiscal year, according to Thomas Mesenbourg, associate director for economic programs at Census.

Congressional action resulted in a redirection of the $8.1 million proposed in the 2008 budget for the service sector initiative to the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Mesenbourg said.  The proposed fiscal 2009 budget includes $45.7 million to complete the full development of the SIPP, a $21 million increase from the current year. In its proposed fiscal 2008 budget, Census planned to eliminate SIPP, citing a need for considerable expenditures in order to update and improve the measure.  However, Congress directed the agency to continue the program.

The main objective of SIPP is to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the income and program participation of individuals and households in the United States, and about the principal determinants of income and program participation. SIPP offers detailed information on cash and noncash income on a sub annual basis. The survey also collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, and participation in government transfer programs. SIPP data allow the government to evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, and local programs.  For more information, see http://www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/intro.html.

Census’ proposed funding level for 2009 would provide $2.6 billion in discretionary spending that includes $2.1 billion for the 2010 decennial census program. The total also includes $119 million for the 2007 Economic Census and $8.9 million for the Census of Governments, Mesenbourg said. The agency also proposed to spend an additional $8.1 million for the postponed service sector expansion, which would provide for additional quarterly and annual coverage of service industry activity.

BLS Renews Request For CPI Updates, Eliminates Time Usage Survey

The current year’s funding total for the BLS stands at $544.3 million or $30.2 million below the request.  In addition to postponing the CPI sample updating, the reduced level prompted the agency to discontinue publication of four of the six published service sector indexes in its international price program and to reduce by 5 percent its sample for the national compensation survey, which is used to compute the employment cost index and other measures.

BLS’s fiscal 2009 budget request proposes to eliminate the American time usage survey, started in 2004, which would save about $4.4 million and cut staff by six full-time employees.  BLS officials considered other options for elimination given the tight budget and reduced spending for the current year, according to Emily Barrington, BLS deputy associate commissioner for administration.

The proposed 2009 budget also would cut $1.5 million from the locality pay surveys, a component of the national compensation survey, and would reduce by 9 percent the sample size in the compensation survey, which would impact not only the ECI, but also the employee benefits survey and the locality pay program. 

As spelled out in the proposed CPI increase of $10.4 million for 2009, BLS requests the funding to “implement a more representative and current sample of geographic areas, as well as a continuously updated housing sample.”   Assuming it is approved after being eliminated from final budget bills the last two years, the CPI spending would complete the program’s “conversion to updating the CPI on a continuous basis and would improve the accuracy and timeliness of the CPI.  In addition, the initiative will increase the accuracy of the CPI by eliminating sample bias,” BLS said.

BLS also is requesting an additional $8.7 million for the current population survey (CPS) in fiscal 2009 that would fund “the rising costs resulting from changes in the survey environment,” the agency said.  Also known as the household survey that is one of two surveys yielding the monthly employment report, the CPS sample would have to be cut by 15,000 or 25 percent from its current 60,000.  If the sample were cut by this amount, BLS said it would reduce the accuracy of the unemployment rate and “substantially reduce the reliability of this early economic indicator.”

For BLS’s statement on “Impact of the 2008 Federal Budget on the Availability and Quality of Data” go to: http://www.bls.gov/bls/budgetimpact.htm