Data Agencies’ Budgets Have Some Funding Restored

Funding levels for the federal government’s three major data agencies were increased enough for the remainder of the current fiscal year to allow officials to restore certain programs and, in some cases, to move ahead with planned improvements that had been postponed for key programs.

Like most of the federal government, the three agencies received final approval for the current fiscal year in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, signed by President Obama on March 11.  Two of the data agencies—the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA and the Census Bureau—are part of the Commerce Department’s appropriations and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is part of the Labor Department’s budget.

Officials from each of the three agencies declined to provide details on their budgets for fiscal 2010, which starts on Oct. 1, 2009.  They said they can discuss the proposals after the detailed budget is sent to Congress, which is expected by early May.

BEA’s allocation for fiscal 2009, which ends Sept. 30, totals $86.9 million and it provides funding to restore cuts made to the survey of direct investment and for the research and development initiative designed to yield a new satellite account for the gross domestic product.

Funding for the Census Bureau totals $3.14 billion for fiscal 2009, including $2.7 billion for the decennial census program.  The Census budget also includes $8.1 million to expand measures of the services industries, reflecting requests from both private and public sector data users to continue expanding coverage of services.

The fiscal 2009 budget for the BLS restores funding for the American time use survey, which was proposed for elimination, and provides the requested amount to update two key samples used to construct the consumer price index, an improvement that was proposed but unfunded in the prior two years.

BEA Director Says Funding Allows for Improvements

BEA Director J. Steven Landefeld called the agency’s fiscal 2009 budget “a win for federal economic statistics” that addresses both immediate and longer term needs.  He told NABE News that BEA  “will be able to fund several on-going efforts to ensure our methods keep pace with today’s rapidly changing economy, as well as fund longer-term goals like the R&D and health care satellite accounts.”

“On the international front, the budget contains great news regarding foreign direct investment statistics, as BEA has been provided funds to begin a multi-year planning effort to design new survey tools and begin building a more robust and comprehensive program, including new detail on inward, outward, and greenfield investments,”
Landefeld said.  “Unquestionably, the importance of timely, accurate and reliable economic statistics—particularly in this economic environment—is reflected in the FY 2009 budget.”   He added that the current funding level “reflects the input of our users and stakeholders—groups like NABE—play an important role in this process for BEA.”

The BEA initiative for R&D and health care measures total $5.7 million for the current fiscal year, which was the full amount requested in the budget sent to Congress by the Bush administration in February of 2008.  Other funding this year will enable the agency to avoid reducing the level of detail collected in surveys of operations of multi-national corporations.  Data from these multi-nationals surveys has become an important source for tracking “off-shoring” of jobs and employment shifts between the United States and other countries.

BLS To Update CPI Samples

With the additional funding allocated for the second half of fiscal 2009, BLS has the $10.4 million requested in the last two budget cycles for modernizing the CPI, the nation’s most widely used measure of inflation.  The funding will allow the agency to update two samples used to construct the CPI: the geographic sample used to ensure that the areas in which prices are collected are representative of the U.S. population; and the housing sample used for tracking price change in that component. Both samples are currently based on the 1990 decennial census; and the BLS will now start a process of continuously updating these key parts of the CPI’s infrastructure, using funds from this initiative.

BLS Commissioner Keith Hall said that officials are “very happy about our fiscal situation for the rest of 2009. We will be able to start as quickly as possible on the CPI modernization initiative, keep the current sample size for the current population survey (CPS), and restore the temporary reductions that we took in FY08 and the first half of FY 2009.”

Hall said the agency is also pleased that the current year’s funding allows the continuation of the American time use survey, which was proposed for elimination to offset what was a lack of funding earlier in the year for the current population survey, the monthly survey of households that is one of two surveys comprising the employment report.

 “We do have a compressed time period to spend our FY 2009 appropriation, but I don't believe that will create any problems for us since we need to pay back the Census Bureau for partially carrying us in the extra funding to maintain the CPS sample size. We will do what we can to jump-start the CPI initiative and have a pressing need to update our infrastructure (which can be done fairly quickly),” he told NABE News.
Details of the fiscal 2009 budget for the BLS are available at: http://www.bls.gov/bls/budget2009.htm

Census Ramps Up Preparation for 2010 Count

Gearing up for dress rehearsals for the 2010 population count, Census Bureau officials said that their funding level for the remainder of this fiscal year provides funds for opening, equipping, and staffing early local census offices, hiring regional partnership specialists, and other outreach and promotion efforts.

The Census budget also provides provides $45.7 million for the survey of income and program participation (SIPP) and adds $1.4 million to the base for the current population survey (CPS), which is conducted by Census for the BLS.  The increased SIPP funding provides for a full sample of 45,000 households and will allow for improvements to the current SIPP system by FY 2012, Census said. The added CPS funding, along with $8.7 million added to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, will cover the rising cost of the survey.

Quarterly and annual surveys of services industries, which are still underrepresented in some data programs, will be expanded with the $8.1 million allocated to that initiative in the remainder of fiscal 2009.

The budget also includes $8.1 million to expand the quarterly and annual surveys of service industries.  “Both public and private data users have voiced strong support for expanded quarterly and annual information on services. For example, policymakers responding to the financial crisis have no quarterly or annual information on financial services, real estate, insurance, or utility industries,” Census said.

“In response to urgent needs for this critical information, Quarterly Services Survey (QSS) data for commercial banks will be published in March 2010, 18 months ahead of the original plan.  The QSS will reflect 55 percent of GDP (full coverage of the service sector) by March 2011, six months ahead of the original schedule,” Census said.

In FY 2009, the Census Bureau also received $1 billion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  “This funding will help the Census Bureau conduct a highly accurate census in 2010, with more targeted efforts to reach hard to count populations,” the agency said.