The Congressional Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology on Tuesday reviewed two initiatives intended to encourage greater cooperation and coordination among the Federal Government's statistical agencies.
The first initiative under consideration would consolidate the three main statistical agencies into a single entity.
Introduced last Congress as the Statistical Consolidation Act, this measure would create an independent Federal Statistical Service. The Service would incorporate the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Within this statistical service, a Federal council on Statistical Policy would be established to serve as an advisory body.
Participants in Tuesday's hearing expressed mixed feelings on the consolidation plan.
Sally Katzen, office of information and regulatory affairs administrator, said she believes the Office of Management and Budget is already taking the necessary steps to unite statistical agencies.
"We believe there are considerable advances that can be -- and indeed are being -- achieved without reconfiguring the agencies," she said.
Former Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Everett Ehrlich said consolidation would improve the statistical system and allow the U.S. to set statistical priorities.
"A single agency would lead to greater methodological consistency," he said. However, Ehlich cautioned that making such a consolidated agency "independent" is a bad idea because "it would be a political orphan when it came time to fight for budget resources."
Mark Wilson, a labor policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, said consolidation would allow for obtaining better data at a lower cost and improving confidentiality and public trust in the statistical system.
Participants also discussed a proposal that would designate eight statistical agencies as "Statistical Data Centers." Introduced last Congress as the Statistical Confidentiality Act, this bill would establish uniform safeguards for the confidentiality of information acquired for exclusively statistical purposes.
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