A House subcommittee this week kicked around the idea of merging the government's statistical agencies.
Under the proposal, known as the Statistical Consolidation Act, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis would be combined into a new, independent Federal Statistical Service. An advisory council on statistical policy would also be set up.
Participants in the hearing on Tuesday before the House Government Reform and Oversight's management subcommittee gave the proposal mixed reviews.
Sally Katzen, head of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said OMB 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," Katzen said.
Former Commerce Department 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, Ehrlich cautioned that the new entity an independent agency 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 at the Heritage Foundation, said consolidation would allow the agencies to obtain better data at a lower cost, improve confidentiality and increase public trust in the statistical system.
Participants also discussed a proposal that would designate eight statistical agencies as statistical data centers. The proposal would also establish uniform safeguards for the confidentiality of information acquired for exclusively statistical purposes.
Neither initiative has been officially introduced to Congress.
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