83 FR 1634 - Request for Information

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 9 (January 12, 2018)

The Chief Statistician of the United States and the Statistical and Science Policy Branch (SSP) in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seek to establish priorities and coordinate research efforts across the Federal Statistical System to focus on improving federal statistics. In particular, a priority has been placed on using new techniques and methodologies based on combining data from multiple sources. To support this effort, information is requested on: (1) Current and emerging techniques for linking and analyzing combined data; (2) on-going research on methods to describe the quality of statistical products that result from these techniques; (3) computational frameworks and systems for conducting such work; (4) privacy or confidentiality issues that may arise from combining such data; and (5) suggestions for additional research in those or related areas. While there are regulatory and statutory constraints on combining data within the federal government, the information sought concerns how best to combine data once they are accessed appropriately and successfully. The intent is for the research to inform the adoption of revised statistical standards regarding the use of such combined data for federal purposes, including but not limited to the production of principal key economic indicators and demographic statistical products.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 9 (Friday, January 12, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1634-1635]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00400]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Request for Information

AGENCY: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Office of 
Management and Budget.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The Chief Statistician of the United States and the 
Statistical and Science Policy Branch (SSP) in the U.S. Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) seek to establish priorities and coordinate 
research efforts across the Federal Statistical System to focus on 
improving federal statistics. In particular, a priority has been placed 
on using new techniques and methodologies based on combining data from 
multiple sources. To support this effort, information is requested on: 
(1) Current and emerging techniques for linking and analyzing combined 
data; (2) on-going research on methods to describe the quality of 
statistical products that result from these techniques; (3) 
computational frameworks and systems for conducting such work; (4) 
privacy or confidentiality issues that may arise from combining such 
data; and (5) suggestions for additional research in those or related 
areas. While there are regulatory and statutory constraints on 
combining data within the federal government, the information sought 
concerns how best to combine data once they are accessed appropriately 
and successfully. The intent is for the research to inform the adoption 
of revised statistical standards regarding the use of such combined 
data for federal purposes, including but not limited to the production 
of principal key economic indicators and demographic statistical 
products.

DATES: Submit written comments within 60 days of publication date.

ADDRESSES: All responses must be submitted electronically to the 
following email address: [email protected].
    You will receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt 
of your response, but will not receive individualized feedback.

[[Page 1635]]

    Response to this Request for Information (RFI) is voluntary. Any 
personal identifiers (e.g., names, addresses, email addresses, etc.) 
will be available to the public when responses are compiled. 
Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should 
not be included in your response.
    This RFI is for information and planning purposes only. It should 
not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of 
the Federal Government, the Office of Management and Budget, the Chief 
Statistician of the United States or SSP. OMB does not intend to make 
any awards based on responses to this RFI or to otherwise pay for the 
preparation of any information submitted or for the Government's use of 
such information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bob Sivinski, Statistician, Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Office of Management and 
Budget, New Executive Office Building Room 9257, 725 17th St. NW, 
Washington, DC 20006; telephone: (202) 395-1205 (this is not a toll-
free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The federal government produces a wide array 
of statistical data that are a critical national resource. The use of 
these data are central to our democracy and include: Supporting 
constitutional duties, such as reapportionment of the House of 
Representatives; allocating resources to states, localities, tribes, 
businesses and individuals; supporting good planning at all levels of 
federal, state, local and tribal governments; describing our economic 
wellbeing; providing evidence to address critical problems facing our 
nation, such as opioid addiction; supporting informed public and 
private decision making that will create jobs and improve our 
infrastructure; and creating opportunities for local communities.
    These statistics use well-tested and documented processes that rely 
on censuses, sample surveys or administrative records. However, the 
federal government is facing a number of challenges for these 
traditional methods supporting informational needs of the future. It is 
well documented \1\ that survey response rates are declining, and costs 
are rising. At the same time, data users increasingly demand much more 
timely and granular information, such as local rather than national 
data. To meet the needs of the many stakeholders and policy-makers who 
depend on high quality, reliable federal statistical data, the 
statistical agencies must take advantage of new technologies and data 
sources to both reduce costs and make improvements. We believe there 
are many opportunities to increase the efficiency of the statistical 
system and reduce the response burden on people and businesses.
    The Chief Statistician of the United States and SSP are well aware 
of these issues and are seeking to change the paradigm underlying the 
production of these statistics. The Federal Statistical System must 
adopt new methods and standards to provide statistics that continue to 
meet the data needs of our nation for the 21st century. Given the 
existing environment, an important component of this transformation 
will be based on combining data from multiple sources to produce 
statistical products and information.
    Important work in the area of combining data from multiple sources 
has been conducted; see, e.g. National Research Council (2017; 
www.nap.edu/catalog/24652/innovations-in-federal-statistics-combining-data-sources-while-protecting-privacy); the related information 
provided through: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/CNSTAT/DBASSE_170268; and references cited therein. However, much more 
research must be carried out before the Federal Statistical System can 
adopt these techniques for the production of its key statistics. The 
Chief Statistician is therefore seeking to set priorities and 
coordinate Federal Statistical System resources to focus on such a 
program of continued research and therefore is requesting relevant 
information.

Request for Public Comment

    This RFI seeks to identify published works, current and planned 
research, and descriptions of best practices taking place in private 
sector firms and academic institutions related to combining data from 
multiple sources to produce statistical data and products. The RFI is 
also seeking suggestions for new areas of research that the federal 
government should pursue in order to adopt new methods for combining 
data from multiple sources to produce statistics. These include but are 
not limited to: Computational environments for accessing and processing 
multiple data sources; measurement and documentation of the quality of 
statistical data derived from combining multiple data sources; new 
techniques for harmonizing and linking multiple data sources; issues 
regarding privacy and disclosure avoidance, standards for describing 
the fitness for use of key statistics based on combined data sources; 
and principles for curating and disseminating these new data and 
associated products. In addition, descriptions of and citations to 
papers or projects where data have been combined to do analyses that 
highlight sources of data that may be useful for government data 
integration, or how new data sources can be helpful in assessing how 
federal statistics can be better structured and presented to increase 
their value to the nation, are welcome. Finally, the RFI is seeking 
information on tested best practices related to securing partnerships 
across data holders and providing access to secondary users.
    The Chief Statistician of the United States and SSP plan to 
consider this input in focusing Federal Statistical System research 
efforts, including the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, on 
a program that informs policy and provides guidance on the Federal use 
of data combined from multiple sources.

Footnotes

1. National Research Council. 2013. Nonresponse in Social Science 
Surveys: A Research Agenda. Washington, DC: The National Academies 
Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/18293.

Nancy Potok,
Chief, Statistical and Science Policy, Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2018-00400 Filed 1-11-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3110-01-P