Federal Government’s Ability to Collect Accurate Statistics at Risk: Report

The federal government collects critical statistics on everything from employment and health and income, to crime, education, transportation, and the U.S. population. 

Those statistics are used to set policy, to make changes when policy is not working, and to ensure that the people are represented.

Now, a new report finds that the federal government’s ability to continue to produce relevant statistics is “at risk.”

"If present trends continue, future generations may no longer have access to the public information we rely on today,” said report co-author Jonathan Auerbach of George Mason University.

Three Weaknesses Impact Stats Agencies  

The report, “The Nation’s Data at Risk: Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century,” was put together by the American Statistical Association (ASA) in Partnership with George Mason University and with support from the Sloan Foundation.

The authors studied the 13 principal statistical agencies as well as the chief statistician’s office in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

They found that statistical agencies are dealing with weaknesses in at least one of three critical support areas: 

·      Lack of statutory protection to “sustain a high degree of control over how they collect and disseminate trusted statistics.”

·      Lack of support from the cabinet agency or department under which they are housed.

·      A decline in fiscal resources, leading to stretched budgets.

The report warns that methods used to collect important data such as the unemployment rate and information are “outdated in content and methods because of the statistical agencies’ inability to invest in continuous testing and improvement.”

It also blames legal and other barriers, such as the political climate, for hampering efforts to “implement new data collection methods and tap other public and private data sources to sustain quality and timeliness, increase efficiency and productivity, and keep up with policy areas of interest.”

The authors made 15 recommendations, which were endorsed by the ASA Board of Directors.

Census Concerns

The report comes as other researchers warn about an appropriations bill put forward by House Republicans. That legislation would omit people in the U.S. illegally from being counted in the census and other federal statistics. Republicans say counting people in the country illegally is “wrong.”

Statisticians disagree.  

“This is ‘break glass in case of emergency’ level stuff,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center, a research nonprofit based in New Orleans. “If the Census Bureau is constrained in the number of contacts it can make, the data will become completely unreliable.”