Changes to the Federal Statistical System: Monthly Update

USDA Moves to Improve Data Reliability While Continuing Operational Disruption: The National Agricultural Statistics Service announced plans to expand its farmer survey sample sizes—by approximately 35% for its June 30 acreage report and 10% for subsequent reports—and to add plain-language uncertainty disclosures to its releases, following a record-low producer response rate for the March 2026 Prospective Plantings report. At the same time, the US Department of Agriculture announced that the Economic Research Service and National Agricultural Statistics Service will relocate positions from the Washington area to Kansas City and St. Louis, respectively, executing the July 2025 reorganization plan and the announcement earlier this year of the closing of the USDA South Building. There is widespread concern for the relocations, especially given that ERS and NASS have already lost 28% and 45% of their staff, respectively, since fiscal year 2024.

Mixed Signals at NCES: Slow Rebuilding Alongside Weakened Confidentiality Protections: The National Center for Education Statistics is advertising four positions—three research analysts for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and one for the Condition of Education report and Digest of Education Statistics—which, if filled, would bring staffing to 15, still far below the pre-2025 level of approximately 100. At the same time, a Federal Register notice reveals NCES removed CIPSEA confidentiality protections from the Private School Universe Survey as of May 2025, citing staffing changes—the third NCES survey to lose such protections following similar changes for the National Assessment of Educational Progress and Program for International Student Assessment in the spring of 2025.

House Appropriations Bill Shortfunds Census Bureau and Reintroduces Contested Policy Riders; Other Agencies Flat Funded: The House Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations subcommittee released a FY27 bill that would flat fund the Census Bureau at the FY26 level of $1.49 billion, well below the administration's request of $2.01 billion—a $511 million gap that falls primarily on Periodic Censuses and Programs and would undermine design and testing activities in preparation for the 2030 Decennial Census. The bill also reintroduces two policy riders from last year that were not enacted in FY26: a provision to exclude people without legal status from the 2030 census results used for apportionment and a limit on the bureau's ability to follow up more than twice to obtain a survey response, a change data experts say would hurt the quality and availability of federal statistics. The other statistical agencies in the bill fare modestly: the Bureau of Justice Statistics is flat funded, while the Bureau of Economic Analysis receives a 1% increase. In other House FY27 appropriations bills, the Energy Information Administration, Economic Research Service, and National Agriculture Statistics Service are all flat funded relative to their FY26 levels.

Recent Reports and Working Papers:

· The Value of Reliable Statistics, NBER working paper on the effect of the August 1, 2025, firing of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer on policy uncertainty and macroeconomic outcomes

· Voices from the Data Community: How 2025 Has Impacted Public Data Users

· The Federal Data Field Guide

· The Integrity of Public Access to Federal Data

It is you, the data user community, who are the most knowledgeable and invested, and therefore best positioned to help us track such changes given the number, breadth, and detail of the federal statistical agency products.

We are committed to being as respectful of your time as possible. Beginning later this year, we will send an email query every three to four months asking if you have observed any changes in the statistical agency products you follow most closely. If so, we will ask you to provide us with the details and documentation via a Google form provided with the email query.

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