Changes to the Federal Statistical System in October

Government Statistics on Hold: With the rare exception of the Bureau of Labor Statistics recalling staff for the calculation of the September Consumer Price Index, federal statistical work and releases are largely on hold. The Energy Information Administration continues to release publications according to established schedules, and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics continues normal operations because it is funded through the Highway Trust Fund, rather than annual appropriations. The National Agricultural Statistics Service announced it will release the data for five reports in November, including on milk and crop production.

HHS RIF Hits NCHS: Approximately 60 staff were laid off from the National Center for Health Statistics in the department-wide October 10 staff reduction by the Department of Health and Human Services. Initial reports were of 100 NCHS staff being laid off across administrative, management, operations, and research functions. Understanding the extent of the RIFs is difficult because of the government shutdown.

Census Bureau Can Hire Field Staff for Test: The US Census Bureau received a temporary waiver to hire 1,500 temporary field workers for the 2026 Census Test.

More Food Security Policy Support Cuts: After the news in September that the US Department of Agriculture was discontinuing the annual contract with the US Census Bureau for the Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey, we learned in October that USDA also cut an interagency agreement for Economic Research Service staff to work with the Census Bureau and USDA Food and Nutrition Service to analyze policy-relevant questions regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Evidence Act Compliance Body Defunded: The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency learned last month its funding was ended by the Office of Management and Budget. CIGIE was tasked in the Trust Regulation to audit compliance with the Evidence Act, most notably with the parent agencies ensuring the parent agencies of statistical agencies are ensuring the statistical agencies have sufficient resources to carry out the Evidence Act.
Visit the Citizen Science Statistical Product Monitoring Project
 

As part of the American Statistical Association project assessing and monitoring the health of the federal statistical agencies, the project team is launching a “citizen science” project. This project aims to help track changes in federal statistical data releases (e.g., granularity, frequency, timeliness, and other characteristics), which could be improvements or deteriorations.





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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 3-4 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 to be provided with the email query. 
 

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Provide any information you have about the federal statistical agencies, units, or other Interagency Council on Statistical Policy entities. You may also email your information: 2869567f.amstat.org@amer.teams.ms.


 

In July, the American Statistical Association issued a new report called “The Nation’s Data at a Crossroads.” The report is a year two status update of our 2024 project monitoring the Federal Statistical System called “The Nation’s Data at Risk.”

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