U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

59–010 

" ! SENATE 

114TH CONGRESS

1st Session 

REPORT

2015

114–157 

Calendar No. 277 

QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORTING 

REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2015 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 1868 

TO EXTEND BY 15 YEARS THE AUTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY 

OF COMMERCE TO CONDUCT THE QUARTERLY FINANCIAL 

REPORT PROGRAM 

OCTOBER 22, 2015.—Ordered to be printed 


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Chairman 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

BEN SASSE, Nebraska 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

KEITH B. ASHDOWN, Staff Director 

CHRISTOPHER R. HIXON, Chief Counsel 

PATRICK J. BAILEY, Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

GABRIELLE D’ADAMO SINGER, Deputy Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

COURTNEY J. ALLEN, Counsel 

GABRIELLE A. BATKIN, Minority Staff Director 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Minority Deputy Staff Director 

MARY BETH SCHULTZ, Minority Chief Counsel 

TROY H. CRIBB, Minority Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 


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Calendar No. 277 

114TH CONGRESS SENATE REPORT " ! 1st Session 114–157 

QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORTING REAUTHORIZATION 

ACT OF 2015 

OCTOBER 22, 2015.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. JOHNSON, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 1868] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 1868), to extend by 15 years the 

authority of the Secretary of Commerce to conduct the quarterly financial report program, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill, as 

amended, do pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background and Need for the Legislation ................................................... 1 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 3 

IV. Section-by-Section Analysis .......................................................................... 3 

V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 4 

VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate ................................................ 4 

VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported ........................... 5 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

S. 1868, the Quarterly Financial Reporting Reauthorization Act, 

would extend for fifteen years the authorization of the Quarterly 

Financial Report (QFR) program administered by the United States 

Census Bureau (Census Bureau), which provides quarterly financial data on the manufacturing, mining, wholesale and other economic sectors. 

II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

Federal law requires the Secretary of Commerce to ‘‘collect and 

publish quarterly financial statistics of business operations, organiVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:36 Oct 24, 2015 Jkt 059010 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR157.XXX SR157

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1 13 U.S.C. § 91(a). 

2Quarterly Financial Report, United States Census Bureau (last visited Oct. 16, 2015), 

https://www.census.gov/econ/qfr/about.html. 3 Id. 

4 Id. 

5 Id. 

6 U.S. Census Bureau, Briefing with Committee staff on QFR program, May 21, 2015. 

7 Id. 

8 Id. 

9Quarterly Financial Report, supra note 2. 

10 Id. 11 E-mail from Stuart P. Durst, Jr., Branch Chief, Off. of Cong. and Intergovernmental Affairs, 

U.S. Census Bureau, to Majority Staff, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Affairs 

(Oct. 1, 2015 11:48 EDT) (on file with Committee). 12Quarterly Financial Report, supra note 2. 13 Id. 14 Id. 

zation, practices, management, and relation to other businesses, including data on sales, expenses, profits, assets, liabilities, stockholders equity, and related accounts generally used by businesses 

in income statements, balance sheets, and other measures of financial condition.’’ 1 The QFR program satisfies this statutory requirement by collecting and publishing quarterly aggregate statistics on 

the business financial conditions of United States corporations.2

The information obtained by the QFR program is used to prepare 

national measures of corporate profits and to inform fiscal and 

monetary policy.3

The QFR program has been in operation for nearly seventy 

years. Since 1982, the QFR program has been administered by the 

Census Bureau.4

The QFR program surveys businesses in the industry sectors of 

mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, information 

services, and professional, scientific, and technical service industries.5 These industries comprise thirty-seven percent of the industries in the National Income and Product Accounts, from which 

business data informs the calculation of the nation’s gross domestic 

product (GDP).6 The Census Bureau plans to expand the QFR program to include more industries, including heath care and social 

assistance services, administrative and support services, waste 

management and remediation services, accommodation and food 

services, real estate, and real estate rental and leasing services.7

With this expansion, the QFR program would increase its GDP coverage to sixty-one percent of industries.8

Under the QFR program, the Census Bureau sends a mail-out, 

mail-back survey to a sample number of businesses selected randomly using Federal income tax records.9 A long-form survey is 

mailed out to approximately 4,600 large corporations in the covered 

industry sectors, and a short-form survey is mailed out to approximately 5,000 small- and medium-sized corporations in the manufacturing industry.10 While the businesses that receive the QFR 

survey are required by law to return it, the Census Bureau has not 

levied fines for noncompliance since it began conducting the QFR 

program.11 Seventy-three percent of surveyed businesses choose to 

submit the completed QFR program survey form online.12 The QFR 

forms request information from businesses’ income statements and 

balance sheets.13 Key information items requested on QFR forms 

include sales, operating profits, after-tax profits, inventories, assets, and debt.14


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15 Id. 16Letter from Dennis Fixler, Chief Statistician, Bureau of Economic Analysis, to Bill Bostic, 

Associate Director for Economic Programs, U.S. Census Bureau (Jan. 3, 2015). 17Telephone Interview with Paul Smith, Assistant Director, Flow of Funds Sec., Research and 

Statistics Div., Fed. Reserve Sys. (July 8, 2015). 18Letter from Giuseppe Gramigna, Chief Economist, U.S. Small Bus. Admin., to William G. 

Bostic, Associate Director for Economic Programs, U.S. Census Bureau (Feb. 20, 2015). 19 Id; Telephone Interview with Paul Smith, supra note 17. 

Data collected and published through the QFR program is used 

by several entities, including the Bureau of Economic Analysis 

(BEA), the Federal Reserve, the Small Business Administration 

(SBA), newspapers, trade magazines, researchers, and individual 

companies.15 According to the BEA, ‘‘[n]o other source provides 

quarterly tabulations of a representative sample of mining, manufacturing, trade, information, and professional and technical services corporations—corporations whose profits account for over 50 

percent of total domestic profits.’’ 16 For the Federal Reserve, data 

collected under the QFR program is used for its quarterly Financial 

Accounts of the United States, which provides accounts for the flow 

of funds across large private sectors and quarterly aggregate balance sheets for macroeconomic analysis.17 The SBA wrote that ‘‘the 

QFR is the only viable publically-available source that provides sufficiently current data for [Manufacturing, Mining, and Wholesale 

Trade sectors] to (1) assess how changes in economic conditions impact revenues of firms of different size, and (2) assess the actual 

utilization of and potential capacity to demand credit by firms of 

different size.’’ 18 Both the SBA and the Federal Reserve utilized 

QFR program data during the 2008–2009 financial crisis to analyze 

the financial health of large and small businesses.19

Without re-authorization, the QFR program expires on September 30, 2015. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

On April 28, 2015, Senator Thomas R. Carper introduced S. 

1868, the Quarterly Financial Reporting Reauthorization Act of 

2015. S. 1868 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland 

Security and Governmental Affairs. The Committee considered S. 

1868 at a business meeting on July 29, 2015. 

During the business meeting, Senator Ben Sasse offered an 

amendment, requiring the Census Bureau to report to Congress on 

its data security procedures. The Committee adopted the amendment and ordered the bill, as amended, reported favorably by voice 

vote en bloc. Senators present for the vote on the amendment and 

the bill were: Johnson, Portman, Lankford, Ernst, Sasse, Carper, 

Baldwin, Heitkamp, and Peters. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title. 

This section establishes the short title of the bill as the ‘‘Quarterly Financial Reporting Reauthorization Act of 2015.’’ 

Section 2. Fifteen-year extension of authority for Secretary of Commerce to conduct the Quarterly Financial Report Programs 

Section 2 extends the authorization of the Quarterly Financial 

Reporting Program for fifteen years to September 30, 2030. 


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Section 3. Report on data security procedures of the Bureau of the 

Census 

Section 3 requires the Secretary of Commerce to review all of the 

current Census Bureau data security procedures and issue a report 

of this review to Congress. This report would identify all information systems of the Census Bureau that contain sensitive information and describe any actions taken since the 2015 data breach of 

the Office of Personnel Management to secure sensitive information 

on these information systems. The report to Congress would also 

identify any known data breaches of these information systems 

that contain sensitive information and whether the Census Bureau 

stores any information that would comprise classified information 

if it were to be combined with other such information. 

V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of 

the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill and determined that the bill will 

have no regulatory impact within the meaning of the rules. The 

Committee agrees with the Congressional Budget Office’s statement that the bill contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would 

impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 

VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

AUGUST 31, 2015. 

Hon. RON JOHNSON, 

Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; 

U.S. Senate; Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1868, the Quarterly Financial Reporting Reauthorization Act of 2015. 

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased 

to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Susan Willie. 

Sincerely, 

KEITH HALL. 

Enclosure. 

S. 1868—Quarterly Financial Reporting Reauthorization Act of 

2015 

S. 1868 would extend the authority for the Department of Commerce to conduct the quarterly financial report program through 

2030. Under that program, which will expire at the end of fiscal 

year 2015, the Census Bureau collects and publishes statistics on 

the financial condition of U.S. businesses. S. 1868 also would direct 

the Secretary of Commerce to review the data security procedures 

in place at the Bureau of the Census, and submit a report to the 

Congress within 90 days of enactment summarizing the findings 

from that review. 

Information from the Census Bureau indicates that the quarterly 

financial report program costs about $5 million a year and that 

costs to prepare the report on data security would be negligible. 


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Therefore, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost 

about $25 million over the 2016–2020 period, assuming appropriation of the estimated amounts. Enacting S. 1868 would not affect 

direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do 

not apply. 

S. 1868 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in 

the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would not affect 

the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments. 

The quarterly financial report program, which the bill would extend, requires certain companies to provide survey information on 

their business and financial data to the Census Bureau. Extending 

this requirement would be a private-sector mandate on those companies. Based on information from the Census Bureau, CBO estimates that the direct cost to comply with the mandate would fall 

well below the annual threshold established by UMRA for privatesector mandates ($154 million in 2015, adjusted annually for inflation). 

On July 29, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 

3116, the Quarterly Financial Report Reauthorization Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on July 23, 2015. The bills are similar and CBO’s estimate of the budgetary effects are the same. 

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Susan Willie (for 

federal costs) and Paige Piper/Bach (for private-sector mandates). 

The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 

VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing 

Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by S. 1868 as 

reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted 

is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in italic, and existing 

law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman): 

TITLE 13—CENSUS 

* * * * * * * 

CHAPTER 3—COLLECTION AND PUBLICATION OF 

STATISTICS 

* * * * * * * 

Subchapter IV—Quarterly Financial Statistics 

Sec. 91 COLLECTION AND PUBLICATION 

* * * * * * * 

EFFECTIVE AND TERMINATION DATE; REPORT TO CONGRESS 

(a) * * * 

(b) This Act, including the amendments made by this Act, shall 

cease to have effect after September 30, [2015] 2030. 

* * * * * * * 

Æ 


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