Reporting on the Pulse of America – Rapid 

Data Collection and Information Sharing 

Initiatives in the Federal Government

Bob Sivinski

Office of Management and Budget
Contents

• Household Pulse Survey. Foundation For a Rapid Response, 

High-Frequency Household Data System

• School Pulse Panel and Development of a Rapid Response 

Data Collection System for Establishment Studies - Design, 

Challenges, and Accomplishments

• Leveraging Commercial Online Survey Panels for Timely and 

Actionable Health Statistics

• Issues in Common: motivation, governance, and 

communication

This presentation does provide new OMB guidance or 

interpret exiting guidance.
Household Pulse Survey

• Large gap between partial and complete response rate 

indicates importance of controlling burden.

• How many of you noticed the 

“experimental data ” icon?

• Scope: Prevent erosion in demand for traditional products.
School Pulse Panel

• Money can’t buy everything!

• Content reflects methodological strengths: longitudinal + 

emerging issues. Originally designed as a high-burden 

longitudinal study.

• Importance of “governance” – establishing bright lines 

for process whenever possible.
Leveraging Commercial Panels

• Benefits of having time to plan! Board of Scientific 

Counselors:

“Online panels are particularly desirable for timely estimates for new, emerging, or supplemental 

topics.”

Avoid estimates that can be produced by NCHS’s current cross-sectional surveys.

A risk to NCHS is the production of alternative and discrepant estimates. 

“Online panels are well-suited for generating estimates of change over time.”

“Avoid estimates related to the data collection methods or to willingness to participate.”

“Avoid some subgroup/subdomain estimates.” 

“Online panels can provide information on the performance of new or altered survey questions while 

retaining inference to the general population, to inform decisions about new content or changes to the 

household population surveys.”
Fitness for Use – Meeting Evidence Needs
Governance/Processes

Slippery slopes abound! What are the rules?

• New content – Who are your clients? Who makes 

decisions? Pretesting vs. expert review.

• Burden – saying no, getting rid of old content

• Processing – Optimizing impact, minimizing time. 

• PRA – Public comment, OMB review
Communication – FCSM 
Communication Example – UK’s Office of 

National Statistics

Types of official statistics

The term official statistics includes three types of statistics produced by public bodies:

•National Statistics, which have been assessed by the Office for Statistics 

Regulation as fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics. For a 

complete list of all National Statistics, see the list maintained by the Office 

for Statistics Regulation. Accredited National Statistics use the following 

quality mark:

•Experimental statistics, which are newly developed or innovative statistics. These are 

published so that users and stakeholders can be involved in the assessment of their 

suitability and quality at an early stage.

•Statistics that have not been assessed as fully compliant with the Code of 

Practice. A register of de-designated statistics is maintained by the Office for 

Statistics Regulation.
Thank You

Questions?

Bob Sivinski

Statistical and Science Policy

Office of Management and 

Budget

rsivinski@omb.eop.gov

fcsm.gov