I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3924
To provide uniform safeguards for the confidentiality of information acquired
for exclusively statistical purposes, and to improve the efficiency of Fed-
eral statistical programs and the quality of Federal statistics by permit-
ting limited sharing of records for statistical purposes under strong
safeguards.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 31, 1996
Mr. HORN (for himself and Mrs. MALONEY) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight
A BILL
To provide uniform safeguards for the confidentiality of in-
formation acquired for exclusively statistical purposes,
and to improve the efficiency of Federal statistical pro-
grams and the quality of Federal statistics by permitting
limited sharing of records for statistical purposes under
strong safeguards.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION. 1. SHORT TITLE.—This Act may cited as the
‘‘Statistical Confidentiality Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSES.—(a)
The Congress finds that—
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(1) high quality Federal statistical products and
programs are essential for sound business and public
policy decisions;
(2) the challenge of providing high quality sta-
tistics has increased because our economy and soci-
ety are more complex, new technologies are avail-
able, and decisionmakers need more complete and
accurate data;
(3) maintaining quality requires full cooperation
between Federal statistical agencies and those per-
sons and organizations that respond to their re-
quests for information; and
(4) Federal statistical products and programs
can be improved, without reducing respondent co-
operation, by permitting carefully controlled sharing
of data with statistical agencies in a manner that is
consistent with confidentiality commitments made to
respondents.
(b) The purposes of this Act are to:
(1) Provide that individually identifiable infor-
mation furnished either directly or indirectly to des-
ignated statistical agencies for exclusively statistical
purposes shall not be disclosed in individually identi-
fiable form by such agencies for any other purpose
without the informed consent of the respondent,
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(2) Prohibit the use by such agencies, in indi-
vidually identifiable form, of any information col-
lected, compiled or maintained solely for statistical
purposes under Federal authority to make any deci-
sion or take any action directly affecting the rights,
benefits, and privileges of the person to whom the
information pertains, except with the person’s con-
sent,
(3) Reduce the reporting burden, duplication
and expense imposed on the public by permitting
inter-agency exchange, solely for statistical purposes,
of individually identifiable information needed for
statistical programs, and establishing safe conditions
for such exchanges,
(4) Reduce the cost and improve the accuracy
of statistical programs by facilitating cooperative
projects between statistical agencies, creating a safe
environment where expertise and data resources that
reside in different agencies can be brought together
to address the information needs of the public,
(5) Reduce the risk of unauthorized disclosure
of information maintained solely for statistical pur-
poses by designating specific statistical agencies that
are authorized to receive otherwise privileged infor-
mation for such purposes from other agencies, and
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to prescribe specific conditions and procedures that
must be complied with in any such exchange,
(6) Establish a consistent basis under the re-
quirements of the Freedom of Information Act for
exempting a defined class of statistical information
from compulsory disclosure,
(7) Ensure that existing avenues for public ac-
cess to administrative data or information under the
Privacy Act or the Freedom of Information Act are
retained without change.
(8) Establish consistent procedural safeguards
for records disclosed exclusively for statistical pur-
poses, including both public input and an oversight
process to ensure fair information practices.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this Act,
the term—
(1) ‘‘agency’’ means any Federal organization
that falls within the definition of ‘‘Executive agency’’
in section 102 of title 31, United States Code, or
within the definition of ‘‘agency’’ in section 3502 of
title 44, United States Code;
(2) ‘‘agent’’ means a person designated by a
statistical data center to perform, either in the ca-
pacity of a Federal employee or otherwise, exclu-
sively statistical activities authorized by law under
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the supervision or control of an officer or employee
of that center, and who has agreed in writing to
comply with all provisions of law that affect informa-
tion acquired by that center;
(3) ‘‘identifiable form’’ means any representa-
tion of information that permits information con-
cerning individual subjects to be reasonably inferred
by either direct or indirect means;
(4) ‘‘nonstatistical purpose’’ means any purpose
that is not a statistical purpose, and includes admin-
istrative, regulatory, adjudicatory, or any other pur-
pose that affects the rights, privileges, or benefits of
a particular identifiable respondent;
(5) ‘‘respondent’’ means an individual or orga-
nization who is requested or required to supply in-
formation or who is the subject of that information,
or provides that information;
(6) ‘‘statistical activities’’ means the collection,
compilation, processing, or analysis of data for the
purpose of describing or making estimates concern-
ing the whole or relevant groups or components
within the economy, society, or the natural environ-
ment and includes the development of methods or
resources that support these activities, such as
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measurement methods, models, statistical classifica-
tions, or sampling frames; and
(7) ‘‘statistical purpose’’ means the description,
estimation, or analysis of the characteristics of
groups without regard to the identities of individuals
or organizations that comprise such groups, and the
development, implementation, or maintenance of
methods, technical or administrative procedures or
information resources that support such purposes.
SEC. 4. STATISTICAL DATA CENTERS.—(a) The Bu-
reau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of the Census
within the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics within the Department of Labor, the National
Agricultural Statistics Service within the Department of
Agriculture, the National Center for Education Statistics
within the Department of Education, the National Center
for Health Statistics within the Department of Health and
Human Services, the Energy End Use and Integrated Sta-
tistics Division of the Energy Information Administration
within the Department of Energy, and the Division of
Science Resources Studies within the National Science
Foundation are hereby designated Statistical Data Cen-
ters.
(b) In the case of a reorganization that eliminates,
or substantially alters the mission or functions of, an
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agency or unit designated in subsection (a), the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget, after consulta-
tion with the head of the agency proposing such reorga-
nization, may designate an agency or unit that shall serve
as the successor statistical data center under the terms
of this Act, if the Director determines that—
(1) the primary activities of the successor agen-
cy or unit are statistical activities specifically au-
thorized by law;
(2) the successor agency or unit would partici-
pate in data sharing activities that significantly im-
prove Federal statistical programs or products;
(3) the successor agency or unit has dem-
onstrated its capability to protect the individual con-
fidentiality of any shared data; and
(4) any statutes that apply to the proposed sta-
tistical data center are not inconsistent with this
Act.
(c) Any agency seeking a successor designation au-
thorized by subsection (b) shall, after consultation with
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget,
provide public notice with an opportunity to comment on
the consequences of such designation and on those deter-
minations upon which such designation is proposed to be
based.
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(d) No action taken under subsection (b) shall in-
crease the number of statistical data centers authorized
by statute.
SEC. 5. STATISTICAL DATA CENTER RESPONSIBIL-
ITIES.—Statistical data centers shall—
(1) identify opportunities to eliminate duplica-
tion and otherwise reduce reporting burden and cost
imposed on the public by sharing information for ex-
clusively statistical purposes;
(2) enter into joint statistical projects to im-
prove the quality and reduce the cost of statistical
programs;
(3) safeguard the confidentiality of individually
identifiable information acquired for statistical pur-
poses by assuring its physical security and by con-
trolling access to and uses made of such informa-
tion; and
(4) respect the rights and privileges of the pub-
lic by observing and promoting fair information
practices.
SEC. 6. CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION.—(a)
Data or information acquired by a statistical data center
for exclusively statistical purposes shall be used only for
statistical purposes. Such data or information shall not be
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disclosed in identifiable form for any other purpose with-
out the informed consent of the respondent.
(b) If a statistical data center is authorized by any
other statute to collect data or information for nonstatis-
tical purposes, the head of the Statistical Data Center
shall clearly distinguish such data or information by rule,
which rule shall provide for fully informing the respond-
ents requested or required to supply such data or informa-
tion of such nonstatistical uses before collecting such data
or information.
(c) Data or information may be disclosed by an agen-
cy to one or more statistical data centers: Provided That—
(1) the disclosure and use are not inconsistent
with any provisions of law or Executive order that
explicitly limit the statistical purposes for which
such data or information may be used;
(2) the disclosure is not prohibited by law or
Executive order in the interest of national security;
(3) the data or information are to be used ex-
clusively for statistical purposes by the statistical
data center or centers; and
(4) the disclosure is made under the terms of
a written agreement between a statistical data cen-
ter or centers and the agency supplying information
as authorized by this subsection, specifying—
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(A) the data or information to be disclosed,
(B) the purposes for which the data or in-
formation are to be used, and
(C) appropriate security procedures to
safeguard the confidentiality of the data or in-
formation.
(c) Data or information supplied to a statistical data
center under an agreement authorized by subsection
(b)(4) shall not be disclosed in identifiable form by that
center for any purpose, except that data or information
collected directly by any party to such agreement may be
disclosed to any other party to that agreement for exclu-
sively statistical purposes specified in that agreement.
(d) Whenever a written agreement authorized by sub-
section (b)(4) concerns data that respondents were re-
quired by law to report and the agreement contains terms
that could not reasonably have been anticipated by re-
spondents who provided the data that will be disclosed,
or upon the initiative of any party to such an agreement,
or whenever ordered by the Director of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget, the terms of such agreement shall
be described in a public notice issued by the agency that
intends to disclose the data, which notice shall allow a
minimum of sixty days for public comment before such
agreement shall take effect: Provided further That the Di-
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rector shall be fully apprised of any issues raised by the
public and may suspend the effect of such an agreement
to permit modifications responsive to public comments.
(e) The disclosure of data or information by an agen-
cy under subsection (b) shall in no way alter the respon-
sibility of that agency under other statutes, including the
Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act, for the
disclosure or withholding of the same or similar informa-
tion retained by that agency.
(f) If information obtained by an agency is released
to another agency pursuant to this section, all provisions
of law (including penalties) that relate to the unlawful dis-
closure of information apply to the officers, employees, or
agents of the agency to which information is released to
the same extent and in the same manner as the provisions
apply to the officers and employees of the agency which
originally obtained the information. The officers, employ-
ees, and agents of the agency to which the information
is released, in addition, shall be subject to the same provi-
sions of law, including penalties, relating to the unlawful
disclosure of information that would apply to officers and
employees of that agency if the information had been col-
lected directly by that agency.
SEC. 7. COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT.—(a) The
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall
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coordinate and oversee the confidentiality and disclosure
policies established by this Act.
(b) The head of each statistical data center shall re-
port to the Office of Management and Budget each disclo-
sure agreement under this Act and the results of any re-
view of information security undertaken at the request of
the Office of Management and Budget or any similar re-
view undertaken on the initiative of the statistical data
center or an agency supplying data or information to a
statistical data center.
(c) The Office of Management and Budget shall in-
clude a summary of all such reports and any actions taken
by that Office to advance the purposes of this Act in its
annual report to the Congress on statistical programs.
(d) The Director of the Office of Management and
Budget shall review and approve any rules proposed under
section 8 of this Act for consistency with this Act and the
Paperwork Reduction Act.
SEC. 8. IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS.—(a) The Di-
rector of the Office of Management and Budget, or the
head of a statistical data center or of an agency providing
information to a center, may promulgate such rules as
may be necessary to implement this Act: Provided, That:
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(b) the Director shall promulgate rules and/or provide
such other guidance as may be needed to ensure consistent
interpretation of this Act by the affected agencies; and
(c) rules governing disclosures of information author-
ized by this Act shall be promulgated by the agency that
originally collected the information, subject to the review
and approval required in section 7.
SEC. 9. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—
(a) DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.—(1) Section 176a
of title 15, United States Code, is amended by inserting
the phrase ‘‘Except as provided in the Statistical Con-
fidentiality Act,’’ at the beginning of the last sentence of
the section.
(2) Chapter 10 of title 13, United States Code, and
its table of contents are amended by adding the following
new section 402 after section 401:
‘‘402. Exchange of census information with Statistical Data Centers.
‘‘(a) STATISTICAL DATA CENTERS.—The Bureau of
the Census is authorized to provide data collected under
this title to statistical data centers (centers) named in the
Statistical Confidentiality Act, or their successors des-
ignated under the terms of that Act.’’.
(b) DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY.—(1) Section 205 of
the Department of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C.
7135) is amended by adding after subsection (l) the fol-
lowing new subsection:
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‘‘(m)(1) The Administrator shall designate an organi-
zational unit to conduct statistical activities pertaining to
energy end use consumption information. Using proce-
dures authorized by the Statistical Confidentiality Act, the
Administrator shall ensure the security, integrity, and con-
fidentiality of the information that has been submitted (1)
in identifiable form and (2) supplied exclusively for statis-
tical purposes either directly to the Administration or by
other government agencies. To carry out this section, the
Administrator shall establish procedures for the disclosure
of these data to statistical data centers for statistical pur-
poses only consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act
and the Statistical Confidentiality Act.
‘‘(2)(A) A person may not publish, cause to be pub-
lished, or otherwise communicate, statistical information
designated in section (m)(1) in a manner that identifies
any respondent.
‘‘(B) A person may not use statistical information
designated in section (m)(1) for a non-statistical purpose.
‘‘(C) The identity of a respondent who supplies, or
is the subject of, information collected for statistical pur-
poses—
‘‘(i) may not be disclosed through any process,
including disclosure through legal process, unless the
respondent consents in writing:
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‘‘(ii) may not be disclosed to the public, unless
information has been transformed into a statistical
or aggregate form that dose not allow the identifica-
tion of the person who supplied the information or
who is the subject of that information; and
‘‘(iii) may not, without the written consent of
the respondent, be admitted as evidence or used for
any purpose in an action, suit, or other judicial or
administrative proceeding.
‘‘(D) Any person, who violates subsections (2) (A),
(B), or (C), upon conviction, shall be fined under title 18,
United States Code, imprisoned not more than one year,
or both.
‘‘(E) For purposes of this subsection:
‘‘(i) ‘‘Person’’ has the meaning given the term
in section 1 of title 1 of the United States Code but
also includes a local, state, or Federal entity or offi-
cer or employee of a local, state, or Federal entity.
‘‘(ii) ‘‘Statistical activities’’, ‘‘identifiable form’’,
‘‘statistical purpose’’, ‘‘nonstatistical purpose’’, and
‘‘respondent’’ have meaning given terms in section 3
of the Statistical Confidentiality Act.
‘‘(3) Statistical information designated in sec-
tion (m)(1) is exempt from disclosure under sections
205(f) and 407 of the Department of Energy Orga-
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nization Act, and sections 12, 20, and 59 of the
Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, or any
other law which requires disclosure of that informa-
tion.
(2) Section 205(f) of the Department of Organization
Energy Act (42 U.S.C. 7135) is amended by inserting ‘‘,
excluding information designated solely for statistical pur-
poses under subsection (m)(1),’’ after ‘‘analysis’’.
(3) Section 407 of the Department of Energy Organi-
zation Act (42 U.S.C. 7177a) is amended by inserting ‘‘,
excluding information designated solely for statistical pur-
poses under section (m)(1),’’ after ‘‘information’’.
(4) The Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974
is amended—
(A) in section 12(15 U.S.C. 771), by adding
after subsection (f) the following new subsection:
‘‘(g) This section does not apply to information des-
ignated solely for statistical purposes under section
205(m)(1) of the Department of Energy Organization
Act.’’
(B) in section 20(a)(3) (15 U.S.C. 779), by in-
serting ‘‘, excluding information designated solely for
statistical purposes under section (m)(1) of the De-
partment of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C.
7135)’’ after ‘‘information’’; and
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(C) in section 59 (15 U.S.C. 790h), by insert-
ing ‘‘, excluding information designated solely for
statistical purposes under section (m)(1) of the De-
partment of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C.
7135)’’ after ‘‘information’’.
(c) DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERV-
ICES.—Section 306 of the Public Health Service Act (12
U.S.C. 242k) is amended by adding at the end the follow-
ing new subsection:
‘‘(o) SHARING OF IDENTIFYING INFORMATION FOR
STATISTICAL PURPOSES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director may, subject
to the provisions of paragraph (2), designate as an
agent of the Center, within the meaning of section
3(b) of the Statistical Confidentiality Act, an indi-
vidual—
‘‘(A) who is not otherwise an employee, of-
ficial, or agent of the Center; and
(B) who enters into a written agreement
with the Director specifying terms and condi-
tions for sharing of statistical information.
‘‘(2) EFFECT OF DESIGNATION.—An individual
designated as an agent of the Center pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall be subject to all restrictions on
the use and disclosure of statistical information ob-
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tained by the individual under the agreement speci-
fied in paragraph (1)(B), and to all civil and crimi-
nal penalties applicable to violations of such restric-
tions, including penalties under 18 U.S.C. 1905,
that would apply to the individual if an employee of
the Center.’’
(d) DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.—Chapter 1 of title 29,
United States Code, is amended by inserting the following
new section after section 2b:
‘‘SEC. 2c. Designation of Bureau of Labor Statistics
Agents. The Commissioner of Labor Statistics shall be au-
thorized to designate agents, as defined in section 3(b) of
the Statistical Confidentiality Act.’’
(e) NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. Section 1873
of title 42, United States Code, is amended by striking
the paragraph following the catchline of subsection (i) and
substituting the following paragraph: ‘‘Information sup-
plied to the Foundation or its contractor in survey forms,
questionnaires or similar instruments for purposes of sub-
section (a)(5) or (a)(6) of section 1862 of this title by
an individual, by an industrial or commercial organization,
or by an educational or academic institution when the in-
stitution has received a pledge of confidentiality from the
Foundation, may not be disclosed to the public unless the
information has been transformed into statistical or ab-
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stract formats that do not allow the identification of the
supplier. Such information shall be used in identifiable
form only for statistical purposes as defined in the Statis-
tical Confidentiality Act. The names of individuals and or-
ganizations supplying such information may not be dis-
closed to the public.’’
and by renumbering subsection (j) as subsection (k) and
inserting the following new subsection after subsection (i):
‘‘(j) OBLIGATIONS
OF OTHER RESEARCHERS.—In
support of functions authorized by subsection (a)(5) or
(a)(6) of section 1862 of this title, the Foundation may
designate, at its discretion, authorized persons, including
employees of Federal, state or local agencies (including
local educational agencies) and employees of private orga-
nizations, who may have access, for exclusively statistical
purposes as defined in the Statistical Confidentiality Act,
to identifiable information collected pursuant to subsection
(a)(5) or (a)(6) of section 1862 of this title. No such per-
son may—
(1) publish information collected pursuant to
subsection (a)(5) or (a)(6) of section 1862 of this
title in such a manner that either an individual, an
industrial or commercial organization, or an edu-
cational or academic institution that has received a