IB 
Union Calendar No. 486
107TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5215
[Report No. 107–778] 
To protect the confidentiality of information acquired from the public for 
statistical purposes, and to permit the exchange of business data among 
designated statistical agencies for statistical purposes only. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 25, 2002
Mr. HORN (for himself, Mr. SAWYER, and Mrs. MALONEY of New York) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Govern-
ment Reform 
NOVEMBER 13, 2002 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on July 25, 2002] 
A BILL 
To protect the confidentiality of information acquired from 
the public for statistical purposes, and to permit the 
exchange of business data among designated statistical 
agencies for statistical purposes only.
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 be cited as the ‘‘Confidential Informa-
tion Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
As used in this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘agency’’ means any entity that 
falls within the definition of the term ‘‘executive agen-
cy’’ as defined in section 102 of title 31, United 
States Code, or ‘‘agency’’, as defined in section 3502 
of title 44, United States Code. 
(2) The term ‘‘agent’’ means an individual—
(A)(i) who is an employee of a private orga-
nization or a researcher affiliated with an insti-
tution of higher learning (including a person 
granted special sworn status by the Bureau of 
the Census under section 23(c) of title 13, United 
States Code), and with whom a contract or other 
agreement is executed, on a temporary basis, by 
an executive agency to perform exclusively statis-
tical activities under the control and supervision 
of an officer or employee of that agency; 
(ii) who is working under the authority of 
a government entity with which a contract or 
other agreement is executed by an executive agen-
cy to perform exclusively statistical activities
under the control of an officer or employee of 
that agency; 
(iii) who is a self-employed researcher, a 
consultant, a contractor, or an employee of a 
contractor, and with whom a contract or other 
agreement is executed by an executive agency to 
perform a statistical activity under the control of 
an officer or employee of that agency; or 
(iv) who is a contractor or an employee of 
a contractor, and who is engaged by the agency 
to design or maintain the systems for handling 
or storage of data received under this Act; and 
(B) who agrees in writing to comply with 
all provisions of law that affect information ac-
quired by that agency. 
(3) The term ‘‘business data’’ means operating 
and financial data and information about businesses, 
tax-exempt organizations, and government entities. 
(4) The term ‘‘identifiable form’’ means any rep-
resentation of information that permits the identity of 
the respondent to whom the information applies to be 
reasonably inferred by either direct or indirect means. 
(5) The term ‘‘nonstatistical purpose’’—
(A) means the use of data in identifiable 
form for any purpose that is not a statistical
purpose, including any administrative, regu-
latory, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or other 
purpose that affects the rights, privileges, or ben-
efits of a particular identifiable respondent; and 
(B) includes the disclosure under section 
552 of title 5, United States Code (popularly 
known as the Freedom of Information Act) of 
data that are acquired for exclusively statistical 
purposes under a pledge of confidentiality. 
(6) The term ‘‘respondent’’ means a person who, 
or organization that, is requested or required to sup-
ply information to an agency, is the subject of infor-
mation requested or required to be supplied to an 
agency, or provides that information to an agency. 
(7) The term ‘‘statistical activities’’—
(A) means the collection, compilation, proc-
essing, or analysis of data for the purpose of de-
scribing or making estimates concerning the 
whole, or relevant groups or components within, 
the economy, society, or the natural environment; 
and 
(B) includes the development of methods or 
resources that support those activities, such as 
measurement methods, models, statistical classi-
fications, or sampling frames.
(8) The term ‘‘statistical agency or unit’’ means 
an agency or organizational unit of the executive 
branch whose activities are predominantly the collec-
tion, compilation, processing, or analysis of informa-
tion for statistical purposes. 
(9) The term ‘‘statistical purpose’’—
(A) means the description, estimation, or 
analysis of the characteristics of groups, without 
identifying the individuals or organizations that 
comprise such groups; and 
(B) includes the development, implementa-
tion, or maintenance of methods, technical or ad-
ministrative procedures, or information resources 
that support the purposes described in subpara-
graph (A). 
SEC. 3. COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT OF POLICIES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget shall coordinate and oversee the con-
fidentiality and disclosure policies established by this Act. 
The Director may promulgate rules or provide other guid-
ance to ensure consistent interpretation of this Act by the 
affected agencies. 
(b) AGENCY RULES.—Subject to subsection (c), agen-
cies may promulgate rules to implement this Act. Rules gov-
erning disclosures of information that are authorized by
this Act shall be promulgated by the agency that originally 
collected the information. 
(c) REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF RULES.—The Director 
shall review any rules proposed by an agency pursuant to 
this Act for consistency with the provisions of this Act and 
chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, and such rules 
shall be subject to the approval of the Director. 
(d) REPORTS.—
(1) The head of each agency shall provide to the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
such reports and other information as the Director re-
quests. 
(2) Each Designated Statistical Agency referred 
to in section 202 shall report annually to the Director 
of the Office of Management and Budget, the Com-
mittee on Government Reform of the House of Rep-
resentatives, and the Committee on Governmental Af-
fairs of the Senate on the actions it has taken to im-
plement sections 203 and 204. The report shall in-
clude copies of each written agreement entered into 
pursuant to section 204(a) for the applicable year. 
(3) The Director of the Office of Management 
and Budget shall include a summary of reports sub-
mitted to the Director under paragraph (2) and ac-
tions taken by the Director to advance the purposes
of this Act in the annual report to the Congress on 
statistical 
programs 
prepared 
under 
section 
3504(e)(2) of title 44, United States Code. 
SEC. 4. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS. 
(a) TITLE 44, UNITED STATES CODE.—This Act, in-
cluding amendments made by this Act, does not diminish 
the authority under section 3510 of title 44, United States 
Code, of the Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget to direct, and of an agency to make, disclosures that 
are not inconsistent with any applicable law. 
(b) TITLE 13 AND TITLE 44, UNITED STATES CODE.—
This Act, including amendments made by this Act, does not 
diminish the authority of the Bureau of the Census to pro-
vide information in accordance with sections 8, 16, 301, 
and 401 of title 13, United States Code, and section 2108 
of title 44, United States Code. 
(c) TITLE 13, UNITED STATES CODE.—This Act, in-
cluding amendments made by this Act, shall not be con-
strued as authorizing the disclosure for nonstatistical pur-
poses of demographic data or information collected by the 
Census Bureau pursuant to section 9 of title 13, United 
States Code. 
(d) VARIOUS ENERGY STATUTES.—Data or informa-
tion acquired by the Energy Information Administration 
under a pledge of confidentiality and designated by the En-
ergy Information Administration to be used for exclusively 
statistical purposes shall not be disclosed in identifiable 
form for nonstatistical purposes under—
(1) section 12, 20, or 59 of the Federal Energy 
Administration Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 771, 779, 
790h); 
(2) section 11 of the Energy Supply and Envi-
ronmental Coordination Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 796); 
or 
(3) section 205 or 407 of the Department of the 
Energy Organization Act of 1977 (42 U.S.C. 7135, 
7177). 
(e) PREEMPTION OF STATE LAW.—Nothing in this Act 
shall preempt applicable State law regarding the confiden-
tiality of data collected by the States. 
(f) STATUTES REGARDING FALSE STATEMENTS.—Not-
withstanding section 102, information collected by an agen-
cy for exclusively statistical purposes under a pledge of con-
fidentiality may be provided by the collecting agency to a 
law enforcement agency for the prosecution of submissions 
to the collecting agency of false statistical information 
under statutes that authorize criminal penalties (such as 
section 221 of title 13, United States Code) or civil penalties 
for the provision of false statistical information, unless such
disclosure or use would otherwise be prohibited under Fed-
eral law. 
(g) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act shall be con-
strued as restricting or diminishing any confidentiality 
protections or penalties for unauthorized disclosure that 
otherwise apply to data or information collected for statis-
tical purposes or nonstatistical purposes, including, but not 
limited to, section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 (26 U.S.C. 6103). 
(h) AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS.—Nothing in this Act 
shall be construed to affect the authority of the Congress, 
including its committees, members, or agents, to obtain 
data or information for a statistical purpose, including for 
oversight of an agency’s statistical activities. 
TITLE I—CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION PROTECTION 
SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) Individuals, businesses, and other organiza-
tions have varying degrees of legal protection when 
providing information to the agencies for strictly sta-
tistical purposes. 
(2) Pledges of confidentiality by agencies provide 
assurances to the public that information about indi-
viduals or organizations or provided by individuals
or organizations for exclusively statistical purposes 
will be held in confidence and will not be used 
against such individuals or organizations in any 
agency action. 
(3) Protecting the confidentiality interests of in-
dividuals or organizations who provide information 
under a pledge of confidentiality for Federal statis-
tical programs serves both the interests of the public 
and the needs of society. 
(4) Declining trust of the public in the protection 
of information provided under a pledge of confiden-
tiality to the agencies adversely affects both the accu-
racy and completeness of statistical analyses. 
(5) Ensuring that information provided under a 
pledge of confidentiality for statistical purposes re-
ceives protection is essential in continuing public co-
operation in statistical programs. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this title are the fol-
lowing: 
(1) To ensure that information supplied by indi-
viduals or organizations to an agency for statistical 
purposes under a pledge of confidentiality is used ex-
clusively for statistical purposes. 
(2) To ensure that individuals or organizations 
who supply information under a pledge of confiden-
tiality to agencies for statistical purposes will neither 
have that information disclosed in identifiable form to 
anyone not authorized by this Act nor have that in-
formation used for any purpose other than a statis-
tical purpose. 
(3) To safeguard the confidentiality of individ-
ually identifiable information acquired under a 
pledge of confidentiality for statistical purposes by 
controlling access to, and uses made of, such informa-
tion. 
SEC. 102. LIMITATIONS ON USE AND DISCLOSURE OF DATA 
AND INFORMATION. 
(a) USE OF STATISTICAL DATA OR INFORMATION.—
Data or information acquired by an agency under a pledge 
of confidentiality and for exclusively statistical purposes 
shall be used by officers, employees, or agents of the agency 
exclusively for statistical purposes. 
(b) DISCLOSURE OF STATISTICAL DATA OR INFORMA-
TION.—
(1) Data or information acquired by an agency 
under a pledge of confidentiality for exclusively sta-
tistical purposes shall not be disclosed by an agency 
in identifiable form, for any use other than an exclu-
sively statistical purpose, except with the informed 
consent of the respondent.