In contrast to many other countries, the United States does not have a primary statistical agency. Instead, the statistical system is decentralized, with statistical agencies generally located in different government departments. This structure keeps statistical work within close proximity to the various cabinet-level departments that use the information. There are 13 federal agencies, referred to as the principal statistical agencies, which have statistical activities as their core mission. These agencies conduct much of the government’s statistical work, though there are more than 80 additional federal agencies that carry out some statistical work in conjunction with their primary missions. The 13 principal statistical agencies are all attached to a cabinet-level department or an independent agency that reports to the president. As shown in figure 1, they are located at different levels within their respective departments and agencies. For fiscal year 2011, $6.83 billion was requested for statistical work, which includes the collections in our scope as well as work that focuses on entities other than households and individuals, such as businesses and farms. This amount is about 0.2 percent of that year’s total federal budget request. Much of this work is concentrated in the 13 principal statistical agencies, which account for approximately 40 percent of requested funding. The budget request for the Census Bureau is among the highest of the principal statistical agencies. Excluding funding related to the decennial census, the fiscal year 2011 budget request for the Census Bureau was $558 million. In addition to conducting its own statistical activities, the Census Bureau also performs statistical work for other agencies on a reimbursable basis. Most of the collections in our scope have relatively modest annual costs. In a sample of 112 information collections that fell within our scope and were active as of September 22, 2011, the majority cost less than $500,000 annually, and fewer than one in five cost more than $1 million annually. There are a few, more expensive, large and broad-based collections such as the Current Population Survey and National Health Interview Survey, both of which cost tens of millions of dollars each year, and the ACS, which costs over $200 million annually (see fig. 2). Various statutes and guidance from OMB and other entities establish standards for quality and privacy that apply to the federal statistical system. One of the most significant statutes is the PRA, which designates OMB as the coordinating body of the federal statistical system. The PRA establishes requirements that agencies must meet in order to administer information collections, and OMB must meet in overseeing the system, including that it issue guidance to agencies. Other entities also provide guidance to agencies that conduct statistical work. In addition, use of information must be balanced with protection of privacy and confidentiality. Statutes such as the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) apply to the federal statistical system and focus on ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of respondents’ information. Agency-specific statutes also protect the privacy and confidentiality of data collected by those agencies. For example, Title 13 of the U.S. Code authorizes the Census Bureau to request and collect information from individuals but also guarantees the confidentiality of these data and establishes penalties for unlawfully disclosing this information. Additional statutes are described in more detail in appendix III. Under PRA, OMB, through its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has responsibility and broad authority to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal information resources.is charged with the oversight and coordination of federal agencies’ statistical activities. Specifically, these oversight functions are carried out by OIRA’s Statistical and Science Policy Branch, headed by the Chief Statistician, which includes five staff members who work closely on these oversight and coordination activities with approximately 25 other OIRA desk officers. OMB exercises four key authorities that contribute to the efficiency of the federal statistical system: In this regard, OMB Oversight and approval of information collections: OMB generally must approve information collections that are to be administered to 10 or more people. OMB staff review agencies’ information collection requests to determine whether proposed collections meet PRA standards by assessing such factors as whether they are necessary for the mission of the agency and do not unnecessarily duplicate existing information. This review also enables OMB to identify opportunities for improvement. For example, according to OMB and agency officials, if it determines that it is necessary to ask similar questions in multiple collections, then OMB works to ensure that agencies ask them in a consistent manner, when appropriate. Standard-setting and guidance to agencies: OMB is responsible for developing and implementing governmentwide policies, principles, standards, and guidelines related to statistical issues, such as procedures and methods for collecting data and disseminating information. Specifically, OMB issues directives, guidance, and memorandums, and provides additional information through information sessions and presentations, to guide federal data collection and promote the quality and efficiency of information collections. For example, OMB published “Questions and Answers When Designing Surveys for Information Collections,” a set of 81 questions and answers on the OMB review process for agency information collection requests required by PRA.Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys, which outlines 20 standards and related guidelines for the design and methodology of statistical surveys. Finally, OMB issues memorandums focusing on various topics, with recent ones clarifying the guidance for complying with PRA and encouraging agencies to coordinate efforts to share data. Budget development and reporting: Although agency budgets are initiated within agencies, OMB is responsible, under PRA, for ensuring that agency budget proposals are consistent with systemwide priorities for maintaining and improving the quality of federal statistics. In addition to the budgets themselves, OMB reports information to the public and Congress about the identification of key priorities through key documents. OMB annually reports on the paperwork burden federal collections impose on the public in the Information Collection Budget of the United States Government. In addition, OMB annually describes statistical program funding and proposed program changes for statistical activities in the Statistical Programs of the United States Government. Other statistical-policy coordination activities: The Chief Statistician and staff in OMB’s Statistical and Science Policy Branch participate in both formal and informal coordination activities with agencies. OMB’s role and participation in the formal interagency committees are discussed later in this report. In general, it maintains regular contact with staff at principal statistical agencies. Additionally, OMB encourages agencies that are designing information collections to collaborate with principal statistical agencies because they can help improve survey design and methodology. For example, according to OMB and Census Bureau officials, OMB encouraged the Corporation for National and Community Service to work with the Census Bureau and BLS to sponsor a supplement to the Current Population Survey rather than a stand-alone survey. OMB indicated that sponsoring this supplement likely resulted in cost savings, improved data quality, and greater utility. One tool that OMB uses to facilitate its oversight and coordination functions under PRA is an internal system called the Regulatory Information Service Center and OIRA Consolidated Information System (ROCIS), which contains information on all active collections and those pending OMB approval. Agencies use the system to submit information collection requests. This system also facilitates OIRA’s review of the requests and underlies the information provided on the public website Reginfo.gov. Agency submissions to OMB typically include a copy of the data-collection instrument (e.g., a survey) and supporting documentation that, in a standardized form, provides information on the collection, such as the estimated annual burden hours and cost to the federal government. Further, under PRA, agencies must certify that the collection satisfies the act’s standards, for example that the collection avoids unnecessary duplication. Making this information transparent and easily accessible to other agencies facilitates coordination and can potentially help agencies avoid duplication and identify opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, OMB uses the information contained in its internal system to track reviews of information collections, and to compile quantitative data for the Information Collection Budget of the United States Government. Despite the benefits of this electronic system, our review identified some discrepancies between the Reginfo.gov website’s data and the underlying documentation for certain key variables. Specifically, we reviewed a systematic random sample of 56 of the 555 collections in our scope and checked the reported information for annual cost to the federal government and annual burden hours. For 11 of the 56 information collections, the information on cost or burden, or both, did not match between the two sources. In cases where annual cost did not match, the differences ranged from $1,000 to $19.3 million. In cases where annual burden hours did not match, the differences ranged from 30 to almost 500,000 hours. OMB confirmed that the information in the external Reginfo.gov system is the same as in its internal ROCIS system. As a result, these discrepancies raise questions about the confidence that users can have in both the internal and external databases and may affect OMB’s ability to track information collection requests. OMB officials told us that responsibility for ensuring data reliability is shared between OMB and agencies. The Regulatory Information Service Center has issued detailed guidance to agencies on how to upload information into ROCIS, and the system has a function that allows agencies to check the completeness of data for individual information collections to ensure that no required data are missing. Entering this information is not always straightforward, however, and some interpretation of the underlying documentation may be required. The discrepancies that we identified indicate that additional actions, such as edit checks, review by an informed staff member, or increased clarification in supporting documents are necessary to ensure the reliability of Reginfo.gov and ROCIS data. Our analysis indicated that agencies addressed PRA standards related to duplication and public comment in their information collection requests to OMB, and in many cases went beyond the actions specifically described in PRA and related OMB guidance. The elements of PRA most directly related to our review were identifying duplication and soliciting external input on proposed collections.