Support of Federal Statistical System

The ASA actively supports the federal statistical agencies through work with other stakeholders, the ASA Board, and others. This work includes a project to assess the health of the federal statistical agencies. ASA’s support of the federal statistical system goes back to 1839 when ASA’s founders gathered in Boston to discuss how to make the 1840 decennial census better.

Actions

The ASA actively supports the federal statistical agencies through letters, board statements, meetings, and coalitions. See, for example, these webpages

• ASA Board Statements
• Letters organized, signed, and/or sent
• Social media posts by Executive Director Ron Wasserstein on LinkedIn and BlueSky.

Agency Monitoring

The ASA follow closely and reports statistical system developments:

• Tracking the budgets of the federal statistical agencies:
  • FY26 Statistical Agency Budget Developments
  • Federal statistical agency budgets back to fiscal year 2000.
• 2025 statistical agency developments
• Tracking the Heads of the Federal Statistical Agencies

Education and Awareness Building

The ASA also supports the federal statistical agencies through education and awareness building via Amstat News, social media, member communications, media releases, information briefs, and other channels. See, for example, the following:

• Count on Stats, a public relations campaign launched in January 2018 “to advance the federal statistical system and awareness of its far-reaching benefits to our government, economy, and society”
• Policy and Advocacy webpage
• Social media posts by Science Policy Director Steve Pierson on LinkedIn and BlueSky
• New: National Teacher and Principal Survey. This document is a pilot for a proposed project to communicate how National Center for Education Statistics data are used and produced, as well as the background and status of NCES’ data collections. Please send any feedback and suggestions on this pilot or project to American Statistical Association Director of Science Policy, Steve Pierson: [email protected].

Research and Analysis

The ASA regularly conducts research and analysis to inform its support and advocacy for the federal statistical agencies. See, for example, these initiatives:

• Assessing the health of the federal statistical agencies and our inaugural 2024 report: The Nation’s Data at Risk: Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century
• Bolstering Education Statistics to Serve the Nation, an ASA-supported technical paper, November 2023. Briefing paper version
• What Protects the Autonomy of the Federal Statistical Agencies? An Assessment of the Procedures in Place that Protect the Independence and Objectivity of Official Statistics. An ASA-led technical paper. Published in Statistics and Public Policy March 10, 2023.

Special Commissions

Since its founding, the ASA has assembled various panels to address specific issues. For example, in 2020, the ASA assembled a task force to assess the, quality, accuracy, and coverage of the 2020 Census, resulting in the report, 2020 Census Quality Indicators.

• Modernizing the Federal Statistical System. We will develop it as the project evolves.

Other Links

National Academies’ Committee on National on Statistics

Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Programs and Standards (URL will change with each administration)

StatsPolicy|gov