Notice2023-18313
Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, Release, and Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic Indicators-Proposal To Change Timing of Public Comments by Employees of the Executive Branch
Primary source
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Published
August 25, 2023
Issuing agencies
Management and Budget Office
Abstract
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issues a request for public comments on a proposal to modify one provision within Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, Release, and Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (Directive No. 3). The procedures in Directive No. 3, published in 1985, were designed to ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and timely release and dissemination of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs). The goals of Directive No. 3 remain sound; this Notice proposes updates to procedures consistent with these goals to reflect advances in communication technologies and methods. In particular, OMB proposes to modify the provision, "employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time," by replacing "one hour" with "thirty minutes." This proposed change would reduce the delay after official release time before commentary from employees of the Executive Branch. Additional discussion of the request for public comment may be found in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.
Full Text
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 164 (Friday, August 25, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58316-58318]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18313]
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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, Release, and
Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic Indicators--Proposal To Change
Timing of Public Comments by Employees of the Executive Branch
AGENCY: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President.
ACTION: Notice of solicitation of comments.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issues a request for
public comments on a proposal to modify one provision within
Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, Release, and
Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (Directive No. 3).
The procedures in Directive No. 3, published in 1985, were designed to
ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and timely release and dissemination
of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs). The goals of
Directive No. 3 remain sound; this Notice proposes updates to
procedures consistent with these goals to reflect advances in
communication technologies and methods. In particular, OMB proposes to
modify the provision, ``employees of the Executive Branch shall not
comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official
release time,'' by replacing ``one hour'' with ``thirty minutes.'' This
proposed change would reduce the delay after official release time
before commentary from employees of the Executive Branch. Additional
discussion of the request for public comment may be found in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.
DATES: To ensure consideration of comments on this notice, they must be
received no later than October 24, 2023. Because of delays in the
receipt of regular mail related to security screening, respondents are
encouraged to send comments electronically (see ADDRESSES, below).
ADDRESSES: Submit comments through <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>--a Federal E-
Government website that allows the public to find, review, and submit
comments on documents that agencies have published in the Federal
Register and that are open for comment. Enter ``OMB-2023-0016'' (in
quotes) in the Comment or Submission search box, click Go, and follow
the instructions for submitting comments. Comments received by the date
specified above will be included as part of the official record.
Privacy Notice: Information submitted in response to this RFI will
be maintained in the OMB Public Input System of Records, OMB/INPUT/01
88 FR 20913. OMB generally makes comments received from members of the
public available for public viewing on the Federal Rulemaking Portal at
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. As such, commenters should not include information
that they do not wish to make publicly available, including information
of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or
proprietary information. Please note that if you submit your email
address, it will be automatically captured and included as part of the
comment that is placed in the public docket; however,
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> does include the option of commenting anonymously.
For more detail about how OMB may maintain and disclose submitted
information, please review the System of Records Notice at 88 FR 20913.
Electronic Availability: This notice is available on the internet
on the OMB
[[Page 58317]]
website at <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/">https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/</a>. Federal Register notices
are also available electronically at <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/">https://www.federalregister.gov/</a>.
Instructions: Response to this Notice is voluntary. Respondents may
provide input on any aspects of this solicitation. OMB will not respond
to individual submissions.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about this request for
comments, contact Kerrie Leslie, Office of Management and Budget, New
Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503, telephone (202) 395-
1093, email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a2f1d6c3d6cbd1d6cbc1c3cefde6cbd0c7c1d6cbd4c7d1e2cdcfc08cc7cdd28cc5cdd4"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="64371005100d17100d0705083b200d160107100d120117240b09064a010b144a030b12">[email protected]</span></a> with the subject ``More
Info: Directive No. 3.''
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issues a
request for comments on a proposal to change one provision within
Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, Release, and
Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (50 FR 38932, Sep.
25, 1985) (Directive No. 3), issued under the Budget and Accounting
Procedures Act of 1950 (31 U.S.C. 1104(d)) and the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3504(e)) (the PRA).\1\ The stated purposes of
Directive No. 3 are to preserve the time value of the economic
indicators, strike a balance between timeliness and accuracy, provide
for periodic evaluation of each indicator, prevent early access to
information that may affect financial and commodity markets, and
preserve the distinction between the policy-neutral release of data by
statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials.
Directive No. 3 remains a robust, comprehensive source of guidance for
Federal statistical agencies and recognized statistical units producing
Principal Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs). The government and
private sector widely watch and heavily rely upon these statistical
series as indicators of the current condition and direction of the
economy.
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\1\ The full text of Directive No. 3 is available at
<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_files/omb/assets/OMB/inforeg/statpolicy/dir_3_fr_09251985.pdf">www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_files/omb/assets/OMB/inforeg/statpolicy/dir_3_fr_09251985.pdf</a>.
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The procedures in Directive No. 3, published in 1985, were designed
to ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and timely release and
dissemination of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (``PFEIs''). The
goals of Directive No. 3 remain sound, and this Notice does not seek to
change them. Specifically, in furtherance of these goals, we are
proposing to retain the requirement that some period of time needs to
elapse between the policy-neutral release of the data and the public
interpretation of such data by policy officials in the Executive
Branch. More background and history on the policies of Directive No. 3
can be found in the April 2019 Federal Register Notice (84 FR 14682,
Apr. 11, 2019) (April 2019 FRN), available at <a href="http://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/11/2019-07172/statistical-policy-directive-no-3-compilation-release-and-evaluation-of-principal-federal-economic">www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/11/2019-07172/statistical-policy-directive-no-3-compilation-release-and-evaluation-of-principal-federal-economic</a>.
Previous proposal. In April 2019, OMB published in the Federal
Register a request for comments on a proposal to reduce the duration of
the prohibition of commentary by employees of the Executive Branch
following the PFEI release from one hour to something shorter,
including the consideration of the option of having no delay at all (84
FR 14682, Apr. 11, 2019). OMB received sixteen in-scope comments in
response to that Notice.\2\ All in-scope commenters strongly supported
either a retention of the one-hour delay, or a delay of some duration,
after official release time before employees of the Executive Branch
could comment on the PFEI releases, with no commenters in support of
removing the delay entirely.
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\2\ Public comments received in response to the April 2019 FRN
are available at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2019-0001-0001/comment">www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2019-0001-0001/comment</a>.
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Updated proposal. OMB agrees with the previous comments on this
issue submitted in 2019, and understands that maintaining some delay as
part of Directive No. 3 continues to be important to maintain the
bright line between the release of data and any commentary on such data
by Executive Branch officials. OMB is seeking public comment on the
updated proposal that would modify the delay from one hour to thirty
minutes. OMB is considering this updated proposal because, while the
delay is important to ensuring a clear bright line between the data
release and the Executive Branch's policy interpretation, OMB also
understands that since 1985 there have been many changes in the way we
communicate within and across society, as well as in how the relevant
agencies disseminate information. For example, in addition to more
traditional means of dissemination (e.g., newspaper or radio), agencies
now disseminate and society interacts with data releases through the
internet, including through websites, social media platforms, and other
applications. These newer dissemination platforms in particular offer
nearly instantaneous access to any information supplied by the agencies
producing the PFEI data, including the data releases. These platforms
can also offer direct attribution of the data to the agencies that
produce it; these agencies are required to meet data quality standards
and are trusted to implement those requirements. These advances in the
timing and attribution of dissemination can contribute to the ability
of society to fully digest the data releases sooner than when such
dissemination methods were not available.
In addition, society generally communicates and interacts
differently now than in 1985. In particular, various platforms exist
now that allow society to interact seconds after a new data release
comes out. This means that for these PFEI data releases, non-
governmental actors are engaging in dialogue almost immediately
following the official release time and can be offering perspectives on
the meaning of the data. Under the current Directive No. 3, this
dialogue is missing any Executive Branch interpretation until at least
one hour after the data's official release time. Under this proposal to
reduce the delay to thirty minutes, Executive Branch officials could
enter the dialogue thirty minutes earlier. OMB is considering the
proposed change because we believe it is likely to lead to a more
robust discussion without compromising the underlying principles of
Directive No. 3, including the benefits of having some time delay.
OMB is not considering any other alternatives in this proposal;
this means that OMB is neither considering removing the delay entirely,
nor is it considering any other changes to any other policies in
Directive No. 3. OMB proposes changing the italicized text in the
excerpt from Directive No. 3 below, which is part of the last paragraph
of Section 5 of Directive No. 3 \3\:
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\3\ The full text of Directive No. 3 is available at
<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_files/omb/assets/OMB/inforeg/statpolicy/dir_3_fr_09251985.pdf">www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_files/omb/assets/OMB/inforeg/statpolicy/dir_3_fr_09251985.pdf</a>.
5. Release Procedure. * * * Except for the authorized
distribution described in this section, agencies shall ensure that
no information or data estimates are released before the official
release time.
The agency will provide prerelease information to the President,
through the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, as soon as
it is available. The agency may grant others prerelease access only
under the following conditions:
(a) The agency head must establish whatever security
arrangements are necessary and impose whatever conditions on the
granting of access are necessary to ensure that there is no
unauthorized dissemination or use.
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(b) The agency head shall ensure that any person granted access
has been fully informed of and agreed to these conditions.
(c) Any prerelease of information under an embargo shall not
precede the official release time by more than 30 minutes.
(d) In all cases, prerelease access shall precede the official
release time only to the extent necessary for an orderly review of
the data.
All employees of the Executive Branch who receive prerelease
distribution of information and data estimates as authorized above
are responsible for assuring that there is no release prior to the
official release time. Except for members of the staff of the agency
issuing the principal economic indicator who have been designated by
the agency head to provide technical explanations of the data,
employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the
data until at least one hour after the official release time.
Under OMB's proposal, the italicized text would be changed to ``at
least thirty minutes after the official release time.''
Any changes to the text from Section 5 would neither affect nor
replace any of the other standards and guidelines articulated in
Directive No. 3.
Request for comments. OMB seeks comments from all interested
parties, including data users, businesses, organizations, and the
media. Specifically, OMB seeks comments from the public about the
proposal to change the delay from one hour to thirty minutes, including
whether such a change could still meet the goals of Directive No. 3 to
ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and timely release and dissemination
of PFEIs. OMB also seeks input on whether to maintain the one-hour
delay.
Richard L. Revesz,
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2023-18313 Filed 8-23-23; 11:15 am]
BILLING CODE 3110-01-P
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