Page 41 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS55 Hermann H. et al.

US Statistical System, the Congress, Fundamental
Principles- How Does It Work
2
3
1
Hermann Habermann , Katherine Wallman , Misha Belkindas
1 Statistical Consultant, Arlington, VA, USA
2 Consultant, McLean, VA, USA
3 ODW Consulting, Rockville, MD, USA

Abstract
The foundation of government in the United States rests on the principle of
three co-equal branches of government - legislative, executive and judicial. It
is the tensions between these branches that determine how well and how
smoothly the government operates. The legislature enacts laws and it is the
responsibility of the executive branch to carry out these laws. Tension often
arises on the interpretation of the laws by the executive branch. The statistical
system in the US is on the far decentralized end of an organization spectrum
from centralized to decentralized. In that sense, the statistical system in the
USA is quite different from systems in the rest of the world. There are over 100
agencies collecting statistical information with 13 so called principal statistical
agencies. Each agency is located in an individual cabinet department with an
oversight and coordinating agency in the Executive Office of the President.
Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics exist in a sphere outside of the
government itself in that they are a common ethos developed by official
statisticians and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. This paper
will examine the operational difficulties in implementing the Fundamental
Principles. The decennial Census will be used as an example to demonstrate
these issues and to show how the Fundamental Principles are and are not
followed.

Keywords
National statistical system; Congress; fundamental principles; independence

1. Introduction
We will first briefly review the development and importance of the
fundamental principles and introduce the concept of independence. Next we
will describe the United States federal statistical system and how it operates
in relation to the three branches of United States government: executive,
legislative and judicial. We will describe how the tensions between these
branches and the authorities granted to leaders of the federal statistical
system give rise to problems in implementing the Fundamental Principles.
Finally we will use the recent controversy in the United States over the
proposed addition of a question on citizenship to the decennial census as an

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