Senate Appropriations Committee report on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (8/18/10):

• The Senate Appropriations Committee recommends $634,851,000 for this account while the House Appropriations Committee recommended $632 million. The comparable fiscal year 2010 amount is $611,447,000. The President’s budget request was $645,351,000.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee report was available at the time this was posted and the Committee made several comments of importance to data users.
• In their budget comments, the Committee expressed concern about the significant discrepancies found in comparisons of BLS injury and illness survey data.  According to recent research, data the Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] and State worker compensation agencies are significantly different, raising serious questions about the completeness of the national workplace injury surveillance system.
• The Committee recommendation includes resources to strengthen the current BLS examination of the differences between workers’ compensation information and BLS survey data; better understand employer injury and illnesses recording practices; and conduct a pilot study of using multiple data sources to capture injury and illness data.
• The Committee acceded to BLS proposals that would reduce program cost by restructuring the Current Employment Survey program and developing an alternative data source for locality pay surveys.
• The Committee bill does not contain language included in the fiscal year 2010 bill that requires the BLS to continue the women worker series within the current employment statistics program. The administration’s fiscal year 2011 budget request proposes deleting the language; however, the Committee recognized the language was unnecessary since BLS plans to continue this data collection effort.

Senate Appropriations report on the USDA budget (8/12/10):

• Economic Research Service
  • The Senate Appropriations Committee recommends an appropriation of $83,671,000 for the ERS.
  • The Committee recommendation includes increases of $1,500,000 to improve user access to statistical data provided by ERS; $1,000,000 for economic research on the access to affordable and nutritious food by low-income communities; $990,000 for data integrity measures; and assumes all savings proposed in the budget request. The Committee recommendation also includes $500,000 for continuation of the Organic Production and Market Data Initiative.
• National Agricultural Statistics Service
  • The Committee recommends an appropriation of $163,721,000 for the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The Committee recommendation includes increases of $4,000,000 to enhance the annual county estimates program; $500,000 to begin a comprehensive data series on organic production, handling and distribution; and $800,000 to enhance remote sensing activities. Included in this amount is $33,494,000 for the Census of Agriculture.
  • Chemical Use Data Series-The Committee believes that the Chemical Use Data Series provides timely, valuable information on fertilizer and chemical user data on major field crops and selected specialty crops, and is pleased that NASS is continuing the collection and analysis of chemical use data, as well as practices such as integrated pest management.

House Appropriations passed the Ag appropriations bill, but details on ERS and NASS are not yet available.

Senate Appropriations Committee Update (8/5/10):

• National Center for Health Statistics
  • The Senate Appropriations Committee approved appropriations of $161,883,000, equal to the president’s request and above the FY2010 funding level of $138,683,000. The Committee encouraged NCHS to consider ways to expand the applicability of National
    Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES] reports to the State and local level. The Committee strongly supported the effort to transition vital statistic collection to electronic systems, in particular the effort to phase in electronic death records.
• National Center for Education Statistics
  • The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $118,021,000 for NCES, $1 million above the president’s request. The FY2010 funding level was $108,521,000.
• Energy Information Administration
  • The House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee each approved $119,000,000 for EIA, $9.8 million below the president’s request. The FY201 funding level was $110,595,000.