The House on September 13 and the Senate on September 22 passed the FY 2013 Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the agencies and programs of the Federal government until March 27, 2013. The CR includes an across-the-board increase of 0.6 percent above the FY 2012 funding levels. This action negates the riders attached to the individual FY 2013 appropriations bills by the House and Senate and their respective funding committees. Thus, the political science program at the National Science Foundation and the American Community Survey, eliminated by the House, and economics research at the National Institutes of Health, recommended for no further funding by the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education spending subcommittee, are safe for now. Learn more here.
Census Director Fixed Five-Year Term Becomes Law
President Obama signed into law, S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011. The bill includes a provision making the Census Bureau Director a five-year appointed term (still subject to Senate confirmation) and revises the list of qualifications for the position. Specifically, the law states that the director must be chosen from “individuals who have a demonstrated ability in managing large organizations and experience in the collection, analysis, and use of statistical data.”
Senators Coburn (R-OK) and Carper (D-DE) sponsored the provision during mark-up of the bill last year. However, the idea of establishing a fixed term for the Census Bureau Director has been supported by a number of members over the years to ensure the decennial census has continuity and leadership during critical junctures in its planning and execution. Learn more here.
BEA Announces RIMS II Update
Updated RIMS II multipliers will be available for ordering on October 3, 2012. Multipliers based on 2010 national annual input-output data and 2010 regional data will be available for 62 industry aggregations.
Multipliers based on 2002 national benchmark input-output data and 2010 regional data will be available for 406 detailed industries and for 62 industry aggregations. Users will be able to order multipliers by region or by industry:
By region: Multipliers will be provided for all industries in the model for the region that is ordered. Each order costs $275.
By industry: Multipliers will be provided for all states and the District of Columbia for each industry that is ordered. Each order costs $75.
The Library of Congress unveiled Congress.gov. It’s a new website that will eventually replace THOMAS.gov as the government’s site for accessing free, fact-based legislative information. The Congress.gov site includes bill status and summary, bill text, House and Senate member profiles, and a number of new features, including effective display on mobile devices. Learn more about the new site here.
NEA Opens Application Process for Art Works Grants
The National Edowment of the Arts will make awards to support research on how “art works.” Such research may probe the underlying conditions and vehicles for arts participation; for instance, it can examine how key inputs such as training, education, and infrastructure, directly affect arts creation, arts audiences, or other aspects of arts engagement.
Applications to the NEA should present novel research questions and/or techniques that will yield valuable information about the utility to arts-related research of various kinds of data. Application deadline is November 6, 2012. Learn more here.
Notable Data Publications
Each week, the APDU Data Update identifies recent statistical data releases of interest to APDU members.
APDU maintains a list of open calls for comment on proposed federal data collections. We periodically alert APDU members to newly added calls for comment. Over the last several weeks, calls for comment on the following proposed data collections were published in the Federal Register (with due date):
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component & the MEPS Medical Provider Component (October 22, 2012)
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Direct Investment Surveys: Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (November 26, 2012)
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Consumer Price Index Housing Survey (October 25, 2012)
Census Bureau
Current Population Survey (October 26, 2012)
Current Population Survey, Annual Social & Economic Supplement (November 20, 2012)
Employment and Training Administration
Claims and Payment Activities (October 22, 2012)
National Science Foundation
2013 National Survey of College Graduates (October 22, 2012)
2013 Survey of Doctorate Recipients (October 22, 2012)
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