The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published its Trust Regulation – officially referred to as the Fundamental Responsibilities of Statistical Agencies and Units rule – in the Federal Register today with the aim of improving public trust in Federal government statistics.
According to an Oct. 10 blog post from the White House, the regulation aims to help the government’s recognized statistical agencies and units (RSAUs) by codifying and clarifying their four fundamental responsibilities.
These responsibilities are: to produce and disseminate relevant and timely statistical information; conduct credible and accurate statistical activities; carry out objective statistical activities; and protect the trust of information providers by ensuring the confidentiality and exclusive statistical use of their responses.
“The Trust Regulation will promote public trust in how the Federal government generates and disseminates statistics that Americans rely on every day,” Karin Orvis, the chief statistician of the United States, wrote in the blog post.
“Federal statistics play a key role in everything from policymaking to public discourse. Trusted and accurate Federal statistics are important for policymakers, individuals, and businesses to make informed decisions,” Orvis said. “Federal statistics are produced as a public good, whose value is rooted in public trust. Maintaining and bolstering public trust in our Nation’s statistics is absolutely critical.”
The final rule is the result of comments on the draft rule OMB published in the Federal Register in August 2023. OMB noted that it made “certain modifications to improve the clarity and readability of the rule.”
The regulation also follows a requirement from the bipartisan Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, also known as the Evidence Act.
Specifically, the rule outlines requirements for the RSAUs – which include entities such as the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the National Animal Health Monitoring System, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It also directs other Federal agencies to enable, support, and facilitate RSAUs in upholding their responsibilities.
“The Trust Regulation ascribes statistical agencies and all other Federal agencies with a responsibility to ensure that they will remain safe places for the collection, maintenance, and sharing of information critical to government decision making, while also ensuring the privacy of individuals and organizations,” Orvis explained.
“The responsibilities described in this regulation are not new and are consistent with longstanding OMB, Federal government, and international policy. Yet effectively implementing them in the form of standards and practices requires clear rules,” she added. “By establishing this much needed framework, this regulation provides clarity and works to ensure that statistical agencies can reliably produce relevant, timely, accurate, and objective statistics.”
Orvis said that while the final rule is significant, “the work does not stop here.” She said the Federal government must continue to ensure it produces accurate and trustworthy information, as well as ensure Federal statistics stay relevant to stakeholders.
The final rule goes into effect on Dec. 10. Then, by Dec. 10, 2026, each RSAU must revise any rules, policies, or organizational structures that impede its ability to meet its fundamental responsibilities. The parent agency’s inspector general will also be required to conduct a compliance review of each RSAU.
