Extensive use is made of advisory groups representing business, labor, agricultural, and research interests. Representing respondents to Government inquiries as well as users of the resulting statistics, these nongovernmental groups provide valuable guidance and thereby assist in coordination and control. The Advisory Council on Federal Reports has already been mentioned as a group working centrally with the Bureau of the Budget; other advisory committees do likewise and many others advise specific agencies. The Bureau of the Budget makes use, also, of interagency committees of Government officials for two-way communication between itself and the operating agencies

the public. From 1947 to the present, the total personnel of the Office has declined from 69 to 36, as indicated in the table below. (During this period, total employment in the entire Bureau of the Budget has declined from 585 to 422.)

Average employment in the Office of Statistical Standards, Bureau of the Budget

A part of the decline, but certainly not all, may be balanced against the disappearance or diminution of wartime statistical programs, with a resultant reduction in workload. Of the total of 36 positions currently authorized, 25 are occupied by professional personnel at grades GS-11 and above. The typical senior staff member now has several major subject fields assigned to him, making impossible the kind of specialization characteristic of the larger staff in earlier years. The subcommittee is concerned lest the Office of Statistical Standards, through extreme manpower stringency, become a mere form-clearance service, and perhaps not even fully effective at that limited task, rather than the full-fledged control and coordination center it is empowered to be. To a certain point, additional employees in such a center can more than pay for themselves in promoting efficiency in statistical organization and procedures throughout the Government. subcommittee intends to look further into this matter, and is not making a specific recommendation at this time.

The

Other instrumentalities exist for control, coordination, and direction of Federal statistical activities. Of major importance, of course, are the budgetary process, involving the departments and agencies themselves; the fiscal as well as statistical standards portions of the Bureau of the Budget; the President; and the Congress, especially the Appropriations Committees. Through the Federal budget, opportunities exist for an annual appraisal of all programs.

Underlying the appropriation acts are enabling statutes and executive orders setting forth the responsibilities and authorities of the agencies. Legislative matters of this sort pertaining to the Bureau of the Census and to statistical activities generally fall within the scope of the Senate and House Post Office and Civil Service Committees. Committees in particular subject fields, such as agriculture and banking, may influence statistical programs which are integral parts of the operations of the agencies in those subject fields. The Joint Economic Committee, by making use of economic statistics and pointing out deficiencies in them, also exerts an influence. The Joint Committee on Printing determines certain regulations regarding the publication of statistical reports.

Many Federal agencies have established central offices of their own for clearance and control of report forms, prior to final clearance in the Bureau of the Budget. Some of the larger statistical agencies have more broadly conceived offices of statistical standards to coordinate the statistical operations of subordinate units.

Extensive use is made of advisory groups representing business, labor, agricultural, and research interests. Representing respondents to Government inquiries as well as users of the resulting statistics, these nongovernmental groups provide valuable guidance and thereby assist in coordination and control. The Advisory Council on Federal Reports has already been mentioned as a group working centrally with the Bureau of the Budget; other advisory committees do likewise and many others advise specific agencies. The Bureau of the Budget makes use, also, of interagency committees of Government officials for two-way communication between itself and the operating agencies

BUSINESS REPORTING

BENEFIT VERSUS BURDEN

Any serious critic of the burden of Government reporting requirements upon business must recognize that a middle ground is to be sought. It must be conceded that the Government and the public, including business itself, need detailed and timely statistical informa tion, and that at least some of it can be collected efficiently only by the Government. Business concerns will report data to a Government agency, under a guarantee of confidentiality, that they would not reveal to any other business firm not even a private survey organization. The Government can, when public interest demands it, require the furnishing of information, and thus get complete totals, when a trade association could not obtain complete reporting from its own members, let alone nonmembers. An agency like the Bureau of the Census has the facilities for handling large-scale data collection and processing operations which cannot be matched by any private group. When a census is taken under standard conditions by one large central organization and published for all to use, the cost per consumer is far less than if each business research staff were to accumulate and process information for itself, and the results are far superior in completeness, comparability, and usefulness.

Thus, a degree of Government-imposed burden must be accepted as necessary, or at least desirable, in view of the resulting benefits. Even the small businessman, more sensitive to the burden and less aware of the benefits, should recognize his participation in the process. However, unremitting attention must be devoted to limiting the burden to the minimum consistent with the needs and benefits.

The Budget Bureau's Office of Statistical Standards and its predecessor organizations have for many years exercised a responsibility in this field. The collecting agencies themselves exert certain, although varying, amounts of self-restraint. But familiarity may breed complacency, and self-policing by the Government, no matter how wellintentioned, is not likely to contain the problem completely unless supported from time to time by independent examinations. That this is recognized by the executive branch itself is evidenced by the following statement of the Cabinet Committee on Small Business:

There are grounds for believing that some of the paperwork required of small businesses, *** may be superfluous, while information of great potential usefulness is not now being gathered. It would therefore be desirable to review all forms that small businesses are now required to fill out by governmental agencies. This should be done from the viewpoint of the need for such forms and the possibility of simplifying them. The importance of improving statistics on the economic position of small businesses should also be kept in mind. Such information is vital to a proper appraisal of small-business problems. ***1 In furtherance of the Cabinet Committee's recommendation was the following statement by the President:

The Federal Government can save small businesses time and money by reducing the paperwork required by its programs. In this connection, the Congress is

1 Progress report by the Cabinet Committee on Small Business, Aug. 7, 1956, p. 10.

requested to authorize the consolidation of wage reporting by employees for income tax withholding and old age and survivors insurance purposes. As recommended by the Cabinet Committee on Small Business, the Bureau of the Budget is reviewing the reports and statistics which small businesses must now maintain for, or supply to, Government, in order to simplify them. This desirable objective must be weighed, however, against the need for better information on the economic position of small business."

The Budget Bureau's Office of Statistical Standards made this comment on the Cabinet Committee's recommendation:

The first part of this recommendation, calling for minimizing the reporting burden on small business, has always been one of the basic objectives of the Office of Statistical Standards in reviewing forms and reporting plans submitted for clearance under the Federal Reports Act. Section 2 of this act states that "information which may be needed by the various Federal agencies should be obtained with a minimum burden upon business enterprises (especially small business enterprises) and other persons required to furnish such information In response to the recommendation of the Cabinet committee, the staff of the Office of Statistical Standards has been instructed to reemphasize the importance of this review responsibility.3

Responsible business leaders also espouse the middle-of-the-road approach, taking into account both the burden and the benefit. The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is one of the sponsors of the Advisory Council on Federal Reports, which works with the Bureau of the Budget in seeking to keep the reporting burden to a minimum. The chamber's current policy declarations include the following statement:

The interests of small and new enterprises, therefore, can best be served by *** collection and distribution of useful economic data and information, not otherwise available, in a form suitable for use by the smaller enterprises but available to all.

To study further the compound problem of burden versus benefit in Federal reporting requirements, the subcommittee consulted with the Small Business Administration and the Department of Commerce. These are the chief spokesmen for business interests within the Government. The latter is, in addition, the largest collector of information from business enterprises, through its Bureau of the Census and other constituent agencies.

The Small Business Administration reported that it had received very few complaints of burdensome reporting requirements. In a recent 3-month period, such complaints were actively solicited. All businessmen who visited any of the field offices of the Small Business Administration, usually for the purpose of making application for assistance, were asked to report instances of undue burden. Approximately 3,000 businessmen were asked, and only 2 positive responses were obtained. It should be noted, however, that the group solicited comprised those who were utilizing Government services. In a different group the proportion of complainants might have been found to be greater.

The Small Business Administration recognized the special efforts of the fact-gathering agencies to reduce the reporting burden on small business and felt that such measures were effective, but that further progress could be made. It recommended that small business be given special representation in the Advisory Council on Federal Reports.

2 Economic Report of the President transmitted to the Congress Jan. 23, 1957, pp 53-54. "Reports and Statistics Required of Small Business," Statistical Reporter, October 1956, pp. 172-174.