[Federal Register: March 27, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 58)]
[Notices]
[Page 15160-15161]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr27mr06-48]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Proposed Data Sharing Activity
AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice and request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) proposes to provide to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data collected from several
surveys that it conducts on U.S. direct investment abroad, foreign
direct investment in the United States, and U.S. international trade in
services for statistical purposes exclusively. In accordance with the
requirement of Section 524(d) of the Confidential Information
Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA), we are
providing the opportunity for public comment on this data-sharing
action. BEA will provide data collected in its surveys to link with
data from BLS surveys, including the Quarterly Census of Employment and
Wages, the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, and the Mass
Layoff Statistics survey. The linked data will
[[Page 15161]]
be used for several purposes by both agencies, such as to develop
detailed industry-level estimates of the employment, payroll, and
occupational structure of foreign-owned U.S. companies or of U.S.
companies that own foreign affiliates, and to assess the adequacy of
current government data for understanding the international outsourcing
activities of U.S. companies. Non-confidential aggregate data (public
use) and reports that have cleared BEA and BLS disclosure review will
be provided to the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) as
potential inputs into a study of off-shoring authorized by a grant to
NAPA under Public Law 108-447. Disclosure review is a process conducted
to verify that the data to be released do not reveal any confidential
information.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before 5 p.m., May 26,
2006.
ADDRESSES: Please direct all written comments on this proposed program
to the Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BE-1), Washington, DC
20230.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information on
this proposed program should be directed to Obie G. Whichard,
Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, BE-50(OC),
Washington, DC 20230, via the Internet at obie.whichard@bea.gov, by
phone on (202) 606-9890, or by fax on (202) 606-5318.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
CIPSEA (Pub. L. 107-347, Title V) and the International Investment
and Trade in Services Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-472, 22 United States Code
(U.S.C.) 3101-3108) allow BEA and BLS to share certain business data
for exclusively statistical purposes. Section 524(d) of the CIPSEA
requires us to publish a Federal Register notice announcing our intent
to share data (allowing 60 days for public comment), since BEA
respondents were required by law to report the data. Section 524(d)
also requires us to provide information about the terms of the
agreement for data sharing. For purposes of this notice, BEA has
decided to group these terms by three categories. The categories are:
Shared data.
Statistical purposes for the shared data.
Data access and confidentiality.
Shared Data
BEA proposes to provide the BLS with data collected in the
benchmark, annual, and quarterly surveys of U.S. direct investment
abroad, of foreign direct investment in the United States, and of U.S.
international trade in services, as well as a survey of new foreign
direct investments in the United States. BLS will use these data for
statistical purposes exclusively.
Statistical Purposes for the Shared Data
Data collected in the benchmark and annual surveys of direct
investment are used to develop estimates of the financing and
operations of U.S. parent companies, their foreign affiliates, and U.S.
affiliates of foreign companies; data collected in the quarterly direct
investment surveys are used to develop estimates of transactions and
positions between parents and affiliates; data collected in the new
investments survey are used to develop estimates of new foreign direct
investments in the United States; and data collected in the benchmark,
annual and quarterly surveys of U.S. international trade in services
are used to develop estimates of services transactions between U.S.
companies and unaffiliated foreign parties. These estimates are
published in the Survey of Current Business, BEA's monthly journal; in
other BEA publications; and on BEA's Web site at http://www.bea.gov/.
All data are collected under Sections 3101-3108 of Title 22, U.S.C.
The data set created by linking these data with the data from the
above-designated BLS surveys will be used for several purposes by both
agencies, such as to develop detailed industry-level estimates of the
employment, payroll, and occupational structure of foreign-owned U.S.
companies or of U.S. companies that own foreign affiliates, and to
assess the adequacy of current government data for understanding the
international outsourcing activities of U.S. companies.
Data Access and Confidentiality
Title 22, U.S.C. 3104 protects the confidentiality of these data.
The data may be seen only by persons sworn to uphold the
confidentiality of the information. Access to the shared data will be
restricted to specifically authorized personnel and will be provided
for statistical purposes only. Any results of this research are subject
to BEA disclosure protection. All BLS employees with access to these
data will become BEA Special Sworn Employees--meaning that they, under
penalty of law, must uphold the data's confidentiality. Selected NAPA
employees will provide BEA with expertise on the aspects of the data
collected in BEA surveys and in the linked data set that may relate to
off-shoring; these NAPA consultants assisting with the work at BEA also
will become BEA Special Sworn Employees. No confidential data will be
provided to the NAPA.
J. Steven Landefeld,
Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
[FR Doc. E6-4418 Filed 3-24-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-06-P