[Federal Register: June 30, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 125)]
[Notices]
[Page 39408-39409]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30jn04-35]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of the Census
[Docket Number 040616185-4185-01]
Notice of Data Sharing Activity
AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice and request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) plans to provide
certain business data collected in its 2002 Economic Census to the
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) 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), the Census Bureau is providing the opportunity for
public comment on this data-sharing action. Through the use of these
shared data, the BEA expects to improve the quality of data collected
by the Census Bureau under the authority of Title 13 of the United
States Code (U.S.C.), and collected by the BEA under the authority of
the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act by
identifying data-quality issues arising from reporting differences in
the Census Bureau and BEA surveys. The Census Bureau and BEA will
publish nonconfidential aggregate reports (public use) that have
cleared the BEA and Census Bureau disclosure review.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before August 30, 2004.
ADDRESSES: Please direct all written comments on this proposed program
to the Director, U.S Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Washington,
DC 20233-0100.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information on
this proposed program should be directed to Mr. Julius Smith, Jr.,
Chief, Special Studies Branch, Manufacturing and Construction Division,
U.S. Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Washington, DC 20233-6900,
by phone at (301) 763-7662 or by fax at (301) 457-1318 or by e-mail at
julius.smith.jr@census.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The CIPSEA (Pub. L. 107-347, Subtitle V; 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)
and the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (Pub.
L. 94-472 as amended; 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108) allow the BEA and the Census
Bureau to share certain business data for exclusively statistical
purposes. Section 524(d) of the CIPSEA requires a Federal Register
notice announcing the intent to share data (allowing 60 days for public
comment).
Section 524(d) also requires us to provide information about the
terms of the agreement for data sharing. For the purposes of this
notice, the Census Bureau has decided to group these terms by three
categories. The categories are as follows:
Shared data.
Statistical purposes for the shared data.
Data access and confidentiality.
Shared Data
The Census Bureau proposes to provide the BEA with data collected
from the 2002 Economic Census and Business Register. The agreement also
calls for the BEA to share with the Census Bureau data collected from
the Foreign Direct Investment surveys. The BEA will issue a separate
notice addressing this issue.
The BEA will use these data for statistical purposes exclusively.
Through record linking, the BEA expects to improve the quality of data
collected under the authority of Title 13 of the U.S.C, and the
International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act by
identifying data-quality issues arising from reporting differences in
the Census Bureau and the BEA surveys.
Statistical Purposes for the Shared Data
The data collected from the 2002 Economic Census and Business
Register are used to estimate employment, payroll, and receipt data of
U.S. companies. Statistics from the census are published in separate
data publications. All data are collected under Sections 131 and 224 of
Title 13 of the U.S.C.
[[Page 39409]]
Data Access and Confidentiality
Title 13 of the U.S.C. 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. All BEA employees with access to these
data will become Census Bureau Special Sworn Employees--meaning that
they, under penalty of law, must uphold the data's confidentiality. To
further safeguard the confidentiality of the data, the Census Bureau
has conducted an Information Technology Security Review of the BEA. The
results of this project are subject to disclosure review. Disclosure
review is a process conducted to verify that the data to be released do
not reveal any confidential information.
Dated: June 24, 2004.
Hermann Habermann,
Deputy Director, Bureau of the Census.
[FR Doc. 04-14819 Filed 6-29-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P