Census Bureau/BEA/BLS merger?

[Anonymous]

I have heard that there are plans to merge the Census Bureau, BEA, and BLS at some point in the not-distant future.

Is there anyone in the know who can tell me what the timeline is for this?

[Anonymous]

They are all in the same building now, but I am not sure if an actual merger will happen.

[Anonymous]

It has to be ordered/passed by Congress. There are discussions going on at the upper levels of these agencies. But please note, Congress doesn’t have a good track record of passing things right now.

[Anonymous]

Word on the street is that the administration likes the idea but it's not a priority. Seems like they don't want to expend any political capital on it. Maybe that will change if someone in Congress makes a push. Could also change over time, since it seems like the admin has little hope of getting a new BLS Commissioner confirmed any time soon, and they also don't have anyone permanent at Census right now.

[Anonymous]

What about IRSs SOI? Tax stats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about IRSs SOI? Tax stats

Op here. No, this has been brewing for a long time, and I don’t think SOI was ever in the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about IRSs SOI? Tax stats

Op here. No, this has been brewing for a long time, and I don’t think SOI was ever in the mix.

Glad to hear it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about IRSs SOI? Tax stats

Op here. No, this has been brewing for a long time, and I don’t think SOI was ever in the mix.

I’m not aware of data sharing with IRS SOI and these three agencies. These three agencies share data which is why there is talk of merging them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about IRSs SOI? Tax stats

Op here. No, this has been brewing for a long time, and I don’t think SOI was ever in the mix.

I’m not aware of data sharing with IRS SOI and these three agencies. These three agencies share data which is why there is talk of merging them.

Census makes extensive use of IRS data in many of its data products related to business and employment. There are data sharing agreements that allow Census to use all the typical IRS data files for specific projects, including 1040s, W-2s, 1099s, and corporate filings. There are some limits to what Census gets, either imposed by IRS or by statute. I'm not sure if they could recreate the SOI statistics with the data they have, for example.

To my knowledge, BLS doesn't have any access to IRS data, and there are legal barriers to doing so. I'm not sure about BEA.

Even if this administration doesn't get around to it, I think that eventually we will end up with one primary stat agency. There's already a lot of data sharing between agencies, and not a lot of duplication in the types of data each agency releases. But, there are still a lot of costs and frictions around data sharing agreements that could be reduced, and a fair amount of duplicated technical infrastructure. Census is the largest stat agency and has positioned itself well to become the primary one.
But that's also exactly why many people at the smaller agencies are wary--they think they'll lose out if their agencies get absorbed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that there are plans to merge the Census Bureau, BEA, and BLS at some point in the not-distant future.

Is there anyone in the know who can tell me what the timeline is for this?

Why would Trump do this?!? OMG

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that there are plans to merge the Census Bureau, BEA, and BLS at some point in the not-distant future.

Is there anyone in the know who can tell me what the timeline is for this?

Why would Trump do this?!? OMG

This idea to merge these agencies pre-dates Trump. This has been discussed for decades.