Notice of Opportunity To Submit Comment on the Public Release Time of Several Major USDA Statistical Reports, 34010-34011 [2012-13951]

Download as PDF 34010 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 111 / Friday, June 8, 2012 / Notices 720–9013, or email: HQ_OA@nass.usda. gov. Comments on this notice must be received by July 9, 2012 to be assured of consideration. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE National Agricultural Statistics Service ADDRESSES: BILLING CODE 3410–30–C DATES: Notice of Opportunity To Submit Comment on the Public Release Time of Several Major USDA Statistical Reports National Agricultural Statistics Service and Office of the Chief Economist, Department of Agriculture. mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES AGENCY: Notice and request for stakeholder input. ACTION: Requests must address items listed in comments section below. Please submit comments via the Internet at https://www.agcounts.usda.gov/ optin/136771, or via mail to: USDA– NASS, Agricultural Statistics Board Chair, 1400 Independence Ave. SW., Room 5029, Washington, DC 20250. If you have any questions, send an email to HQASBDeputy@nass.usda.gov or call 1–800–727–9540. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the Office of the Chief Economist are currently accepting stakeholder input on the SUMMARY: VerDate Mar<15>2010 16:23 Jun 07, 2012 Jkt 226001 Joseph T. Reilly, Associate Administrator, National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, (202) 720–4333, Fax: 202– PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Office of the Chief Economist are seeking comments on the release time of several of their major statistical reports. USDA statistical report release times are affected for the following reports: ‘‘World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates’’, ‘‘Acreage’’, ‘‘Cattle’’, ‘‘Cattle on Feed’’, ‘‘Crop Production’’, ‘‘Grain Stocks’’, ‘‘Prospective Plantings’’, ‘‘Quarterly Hogs and Pigs’’, and ‘‘Small Grain Summary’’. The current release times of 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET will remain unchanged until official comments are considered. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Statistical Policy Directives 3 and 4, E:\FR\FM\08JNN1.SGM 08JNN1 EN08JN12.005</GPH> public release time and procedures of several major USDA statistical reports. [FR Doc. 2012–13943 Filed 6–7–12; 8:45 am] Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 111 / Friday, June 8, 2012 / Notices rules are in place to regulate the public’s access to federally generated statistics. With nearly round-the-clock commodities trading in the United States now underway, the agencies want to hear from all parties who use federal agricultural statistics so that we best meet their needs while upholding our responsibility to provide equal access to data. The agencies will carefully consider all input on the time of report releases. The 2012 official published schedule for all NASS reports is available online at www.nass.usda.gov/ Publications/index.asp. The World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) report schedule is available at www. usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde. Comments: Please address the following questions when submitting your comments: 1. What is your preferred time of day (EDT) for report release? 2. Why is this time preferred? 3. Who are the data users impacted by this recommended time change? 4. How will this change impact these data users? 5. How are the data used when received at the current release time? 6. Other comments. All responses to this notice will become a matter of public record and be summarized and considered by NASS and the Office of the Chief Economist in preparing any recommendation(s). Signed at Washington, DC, May 24, 2012. Joseph T. Reilly, Associate Administrator. [FR Doc. 2012–13951 Filed 6–7–12; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3410–20–P DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35). Agency: U.S. Census Bureau. Title: Quarterly Services Survey. OMB Control Number: 0607–0907. Form Number(s): QSS–0(A), QSS– 0(E), QSS–1(A), QSS–1(E), QSS–1P(A), QSS–1P(E), QSS–2(A), QSS–2(E), QSS– 3(A), QSS–3(E), QSS–4(A), QSS–4(E), QSS–4F(A), QSS–4F(E), QSS–5(A), QSS–5(E), QSS–6(A), QSS–6(E), QSS– 7(A), QSS–7(E), QSS–8(A), QSS–8(E), QSS–9(A), QSS–9(E),. Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection. VerDate Mar<15>2010 16:23 Jun 07, 2012 Jkt 226001 Burden Hours: 20,900. Number of Respondents: 23,500. Average Hours per Response: 13 minutes. Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests a revision of the current OMB approval of the Quarterly Services Survey (QSS). Beginning in March 2013, with the introduction of a new sample, the QSS will cover all or parts of the following NAICS sectors: Utilities (excluding government owned); Transportation and warehousing (except rail transportation and postal) services; Information; Finance and insurance (except funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles); Real estate and rental and leasing; Professional, scientific, and technical services; Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services; Educational services (except elementary and secondary schools, junior colleges, and colleges, universities, and professional schools); Health care and social assistance; Arts, entertainment, and recreation; Accommodation; and Other services (except public administration). The QSS provides the most current reliable measures of total revenue and percentage of revenue by class of customer (for selected industries) on a quarterly basis. In addition, the QSS provides the only current quarterly measure of total expenses from taxexempt firms in industries that have a large not-for-profit component. All respondent data are received by mail, facsimile, telephone, or Internet reporting. Before the QSS economic indicator existed for the service sector, which accounts for about 53 percent of all economic activity, the only data available were from the Service Annual Survey (SAS) and the five-year Economic Censuses. The QSS was developed to address and provide more up-to-date estimates of services output. Based on this effort, the QSS is a major source for the development of quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and an indicator of short-term economic change. The total revenue estimates produced from the QSS provide current trends of economic service industry activity in the United States from service providers with paid employees. In addition to revenue, we also collect total expenses from tax-exempt firms in industries that have a large not-for-profit component. Expenses provide a better measure of the economic activity of these firms. Expense estimates produced by the QSS, in addition to inpatient days and discharges for the hospital industry, are used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 34011 to project and study hospital regulation, Medicare payment adequacy, and other related projects. For select industries in the Arts, entertainment, and recreation sector, the survey produces estimates of admissions revenue. Beginning in March 2013, with the introduction of a new QSS sample, the QSS plans to provide estimates of revenue for the Accommodation subsector and estimates for interest income, loan fees, fees and commissions, financial planning and investment management, and net gains and losses from brokering for select finance and insurance industries. We currently publish estimates based on the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). With the introduction of the new QSS sample, we will publish estimates based on the 2007 NAICS. We will continue to publish no later than 75 days after the end of each calendar quarter. Reliable measures of economic activity are essential to an objective assessment of the need for, and impact of, a wide range of public policy decisions. The QSS supports these measures by providing the latest estimates of service industry output on a quarterly basis. Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau collects, tabulates, and publishes estimates to provide, with measurable reliability, statistics on domestic service total revenue, total expenses, and percentage of revenue by class of customer for select service providers. In addition, the QSS produces estimates for inpatient days and discharges for hospitals. In the future, QSS may produce breakdowns of revenue from financial firms. This depends on the quality and amount of data received as well as its reliability and accuracy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is the primary Federal user of QSS results. The BEA utilizes the QSS estimates to make improvements to the national accounts for service industries. In the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), the QSS estimates allow more accurate estimates of both Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) and private fixed investment. For example, recently published revisions to the quarterly NIPA estimates resulted from the incorporation of new source data from the QSS. Revenue estimates from the QSS are also used to produce estimates of gross output by industry that allow BEA to produce a much earlier release of the gross domestic product by industry estimates. Estimates produced from the QSS are used by the BEA as a component of quarterly GDP estimates. The estimates also provide the Federal Reserve Board E:\FR\FM\08JNN1.SGM 08JNN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 111 (Friday, June 8, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34010-34011]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-13951]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

National Agricultural Statistics Service


Notice of Opportunity To Submit Comment on the Public Release 
Time of Several Major USDA Statistical Reports

AGENCY: National Agricultural Statistics Service and Office of the 
Chief Economist, Department of Agriculture.

ACTION: Notice and request for stakeholder input.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the 
Office of the Chief Economist are currently accepting stakeholder input 
on the public release time and procedures of several major USDA 
statistical reports.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by July 9, 2012 to be 
assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: Requests must address items listed in comments section 
below. Please submit comments via the Internet at https://www.agcounts.usda.gov/optin/136771, or via mail to: USDA-NASS, 
Agricultural Statistics Board Chair, 1400 Independence Ave. SW., Room 
5029, Washington, DC 20250.
    If you have any questions, send an email to 
HQASBDeputy@nass.usda.gov or call 1-800-727-9540.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph T. Reilly, Associate 
Administrator, National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, (202) 720-4333, Fax: 202-720-9013, or email: 
HQ_OA@nass.usda.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: USDA's National Agricultural Statistics 
Service and the Office of the Chief Economist are seeking comments on 
the release time of several of their major statistical reports. USDA 
statistical report release times are affected for the following 
reports: ``World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates'', 
``Acreage'', ``Cattle'', ``Cattle on Feed'', ``Crop Production'', 
``Grain Stocks'', ``Prospective Plantings'', ``Quarterly Hogs and 
Pigs'', and ``Small Grain Summary''. The current release times of 8:30 
a.m. and 3 p.m. ET will remain unchanged until official comments are 
considered. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) Statistical Policy Directives 3 and 4,

[[Page 34011]]

rules are in place to regulate the public's access to federally 
generated statistics. With nearly round-the-clock commodities trading 
in the United States now underway, the agencies want to hear from all 
parties who use federal agricultural statistics so that we best meet 
their needs while upholding our responsibility to provide equal access 
to data. The agencies will carefully consider all input on the time of 
report releases. The 2012 official published schedule for all NASS 
reports is available online at www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/index.asp. The World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) report schedule 
is available at www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde.
    Comments: Please address the following questions when submitting 
your comments:
    1. What is your preferred time of day (EDT) for report release?
    2. Why is this time preferred?
    3. Who are the data users impacted by this recommended time change?
    4. How will this change impact these data users?
    5. How are the data used when received at the current release time?
    6. Other comments.
    All responses to this notice will become a matter of public record 
and be summarized and considered by NASS and the Office of the Chief 
Economist in preparing any recommendation(s).

    Signed at Washington, DC, May 24, 2012.
Joseph T. Reilly,
Associate Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2012-13951 Filed 6-7-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-20-P
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