Announcing Elimination of Electronic Devices in the DOL Lock-Up Facility for Participating News Media Organizations With Pre-Release Access to Statistical Information, 7332-7333 [2020-02383]
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 26 / Friday, February 7, 2020 / Notices
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jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES
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Enforcement Section, Environment and
Natural Resources Division.
[FR Doc. 2020–02419 Filed 2–6–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410–15–P
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:42 Feb 06, 2020
Jkt 250001
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Announcing Elimination of Electronic
Devices in the DOL Lock-Up Facility
for Participating News Media
Organizations With Pre-Release
Access to Statistical Information
Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Department of Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Department of Labor
(DOL) plans to eliminate use of all
electronic devices in the lock-up facility
and continue to rely on transmission
sources readily available to the general
public to provide simultaneous data
access to all interested users. These
sources include agency websites, social
media channels, and email subscription
lists.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michael Trupo, Deputy Assistant
Secretary, Office of Public Affairs, U.S.
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution
Ave. NW, Washington, DC; 202–693–
4676; trupo.michael@dol.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:
I. Background
The Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) is responsible for the
development and oversight of
Government-wide policies, principles,
standards, and guidelines concerning
statistical information presentation and
dissemination, as well as the timely
release of statistical data. OMB has
issued a series of Statistical Policy
Directives (SPDs) to guide agencies in
their dissemination of statistical
products. Each of these SPDs describes
the fundamental statistical-system
principle of equitable and timely
dissemination of statistical information
to the public. See, e.g., SPD No. 1,
Fundamental Responsibilities of Federal
Statistical Agencies and Recognized
Statistical Units (Dec. 2, 2014) (‘‘the
objectivity of the information released to
the public is maximized by making
information available on an equitable,
policy-neutral, transparent, timely, and
punctual basis’’); SPD No. 3,
Compilation, Release, and Evaluation of
Principal Federal Economic Indicators
(Sept. 25, 1985) (emphasizing the
importance of releasing Principal
Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs) to
the public in a fair and orderly manner);
SPD No. 4, Release and Dissemination
of Statistical Products Produced by
Federal Statistical Agencies (Mar. 7,
2008) (‘‘Statistical agencies must ensure
that all users have equitable and timely
access to data that are disseminated to
PO 00000
Frm 00068
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
the public’’). In short, equitable and
timely dissemination of statistical
information is a core principle of
Federal statistical policy.
For many years, consistent with these
Statistical Policy Directives, the news
media have aided BLS and ETA in
disseminating their statistical data.
Since the mid-1980s, DOL agencies have
provided pre-release data access to news
organizations under strict embargoes
(known as ‘‘lock-ups’’) for PFEIs, which
are a set of designated economic data
series (e.g., the Employment Situation
and Consumer Price Index) that have
significant commercial value and may
affect the movement of commodity and
financial markets upon release. In
addition, DOL has employed lock-ups
for the release of limited non-PFEI data
(i.e., Unemployment Insurance Weekly
Claims). Although not required to do so,
the Department of Labor (DOL) in 1988
constructed a special lock-up facility to
provide pre-release access to news
media organizations. Steps were taken
to enhance the security of the lock-up
facility in 1992 and again in 2011–2012.
The lock-ups provide participating
media organizations 30 minutes before
official release time to digest PFEI data
(and potentially longer in the case of
non-PFEIs). At the official release time,
the communication lines within the
facility are opened, allowing the press to
transmit their articles or tables of data
to the public.
For many years, dissemination
through the lock-up process was a
highly effective method to get
information to the public. But today, it
is no longer the best means to ensure the
equitable and timely dissemination of
statistical information consistent with
OMB’s guidance. Continuing security
concerns also outweigh any continuing
benefits of the current process.
DOL’s Inspector General has noted
concerns with the current press lock-up
process, including in reports dated
January 2, 2014 (17–14–001–03–315)
and March 25, 2016 (17–16–001–01–
001). Specifically, DOL Inspector
General Report 17–14–001–03–315
states that the lock-up ‘‘unintentionally
creates an unfair competitive advantage
for certain news organizations and their
clients’’:
Pre-release access of DOL-generated
economic data is intended to serve the
general public by ensuring that news reports
about the data are accurate. To that end, the
media are given access to the data in advance
of the public release to facilitate their ability
to analyze and ask questions about the data
as they prepare their news stories. However,
the intended purpose of ensuring accurate
news reports must be weighed against the
inequitable trading advantage that a lock-up
E:\FR\FM\07FEN1.SGM
07FEN1
Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 26 / Friday, February 7, 2020 / Notices
can potentially create. Several news
organizations that participate in the DOL
press lock-up are able to profit from their
presence in the lock-up by selling, to traders,
high speed data feeds of economic data
formatted for computerized algorithmic
trading. Because these news organizations
have pre-release access, they are able to preload the data . . . allowing their clients to get
this information faster than the general
public, which has to wait to download the
data after it gets posted to the Department of
Labor websites.
jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES
The aforementioned report further
recommends that BLS and ETA, ‘‘. . .
implement a strategy designed to
eliminate any competitive advantage
that news organizations present in the
lock-up and/or their clients may have;
or, absent a viable solution, consider
discontinuing the use of the press lockup that provides news organizations
pre-release access.’’
It remains DOL’s policy to ensure the
media are given time to prepare
informed summaries and analysis of
economic data for the general public.
However, to protect the integrity of our
data and promote wide dissemination of
key economic data in an equitable,
timely, secure, and cost-effective
manner, as of March 1, 2020, DOL will
eliminate use of all electronic devices in
the lock-up facility. The change to
eliminate use of all electronic devices in
the lock-up facility seeks to minimize
the risk of premature disclosure of the
data and the risk of providing an unfair
monetary advantage over the rest of the
public due to the preparation time
provided by their early access to the
data. Specifically, this change will
minimize the advantage of allowing
lock-up participants to prepare
electronic data tables that may be used
for algorithmic trading ventures. The
BLS and ETA will continue to make
their data available to the general public
immediately upon their 8:30 release
through the Web and other sources.
II. Action
In an effort to protect the integrity of
our data and ensure fairness in the
dissemination of statistical information,
DOL plans to eliminate use of all
electronic devices in the DOL lock-up
facility starting on March 1, 2020. After
that date, credentialed press will
continue to be allowed into the facility
30 minutes prior to release time,
following existing security protocols.
BLS and ETA staff will be present in the
lock-up facility; will provide paper
copies of releases and related material;
and will be available to answer
questions. Credentialed press will be
allowed to take notes on paper. At
release time, credentialed press will be
able to leave the lock-up facility. DOL
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:42 Feb 06, 2020
Jkt 250001
staff will continue to escort TV press to
their camera stations a few minutes
before release time, following existing
procedures. The purpose of these
changes is to ‘‘ensure that all users have
equitable and timely access to data that
are disseminated to the public’’ as noted
in OMB Statistical Policy Directive No.
4.
BLS and ETA will provide access to
the official news releases at their
scheduled release times on the agency
websites. In addition, the agencies will
continue to announce the releases
through social media channels and send
the news releases to email subscribers.
Agencies will continue to respond to
questions about the data from the public
following the release as well as
questions from the media attending the
lock-ups during and after the lock-up
time period.
III. Necessity of Action
When DOL began providing
embargoed data releases in the mid1980s, media dissemination was an
equitable and timely method to get data
to the public. Today, technology and the
internet permits the public and
interested data users to obtain releases
for themselves. Unlike media
organizations in the lock-up facility,
however, internet users do not have 30
minutes before the official release time
to digest the data, and are disadvantaged
relative to lock-up participants to the
extent that internet postings may lag
slightly behind lock-up transmissions.
Furthermore, developments in highspeed algorithmic trading technology
have also raised concerns about the
possible impact of unequal access to
sensitive economic data. As discussed
above, DOL’s Inspector General has
issued multiple reports with findings
that maintaining the current press lockup ‘‘creates an unfair competitive
advantage for certain news
organizations and their clients.’’
In the time since the OIG
recommendations were issued, BLS and
ETA have devoted significant resources
to introducing improved technologies
that strengthen our infrastructure and
ensure data are posted to the BLS or
DOL websites immediately following
the official release time. With the
introduction of these improved
technologies, DOL is positioned to
eliminate the use of all electronic
devices in the lock-up facility while still
ensuring that all parties, including the
media, commercial entities, and the
general public, will have equitable and
timely access to our most sensitive data.
Continuing use of electronic devices
in the lock-up process also raises
considerations of security and cost-
PO 00000
Frm 00069
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
7333
efficiency. Given the sensitive nature of
DOL’s PFEI and limited non-PFEI data,
we have devoted significant attention
over the years to safeguarding
embargoed data to prevent its release
out of the lock-up facility prematurely.
This has included establishing a secure
technical and physical infrastructure,
monitoring participants’ adherence to
the rules, and continually upgrading
security as cyber threats have evolved.
Despite all these precautions, however,
the risk of a premature data release is
inherent in the nature of lock-ups and
will be present as long as lock-ups exist.
Discontinuing the use of electronic
devices in the lock-up facility will
significantly reduce our risk of
premature release from this source.
IV. Result
The intended result of this notice of
DOL’s planned elimination of the use of
electronic devices in the lock-up facility
as of March 1, 2020, is to protect the
integrity of our data and preserve the
public benefit from the informed
products produced by the media shortly
after release. In addition, it enables DOL
to widely disseminate the DOL PFEI and
non-PFEI news releases in an equitable,
secure, and cost-effective manner so that
all data release information is available
to the public and the media,
simultaneously at the official release
time.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau
of Economic Analysis and U.S. Census
Bureau are also committed to the secure,
timely, and equitable release of all
Principal Federal Economic Indicators.
As such, both Bureaus will continue to
conduct embargoed media lock-ups at
the Department of Labor’s facility and
will align their procedures with the new
process and timeline.
We are advising stakeholders now of
this action planned in 2020 to facilitate
a predictable and orderly process for
stakeholders in the DOL lock-up facility.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 3rd day of
February 2020.
William W. Beach,
Commissioner of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2020–02383 Filed 2–6–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510–24–P
NATIONAL FOUNDATION ON THE
ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES
National Endowment for the Arts
Submission for Office of Management
and Budget Review: Comment Request
ACTION:
E:\FR\FM\07FEN1.SGM
Notice.
07FEN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 26 (Friday, February 7, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7332-7333]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02383]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Announcing Elimination of Electronic Devices in the DOL Lock-Up
Facility for Participating News Media Organizations With Pre-Release
Access to Statistical Information
AGENCY: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (DOL) plans to eliminate use of all
electronic devices in the lock-up facility and continue to rely on
transmission sources readily available to the general public to provide
simultaneous data access to all interested users. These sources include
agency websites, social media channels, and email subscription lists.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Trupo, Deputy Assistant
Secretary, Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, 200
Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC; 202-693-4676;
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responsible for the
development and oversight of Government-wide policies, principles,
standards, and guidelines concerning statistical information
presentation and dissemination, as well as the timely release of
statistical data. OMB has issued a series of Statistical Policy
Directives (SPDs) to guide agencies in their dissemination of
statistical products. Each of these SPDs describes the fundamental
statistical-system principle of equitable and timely dissemination of
statistical information to the public. See, e.g., SPD No. 1,
Fundamental Responsibilities of Federal Statistical Agencies and
Recognized Statistical Units (Dec. 2, 2014) (``the objectivity of the
information released to the public is maximized by making information
available on an equitable, policy-neutral, transparent, timely, and
punctual basis''); SPD No. 3, Compilation, Release, and Evaluation of
Principal Federal Economic Indicators (Sept. 25, 1985) (emphasizing the
importance of releasing Principal Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs)
to the public in a fair and orderly manner); SPD No. 4, Release and
Dissemination of Statistical Products Produced by Federal Statistical
Agencies (Mar. 7, 2008) (``Statistical agencies must ensure that all
users have equitable and timely access to data that are disseminated to
the public''). In short, equitable and timely dissemination of
statistical information is a core principle of Federal statistical
policy.
For many years, consistent with these Statistical Policy
Directives, the news media have aided BLS and ETA in disseminating
their statistical data. Since the mid-1980s, DOL agencies have provided
pre-release data access to news organizations under strict embargoes
(known as ``lock-ups'') for PFEIs, which are a set of designated
economic data series (e.g., the Employment Situation and Consumer Price
Index) that have significant commercial value and may affect the
movement of commodity and financial markets upon release. In addition,
DOL has employed lock-ups for the release of limited non-PFEI data
(i.e., Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims). Although not required to
do so, the Department of Labor (DOL) in 1988 constructed a special
lock-up facility to provide pre-release access to news media
organizations. Steps were taken to enhance the security of the lock-up
facility in 1992 and again in 2011-2012. The lock-ups provide
participating media organizations 30 minutes before official release
time to digest PFEI data (and potentially longer in the case of non-
PFEIs). At the official release time, the communication lines within
the facility are opened, allowing the press to transmit their articles
or tables of data to the public.
For many years, dissemination through the lock-up process was a
highly effective method to get information to the public. But today, it
is no longer the best means to ensure the equitable and timely
dissemination of statistical information consistent with OMB's
guidance. Continuing security concerns also outweigh any continuing
benefits of the current process.
DOL's Inspector General has noted concerns with the current press
lock-up process, including in reports dated January 2, 2014 (17-14-001-
03-315) and March 25, 2016 (17-16-001-01-001). Specifically, DOL
Inspector General Report 17-14-001-03-315 states that the lock-up
``unintentionally creates an unfair competitive advantage for certain
news organizations and their clients'':
Pre-release access of DOL-generated economic data is intended to
serve the general public by ensuring that news reports about the
data are accurate. To that end, the media are given access to the
data in advance of the public release to facilitate their ability to
analyze and ask questions about the data as they prepare their news
stories. However, the intended purpose of ensuring accurate news
reports must be weighed against the inequitable trading advantage
that a lock-up
[[Page 7333]]
can potentially create. Several news organizations that participate
in the DOL press lock-up are able to profit from their presence in
the lock-up by selling, to traders, high speed data feeds of
economic data formatted for computerized algorithmic trading.
Because these news organizations have pre-release access, they are
able to pre-load the data . . . allowing their clients to get this
information faster than the general public, which has to wait to
download the data after it gets posted to the Department of Labor
websites.
The aforementioned report further recommends that BLS and ETA, ``.
. . implement a strategy designed to eliminate any competitive
advantage that news organizations present in the lock-up and/or their
clients may have; or, absent a viable solution, consider discontinuing
the use of the press lock-up that provides news organizations pre-
release access.''
It remains DOL's policy to ensure the media are given time to
prepare informed summaries and analysis of economic data for the
general public. However, to protect the integrity of our data and
promote wide dissemination of key economic data in an equitable,
timely, secure, and cost-effective manner, as of March 1, 2020, DOL
will eliminate use of all electronic devices in the lock-up facility.
The change to eliminate use of all electronic devices in the lock-up
facility seeks to minimize the risk of premature disclosure of the data
and the risk of providing an unfair monetary advantage over the rest of
the public due to the preparation time provided by their early access
to the data. Specifically, this change will minimize the advantage of
allowing lock-up participants to prepare electronic data tables that
may be used for algorithmic trading ventures. The BLS and ETA will
continue to make their data available to the general public immediately
upon their 8:30 release through the Web and other sources.
II. Action
In an effort to protect the integrity of our data and ensure
fairness in the dissemination of statistical information, DOL plans to
eliminate use of all electronic devices in the DOL lock-up facility
starting on March 1, 2020. After that date, credentialed press will
continue to be allowed into the facility 30 minutes prior to release
time, following existing security protocols. BLS and ETA staff will be
present in the lock-up facility; will provide paper copies of releases
and related material; and will be available to answer questions.
Credentialed press will be allowed to take notes on paper. At release
time, credentialed press will be able to leave the lock-up facility.
DOL staff will continue to escort TV press to their camera stations a
few minutes before release time, following existing procedures. The
purpose of these changes is to ``ensure that all users have equitable
and timely access to data that are disseminated to the public'' as
noted in OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 4.
BLS and ETA will provide access to the official news releases at
their scheduled release times on the agency websites. In addition, the
agencies will continue to announce the releases through social media
channels and send the news releases to email subscribers. Agencies will
continue to respond to questions about the data from the public
following the release as well as questions from the media attending the
lock-ups during and after the lock-up time period.
III. Necessity of Action
When DOL began providing embargoed data releases in the mid-1980s,
media dissemination was an equitable and timely method to get data to
the public. Today, technology and the internet permits the public and
interested data users to obtain releases for themselves. Unlike media
organizations in the lock-up facility, however, internet users do not
have 30 minutes before the official release time to digest the data,
and are disadvantaged relative to lock-up participants to the extent
that internet postings may lag slightly behind lock-up transmissions.
Furthermore, developments in high-speed algorithmic trading technology
have also raised concerns about the possible impact of unequal access
to sensitive economic data. As discussed above, DOL's Inspector General
has issued multiple reports with findings that maintaining the current
press lock-up ``creates an unfair competitive advantage for certain
news organizations and their clients.''
In the time since the OIG recommendations were issued, BLS and ETA
have devoted significant resources to introducing improved technologies
that strengthen our infrastructure and ensure data are posted to the
BLS or DOL websites immediately following the official release time.
With the introduction of these improved technologies, DOL is positioned
to eliminate the use of all electronic devices in the lock-up facility
while still ensuring that all parties, including the media, commercial
entities, and the general public, will have equitable and timely access
to our most sensitive data.
Continuing use of electronic devices in the lock-up process also
raises considerations of security and cost-efficiency. Given the
sensitive nature of DOL's PFEI and limited non-PFEI data, we have
devoted significant attention over the years to safeguarding embargoed
data to prevent its release out of the lock-up facility prematurely.
This has included establishing a secure technical and physical
infrastructure, monitoring participants' adherence to the rules, and
continually upgrading security as cyber threats have evolved. Despite
all these precautions, however, the risk of a premature data release is
inherent in the nature of lock-ups and will be present as long as lock-
ups exist. Discontinuing the use of electronic devices in the lock-up
facility will significantly reduce our risk of premature release from
this source.
IV. Result
The intended result of this notice of DOL's planned elimination of
the use of electronic devices in the lock-up facility as of March 1,
2020, is to protect the integrity of our data and preserve the public
benefit from the informed products produced by the media shortly after
release. In addition, it enables DOL to widely disseminate the DOL PFEI
and non-PFEI news releases in an equitable, secure, and cost-effective
manner so that all data release information is available to the public
and the media, simultaneously at the official release time.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S.
Census Bureau are also committed to the secure, timely, and equitable
release of all Principal Federal Economic Indicators. As such, both
Bureaus will continue to conduct embargoed media lock-ups at the
Department of Labor's facility and will align their procedures with the
new process and timeline.
We are advising stakeholders now of this action planned in 2020 to
facilitate a predictable and orderly process for stakeholders in the
DOL lock-up facility.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 3rd day of February 2020.
William W. Beach,
Commissioner of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2020-02383 Filed 2-6-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P
