Management and Budget Office March 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board has adopted, without change, a final rule to add a clause for inclusion in CAS-covered contracts and subcontracts awarded to foreign concerns. The Board is taking this action to provide a standard clause for use by Government and contractor personnel in applying the CAS requirements to contracts and subcontracts awarded to foreign concerns.

OMB is updating the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor used to compute the estimated cost of government performance in public-private competitions conducted pursuant to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76. The civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor is comprised of four separate elements: (1) Insurance and health benefits, (2) standard civilian retirement benefits, (3) Medicare benefits, and (4) miscellaneous fringe benefits. OMB is updating the insurance and health benefits and standard civilian retirement benefits cost elements based on actuarial analyses provided by the Office of Personnel Management. OMB is also updating the annual Federal pay raise assumptions and inflation cost factors used for computing the government's personnel and non-pay costs in Circular A-76 public-private competitions. These annual pay raise assumptions and inflation factors are based on the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2009.

Under 44 U.S.C. 3504(e), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is issuing a new Statistical Policy Directive for the release and dissemination of statistical products produced by Federal statistical agencies. On August 1, 2007, OMB published a Notice of solicitation of comments on a draft of this directive in the Federal Register (72 FR 42266, August 1, 2007). A dozen respondents sent comments in response to the notice. Careful consideration was given to all comments. The disposition of the comments as well as the final directive are presented in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. In its role as coordinator of the Federal statistical system, 44 U.S.C. 3504(e) requires OMB, among other responsibilities, to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the system as well as the integrity, objectivity, impartiality, utility, and confidentiality of information collected for statistical purposes. It also requires OMB to develop and oversee the implementation of Governmentwide policies, principles, standards, and guidelines concerning the presentation and dissemination of statistical information. The Information Quality Act (Pub. L. 106-554, Division C, title V, Sec. 515, Dec. 21, 2000; 114 Stat. 2763A-153 to 2763A-154; 44 U.S.C. Section 3516 note) similarly requires OMB, as well as all other Federal agencies, to maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information, including statistical information, provided to the public. To operate efficiently and effectively, our Nation relies on the flow of objective, credible statistics to support the decisions of governments, businesses, households, and other organizations. Any loss of trust in the integrity of the Federal statistical system and its products could lessen respondent cooperation with Federal statistical surveys, decrease the quality of statistical system products, and foster uncertainty about the validity of measures our Nation uses to monitor and assess its performance and progress. To further support the quality and integrity of Federal statistical information, OMB is issuing a new Statistical Policy Directive designed to preserve and enhance the objectivity and transparency, in fact and in perception, of the processes used to release and disseminate the statistical products of Federal statistical agencies. The procedures in the directive are intended to ensure that statistical data releases adhere to data quality standards through equitable, policy-neutral, and timely release of information to the general public. Additional discussion of the directive and the directive itself may be found in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.