Management and Budget Office August 25, 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issues a request for public comments on a proposal to modify one provision within Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, Release, and Evaluation of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (Directive No. 3). The procedures in Directive No. 3, published in 1985, were designed to ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and timely release and dissemination of Principal Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs). The goals of Directive No. 3 remain sound; this Notice proposes updates to procedures consistent with these goals to reflect advances in communication technologies and methods. In particular, OMB proposes to modify the provision, ``employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time,'' by replacing ``one hour'' with ``thirty minutes.'' This proposed change would reduce the delay after official release time before commentary from employees of the Executive Branch. Additional discussion of the request for public comment may be found in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.