Title 44Public Printing and DocumentsRelease 119-73

§3563 Statistical agencies

Title 44 › Chapter CHAPTER 35— - COORDINATION OF FEDERAL INFORMATION POLICY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III— - CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION PROTECTION AND STATISTICAL EFFICIENCY › Part Part A— - General › § 3563

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Statistical agencies and units must make and share timely, useful statistics, keep their work accurate and unbiased, and keep people’s answers private and used only for statistical purposes. They must put in place policies and procedures to do this. Agency leaders must support these units, and the Director will issue rules to carry out these duties. Definitions: accurate = matches real events and trends; confidentiality = not sharing information with unauthorized people; objective = clear, complete, unbiased; relevant = useful to policymakers and other data users.

Full Legal Text

Title 44, §3563

Public Printing and Documents — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)Each statistical agency or unit shall—
(A)produce and disseminate relevant and timely statistical information;
(B)conduct credible and accurate statistical activities;
(C)conduct objective statistical activities; and
(D)protect the trust of information providers by ensuring the confidentiality and exclusive statistical use of their responses.
(2)Each statistical agency or unit shall adopt policies, best practices, and appropriate procedures to implement the responsibilities described in paragraph (1).
(b)The head of each agency shall enable, support, and facilitate statistical agencies or units in carrying out the responsibilities described in subsection (a)(1).
(c)The Director shall prescribe regulations to carry out this section.
(d)In this section:
(1)The term “accurate”, when used with respect to statistical activities, means statistics that consistently match the events and trends being measured.
(2)The term “confidentiality” means a quality or condition accorded to information as an obligation not to disclose that information to an unauthorized party.
(3)The term “objective”, when used with respect to statistical activities, means accurate, clear, complete, and unbiased.
(4)The term “relevant”, when used with respect to statistical information, means processes, activities, and other such matters likely to be useful to policymakers and public and private sector data users.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective 180 days after Jan. 14, 2019, see section 403 of Pub. L. 115–435, set out as an

Effective Date

of 2019 Amendment note under section 306 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

44 U.S.C. § 3563

Title 44Public Printing and Documents

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73