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2.22. The other primary legal provision governing the collection of resident/non-resident trade in services statistics and FATS data is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. By the provisions of the Act, United States government surveys must undergo an approval process in which the agency in charge of collecting the data is required to demonstrate to the approving authority (the Office of Management and Budget) the following three conditions: (a) the intended data are necessary; (b) they cannot be obtained from an existing source; and (c) their collection does not place an unreasonable burden on respondents. As part of the survey design and clearance process, BEA publishes notices about proposed surveys in the Federal Register. In those notices, BEA requests comments from users and respondents on all aspects of data collection, including the estimate by BEA of the burden imposed by the reporting requirements. BEA considers all comments before making final decisions on the scope and design of its surveys and makes every effort to balance the needs of data users for complete, accurate, detailed and timely data with the concerns of respondents about the burden imposed by the reporting requirements. By convention, approval of a given survey must be renewed within three years.
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[1] See United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, A Guide To BEA’s Services Surveys (Washington, D.C.). Available from www.bea.gov/surveys/pdf/surveysu.pdf.