44 U.S.C. § 3504

(a) (1) The Director shall oversee the use of information resources to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental operations to serve agency missions, including burden reduction and service delivery to the public. In performing such oversight, the Director shall— (A) develop, coordinate and oversee the implementation of Federal information resources management policies, principles, standards, and guidelines; and (B) provide direction and oversee— (i) the review and approval of the collection of information and the reduction of the information collection burden; (ii) agency dissemination of and public access to information; (iii) statistical activities; (iv) records management activities; (v) privacy, confidentiality, security, disclosure, and sharing of information; and (vi) the acquisition and use of information technology, including alternative information technologies that provide for electronic submission, maintenance, or disclosure of information as a substitute for paper and for the use and acceptance of electronic signatures. (2) The authority of the Director under this subchapter shall be exercised consistent with applicable law. (b) With respect to general information resources management policy, the Director shall— (1) develop and oversee the implementation of uniform information resources management policies, principles, standards, and guidelines; (2) foster greater sharing, dissemination, and access to public information, including through— (A) the use of comprehensive data inventories and the Federal data catalogue under section 3511; and (B) the development and utilization of common standards for information collection, storage, processing and communication, including standards for security, interconnectivity and interoperability; (3) initiate and review proposals for changes in legislation, regulations, and agency procedures to improve information resources management practices; (4) oversee the development and implementation of best practices in information resources management, including training; (5) oversee agency integration of program and management functions with information resources management functions; and (6) issue guidance for agencies to implement section 3506(b)(6) in a manner that takes into account— (A) risks and restrictions related to the disclosure of personally identifiable information, including the risk that an individual data asset in isolation does not pose a privacy or confidentiality risk but when combined with other available information may pose such a risk; (B) security considerations, including the risk that information in an individual data asset in isolation does not pose a security risk but when combined with other available information may pose such a risk; (C) the cost and benefits to the public of converting a data asset into a machine-readable format that is accessible and useful to the public; (D) whether the application of the requirements described in such section to a data asset could result in legal liability; (E) a determination of whether a data asset— (i) is subject to intellectual property rights, including rights under titles 17 and 35; (ii) contains confidential business information, that could be withheld under section 552(b)(4) of title 5 ; or (iii) is otherwise restricted by contract or other binding, written agreement; (F) the requirement that a data asset be disclosed, if it would otherwise be made available under section 552 of title 5 (commonly known as the “Freedom of Information Act”); and (G) any other considerations that the Director determines to be relevant. (c) With respect to the collection of information and the control of paperwork, the Director shall— (1) review and approve proposed agency collections of information; (2) coordinate the review of the collection of information associated with Federal procurement and acquisition by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, with particular emphasis on applying information technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Federal procurement, acquisition and payment, and to reduce information collection burdens on the public; (3) minimize the Federal information collection burden, with particular emphasis on those individuals and entities most adversely affected; (4) maximize the practical utility of and public benefit from information collected by or for the Federal Government; (5) establish and oversee standards and guidelines by which agencies are to estimate the burden to comply with a proposed collection of information; 1 1 So in original. Probably should be followed by “and”. (6) publish in the Federal Register and make available on the Internet (in consultation with the Small Business Administration) on an annual basis a list of the compliance assistance resources available to small businesses, with the first such publication occurring not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002. (d) With respect to information dissemination, the Director shall develop and oversee the implementation of policies, principles, standards, and guidelines to— (1) apply to Federal agency dissemination of public information, regardless of the form or format in which such information is disseminated; and (2) promote public access to public information and fulfill the purposes of this subchapter, including through the effective use of information technology. (e) With respect to statistical policy and coordination, the Director shall— (1) coordinate the activities of the Federal statistical system to ensure— (A) the efficiency and effectiveness of the system; and (B) the integrity, objectivity, impartiality, utility, and confidentiality of information collected for statistical purposes; (2) ensure that budget proposals of agencies are consistent with system-wide priorities for maintaining and improving the quality of Federal statistics and prepare an annual report on statistical program funding; (3) develop and oversee the implementation of Governmentwide policies, principles, standards, and guidelines concerning— (A) statistical collection procedures and methods; (B) statistical data classification; (C) statistical information presentation and dissemination; (D) timely release of statistical data; and (E) such statistical data sources as may be required for the administration of Federal programs; (4) evaluate statistical program performance and agency compliance with Governmentwide policies, principles, standards and guidelines; (5) promote the sharing of information collected for statistical purposes consistent with privacy rights and confidentiality pledges; (6) coordinate the participation of the United States in international statistical activities, including the development of comparable statistics; (7) appoint a chief statistician who is a trained and experienced professional statistician to carry out the functions described under this subsection; (8) establish an Interagency Council on Statistical Policy to advise and assist the Director in carrying out the functions under this subsection that shall— (A) be headed by the chief statistician; and (B) consist of— (i) the heads of the major statistical programs; and (ii) representatives of other statistical agencies under rotating membership; (9) provide opportunities for training in statistical policy functions to employees of the Federal Government under which— (A) each trainee shall be selected at the discretion of the Director based on agency requests and shall serve under the chief statistician for at least 6 months and not more than 1 year; and (B) all costs of the training shall be paid by the agency requesting training; and (10) ensure that any change to the standards of core-based statistical area (as defined in section 4 of the MAPS Act of 2021) delineations pursuant to this subsection shall— (A) be accompanied by a public report that explains— (i) the scientific basis, criteria, and methodology for such change to existing standards, including clear quantitative thresholds for determining any future statistical re-delineations; and (ii) the opinions of domestic and international experts in statistics and demographics, including government experts at the Bureau of the Census and other relevant agencies, who were consulted regarding such change to existing standards; (B) not be influenced by any non-statistical considerations such as impact on program administration or service delivery; and (C) not propagate automatically for any non-statistical use by any domestic assistance program (as defined in section 4 of the MAPS Act of 2021). (f) With respect to records management, the Director shall— (1) provide advice and assistance to the Archivist of the United States and the Administrator of General Services to promote coordination in the administration of chapters 29, 31, and 33 of this title with the information resources management policies, principles, standards, and guidelines established under this subchapter; (2) review compliance by agencies with— (A) the requirements of chapters 29, 31, and 33 of this title; and (B) regulations promulgated by the Archivist of the United States and the Administrator of General Services; and (3) oversee the application of records management policies, principles, standards, and guidelines, including requirements for archiving information maintained in electronic format, in the planning and design of information systems. (g) With respect to privacy and security, the Director shall— (1) develop and oversee the implementation of policies, principles, standards, and guidelines on privacy, confidentiality, security, disclosure and sharing of information collected or maintained by or for agencies; and (2) oversee and coordinate compliance with sections 552 and 552a of title 5, sections 20 and 21 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act ( 15 U.S.C. 278g–3 and 278g–4), section 11331 of title 40 and subchapter II of this chapter, and related information management laws. (h) With respect to Federal information technology, the Director shall— (1) in consultation with the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Administrator of General Services— (A) develop and oversee the implementation of policies, principles, standards, and guidelines for information technology functions and activities of the Federal Government, including periodic evaluations of major information systems; and (B) oversee the development and implementation of standards under section 11331 of title 40 ; 2 2 See References in Text note below. (2) monitor the effectiveness of, and compliance with, directives issued under subtitle III of title 40 and directives issued under section 322 2 of title 40; (3) coordinate the development and review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of policy associated with Federal procurement and acquisition of information technology with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy; (4) ensure, through the review of agency budget proposals, information resources management plans and other means— (A) agency integration of information resources management plans, program plans and budgets for acquisition and use of information technology; and (B) the efficiency and effectiveness of inter-agency information technology initiatives to improve agency performance and the accomplishment of agency missions; and (5) promote the use of information technology by the Federal Government to improve the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Federal programs, including through dissemination of public information and the reduction of information collection burdens on the public.