Recognizing Bureau Of Labor Statistics

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 30, commending the Bureau of Labor Statistics on its 125th anniversary.

In our current economic climate, there is a lot of discussion about economic data, what the data means for our recovery, and more importantly, how many of our fellow citizens are going back to work.

What is not talked about is the government agency that is responsible for gathering this data. For 125 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, has been charged with collecting and examining information related to our economic health. According to the BLS mission statement, the agency is the principal factfinding body for the Federal Government.

A survey of any economic analysis demonstrates that this information is widely used by academics, Federal and State governments, private companies, and news reporters. The agency has more than 2,000 economists in its headquarters and eight regional offices, gathering unemployment data, wage data, safety and health statistics, and a whole host of information to provide us with a clear picture of the state of the economy across this country. Congress relies on the statistics produced by the Bureau for a variety of programs and for guiding a myriad of policy decisions.

The Bureau examines payroll data and various demographics so that we have detailed information about employment by hours, by industry, and geographic areas. BLS also provides a snapshot of employee benefit plans or labor productivity.

When your children ask if they will ever use anything they learn in school in real life, you can point to the economists and statisticians at BLS as an example of putting math and science to work. When your children complain about how much time that they spend in school, you can tell them, according to the American Time Use Survey developed by BLS, 9 percent of the population is engaged in educational activities daily. I doubt if it brings them any comfort, though. That 9 percent spends, on average, 4.5 hours in class and 2.4 hours engaged in homework.

I rise today to commend the staff of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 125 years of dedicated service and urge the passage of S. Con. Res. 30, commending their service to the Nation. I ask my colleagues to support this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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