Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 2721 - Collection of Statistics on Domestic Apparel and Textile Industries

(House)
(Garcia (D) New York and 1 other)

The Administration has no objection to House passage of H.R. 2721 but will work in the Senate to seek an amendment to authorize, rather than require, the Secretary of Commerce to collect data from firms. Mandatory authority would interfere unnecessarily with the Secretary's managerial discretion and would result in the imposition of an unwarranted burden on surveyed firms, contrary to the objectives of the Paperwork Reduction Act. The bill should also be amended to amend title 15 of the United States Code — the general Commerce title — rather than Title 13 — the Census title — to permit the data that are collected to be used for trade analysis.