ASA member Rolf R. Schmitt, deputy director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, recently received the 2024 Robert E. Skinner Jr. Distinguished Transportation Research Management Award for his four-decade career advancing transportation statistics.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
ASA, COPAFS, Partners Urge Bolstering of Federal Statistical Agencies
Federal statistics have undergirded our democracy, society, and economy since the nation’s founding. Even as their importance has increased over the centuries—especially recently with the focus on evidence-based policymaking—the agencies producing the data have been neglected, lost important autonomy and statutory protections, and been pushed deeper into the federal bureaucracy.
COVID-19 and the Federal Statistical Agencies: Effects and Reactions
While all the principal federal statistical agencies have efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, this article highlights several related to the economy, health, and transportation.
Final FY16 Spending Bill Provides Increases for NIH, Census, Statistical Agencies
Steve Pierson, ASA Director of Science Policy, breaks down the Fiscal Year 2016 omnibus spending bill signed into law in December, which included needed increases for the National Institutes of Health and many federal statistical agencies.
Administration Affirms Role of Data-Driven Decisionmaking with FY12 Budget Requests
Steve Pierson, director of science policy, discusses the 2012 fiscal year budget and how the administration largely affirms its belief in the value of the federal statistical system.



