White House Floats Ending a One-Hour Delay on Economic Comments

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In an era when President Donald Trump tweets about the jobs numbers minutes after their release, the White House is floating an end to a 1980s rule mandating a one-hour waiting period for comments by administration officials on U.S. economic reports.

The Office of Management and Budget is seeking comment on whether newer technology allowing instantaneous dissemination of federal economic indicators warrants “a shorter time delay, including no time delay at all,” according to a notice to be published Thursday.

The proposal refers to a 1985 directive on statistical agencies that includes a provision that executive branch employees, other than those preparing the official indicator releases, “shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time.”

Directive No. 3, as the rules are known in Washington’s language, deserves an update for the Internet era, according to OMB’s notice in the Federal Register. The OMB will take comments for 60 days starting Thursday.

“The internet has, for decades, provided broader, timelier dissemination of information to the public than more historic means” such as newspaper or radio, OMB said, noting that federal statistical agencies immediately publish data and analysis on the web and social media. “Modern forms of dissemination, being more speedy and comprehensive, may reduce the need for such a long time period” before the executive branch weighs in.

Jason Furman -- chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration and among those who have had to wait before characterizing the latest jobs report or gross domestic product data -- supports eliminating the rule.

“The rule is outmoded in an era of massive amounts of internet and Twitter commentary the moment data is released,” he told Bloomberg in an email Wednesday. He added that he’s “not particularly worried that political officials will do too much to skew the interpretation of the data given that their views are always appropriately discounted.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net

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