Most Important Results
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| Status | Number of Measures |
|---|---|
| Blue: exceeded performance target | 14 |
| Green: met performance target | 32 |
| Yellow: almost met performance target | 1 |
| Red: did not meet performance target | 6 |
The Department achieved success in 87 percent of the targets that were set. Such achievements can be measured through the many activities that support this goal.
The Economic Development Administration (EDA) measures the results of its investments three, six, and nine years after the award date. EDA data indicate that investments made in FY 2003, FY 2000 and FY 1997 (three, six and nine years prior to FY 2006) generated $4.94 billion in private investment and created or retained 105,206 jobs. EDA anticipates that investments made in FY 2006 will generate $265 million by FY 2009, $662 million by FY 2012, and $1.324 billion by FY 2015. EDA expects that those same investments will create or retain 7,019 jobs by 2009, 17,548 jobs by FY 2012, and 35,097 jobs by FY 2015.
The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) responded to the Department’s Gulf Coast Initiative by identifying competitive minority business enterprises (MBE) capable of competing for contract opportunities to rebuild New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast. The Agency reprogrammed funds, established a temporary Minority Business Enterprise Center (MBEC) in New Orleans, hired an area manager to work in the community, and funded a new Minority Business Opportunity Center (MBOC) to service Louisiana and Mississippi.
To further support this effort, MBDA developed a new demonstration program entitled “Business to Business (B2B) Partnership Linkages.” These forums brought minority businesses together to form joint ventures that allowed them to compete for larger contracts that would normally go to large non-minority firms. MBDA invited other federal agencies to participate, identifying specific contracts that were being announced and to provide mentoring and technical assistance. Successful forums were held in New Orleans, Biloxi, and Washington, DC, with more scheduled for later in the year.
In response to the MBDA vision statement of reaching economic parity, a special report, “The State of Minority Business Enterprises,” was presented at the 2006 National Minority Enterprise Week celebration. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of minority firms increased by 35 percent, significantly higher than the six percent gain by non-minority firms. Also, the annual receipts generated by MBEs increased by 13 percent compared to only a three percent growth of receipts for non-minorities. In addition, the number of paid employees grew by five percent compared to a decline of seven percent for non-minority businesses.
In the area of trade, the International Trade Administration (ITA) advanced two critical program priorities by its efforts to strengthen public-private promotion through leveraging public and private partnerships and by promoting U.S. exports in strategic and emerging markets. These priorities reinforced ITA’s goal to broaden and deepen the export base. The President and the Secretary of Commerce rely upon ITA to advance free trade as a means to create opportunities for U.S. companies in recently negotiated Free Trade Agreements (FTA), as well as critical strategic and emerging markets. Government and industry have worked side-by-side to support passage of several FTAs, advance U.S. positions in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and to expand market access and promote U.S. exports in commercially strategic markets. These efforts have yielded the following results:
 United States and India held talks on stimulating high-technology commerce, focusing on trade facilitation and on ways to enhance the security of bilateral high-technology trade. |
ITA has remained committed in FY 2006 to address the removal of existing trade barriers and compliance with negotiated trade agreements. ITA through its Import Administration (IA) program enforces U.S. trade laws and works extensively with U.S. businesses on a regular basis to help them understand U.S. trade laws related to dumping and foreign government subsidies. During the past year, IA has negotiated and has started implementing two key agreements, one on Mexican cement and one on Canadian softwood lumber.
In FY 2006, the Department served U.S. security needs and U.S. exporters by strengthening and streamlining the dual-use export control system, and ensuring the timely review of all license applications.
The Department published a major rule updating high performance computer export requirements in FY 2006 that will contribute to U.S. competitiveness consistent with U.S. national security interests. The Department also promoted U.S. competitiveness by establishing the Deemed Export Advisory Committee (DEAC) in June 2006 to review and provide recommendations to the Secretary on possible changes to regulations governing the unauthorized transfers of technology or source code within the United States (“deemed exports”) in a manner permitting U.S. businesses, universities, and research institutions access to the highly skilled people they need to sustain the U.S. innovation economy.
The Department also published a proposed export policy rule in the Federal Register in July 2006 that will facilitate U.S. exports to civilian enterprises in China while ensuring that sensitive U.S. technologies do not increase Chinese military capabilities. The rule is open to public comment until early November, after which the Department will promulgate the final regulation. The proposed rule achieves two important and complementary objectives: supporting U.S. companies in competing in the vast Chinese market for civilian technology while preventing the export of technologies that contribute to China’s military modernization.
 Under Secretary David McCormick and Chinese Ministry of Commerce Vice Minister Ma Xinhong sign papers establishing the U.S.-China High Technology and Strategic Trade Working Group under the JCCT. |
The Department also advanced trade consistent with national security through an industry outreach program to facilitate compliance with U.S. export controls. In FY 2006, the Department conducted 53 seminars to respond to a variety of exporter needs, including 5 seminars in other countries. They included programs on the major elements of the U.S. dual-use export control system, programs that explain exporter obligations under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and special topic seminars.
Improved targeting of enforcement resources led to 872 actions that resulted in a deterrence or prevention of a violation and cases which resulted in a criminal and/or administrative charge. 79 percent of these successes were in the priority areas of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), terrorism, and military diversion. The outcome was 34 convictions, and the imposition of $3 million in fines for criminal export violations; prosecution of 104 administrative cases (95 enforcement and nine antiboycott) and the imposition of $13.1 million in administrative penalties; and completion of more than 942 end-use verifications overseas to confirm compliance with export license requirements.
The Department completed all FY 2006 planned activities and operations related to the 2006 Census Test. Building on the results of the 2004 Census Test, the use and evaluation of the hand held computer for both new and improved functionality being studied in the 2006 Census Test will ultimately inform the requirements for the use of these devices in the 2008 Dress Rehearsal and the 2010 Census. The test also will provide important information regarding coverage improvement and coverage measurement methodologies, the use of a multi-language guide, replacement questionnaire delivery strategies, group quarters enumeration operations, and improved methodologies for conducting enumeration operations on American Indian reservations. Two major automation contracts were awarded during FY 2006—the Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) contract (October 2005) and the Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) contract (March 2006).
The Department successfully completed updates to geographic reference features for all planned counties for FY 2006. Improving the Census Bureau’s geographic data is important in order to improve accuracy, reduce operational risk, and contain the cost of the 2010 Census. Census data are used for the apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and for the distribution of billions of dollars in federal funds to states and localities.
In addition, for economic programs, all data products were released on schedule and targeted response rates were met. The economic releases included 123 principal economic indicators, the Annual Survey of Manufactures, the Annual Trade Survey, the Annual Retail Trade Survey, the Service Annual Survey, the Annual Public Employment Survey and 51 reports from the 2002 Economic Census. These statistics are critical to understanding the condition and performance of the U.S. economy and are used extensively by government and private-sector decisionmakers. Census Bureau surveys and census results also are used in other important federal measures of economic activity, including the producer price indexes and measures of industrial production. The Department met its target to achieve at least 90 percent of the planned response rates and released all data products on time for the demographic surveys. These data are used to make policy decisions about programs that support schools, employment services, housing assistance, hospital services, and programs for the elderly and disabled. The data are also used to modify programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), within the Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA), has made significant gains in improving the economic information used as the basis for important decisions by business leaders, policymakers and the U.S. public. In 2006, BEA considerably improved the accuracy and relevance of its economic data through such efforts as introducing the preliminary research and development (R&D) satellite accounts, expanding the geographic detail on U.S. international transactions, and concluding a successful joint effort with the Federal Reserve to publish integrated estimates of the national income and product accounts (NIPA) and flow of funds. BEA also incorporated data from the Census Bureau’s FY 2006 expansion of the Quarterly Services Survey (QSS). This new and important data source provides detailed quarterly estimates for some of the nation’s largest and most volatile industries. By providing this information quarterly rather than annually or once every five years, the Department is able to provide users with more accurate and earlier estimates on which to base decisions. The Department also continues to meet the demands of users for more current and timely economic statistics. In the past year, the Department accelerated the release of local area industry data by four months, produced prototype gross state product estimates with a 12-month acceleration, and again provided summary estimates on the operations of multinational companies four months ahead of schedule.
Continue to meet the needs of the fast growing population: The Department will develop products and services through customer survey feedback, such as the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The Department will further expand the Strategic Growth Initiative for medium to large size MBEs, while continuing to provide the same level of service for the smaller MBEs. Beginning in FY 2006, the Census Bureau’s ACS began enumeration of Group Quarters and expanded the number of geographies published by nearly tenfold.
Leading the federal economic development agenda: EDA focuses its resources on proven, high-value, cutting-edge economic development activities and techniques promoted by academic and leading practitioners. EDA achieves success by emphasizing regionalism, innovation, and entrepreneurship as the building blocks for successful economic development.
Managing export controls to maximize security with minimum impact on U.S. competitiveness: The global trading system must rest on a firm foundation of security, including the security provided by export controls. The Department will continue to strengthen and streamline the dual-use export control system, improve its process for writing the regulations that translate law and policy into rules for exporters, prioritize its enforcement capabilities on the most important threats, and conduct in-depth studies of strategic industries, with the intention of tailoring export controls to meet the twin challenges of security and competitiveness.
Trade relations with China: The Department in close coordination with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and other agencies has adopted an aggressive and multi-pronged approach to ensure that China honors its WTO commitments and that U.S. companies benefit from these opportunities. The Department will deploy its full resources to open China’s markets to U.S. exporters, while denying China the use of U.S.-origin technologies to support its military build-up.
Deemed export controls: The Department will conduct a thorough review of deemed export policy to ensure that it meets U.S. security needs while promoting the competitiveness of U.S. research. In this review, it will draw upon the findings of the newly established DEAC.
Meeting needs for quality information: The Department will make improvements in the use of state-of-the-art technology in data collection, processing, and dissemination in order to stay ahead of demand from policymakers for information of emerging economic and societal trends.
Continue to accurately measure a constantly and rapidly changing U.S. economy: The U.S. economy is constantly changing and becoming increasingly complex. The Department must be responsive to these changes. To meet this challenge, the Department must better understand how the economy is changing, recognize how these changes are affecting its programs and methods, identify emerging and lessening data needs, and satisfy changing customer needs. Issues of immediate attention are the measurement of pensions, medical costs, and other fringe benefits and the continued expansion of service industry coverage. Program improvement, however, is a daunting task and not one that can be done by the Department alone. The Department must find more effective ways of collaborating with the business world, industry experts, researchers, and policymakers.