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Quarterly Financial Report Reauthorization Act

Floor Speech

By: Ted Lieu
By: Ted Lieu
Date: Sept. 24, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, I introduced the Quarterly Financial Report Reauthorization Act, a bill that would reauthorize a vital and commonsense program for 15 years. The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ordered the bill reported by voice vote in July of 2015.

I want to thank Chairman Chaffetz and Ranking Member Cummings for working to quickly move this bill forward prior to the program's expiration this year.

Since the end of World War II, the QFR has been a closely watched principal economic indicator used to determine our Nation's gross domestic product, the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds account, and other vital economic estimates.

It is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau based on a sample size of 12,500 companies across a variety of industry sectors, from mining, to manufacturing, to information and professional services. The end result is timely, accurate data on business financial conditions for over one-third of our economy that is widely used by both government and private sector actors.

The program plans to further expand coverage to over 60 percent of our economy, tracking additional sectors and industries, such as health care and real estate.

The Department of Commerce has called the reauthorization of this program a top priority, and the U.S. Census Bureau has received letters of validation from both the public and private sectors.

The Small Business Administration supports it as do companies such as ProQuest, a Michigan-based global information content and technology company, and companies such as Wells Fargo, whose chief economist wrote in support of this QFR and said: Good decisions require good information.

At a time when our country is not that far removed from the wake of the global financial crisis, we need all the tools at our disposal to measure the state of our economy and to chart our progress.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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