The Secretary of Labor starts with certain advantages in the field of research and statistics. Included in the Department is the 85-year old Bureau of Labor Statistics, long preeminient in developing current economic data on wages, prices, employment, and many other critical dimensions of economic and social performance. Indeed, the BLS antedates the Department itself, which only goes to show that our forefathers put first things first! In addition, nowadays, other parts of the Department-the Manpower Administration primarily, but also a number of other program and staff units-engage in research or statistical activities related to ongoing programs. Government has assumed many additional functions over the past few decades. The Labor Department is no exception. Many of the new governmental program activities are carried on at the State and local level, and the Administration is making a serious effort to enhance the decision-making power of the State and local governments and regional offices of the Federal Government. If this decision-making process-Federal, State, and local-is to merit the confidence of the country, it must be based on the most competent and objective evaluation of all available evidence. Citizens have a right to expect that their government will not only base decisions on the best available evidence, but also incorporate into the governmental decision-making machinery an effective system for assuring that the pertinent information becomes available when needed. Much of this information is statistical, and to be effective it must be relevant, timely, accurate, and impartially developed and presented. Tonight I shall address myself to government's need for statistics. There is also, of course, a vital need for statistics for private use, by individuals, labor unions, business firms, research organizations, university faculties, and others. The government's statistical program must be cognizant of all these needs. Fortunately, in most instances there is no conflict between the private and government needs for statistics. The content and quality suitable to the one is also suited to the other. But neither need can be neglected at the expense of the other. In the early months of my new position, I have been struck by the many different ways in which our basic research and statistical work interacts with the Department's basic operating programs. One of the goals I have set for myself is to strengthen this interaction so that -the two types of programs, the analytical and the operating, can work more effectively together, each providing close support to the other. This will be the theme of my remarks here tonight and I will try to suggest how this can be done. Let me explain and illustrate the different types of interaction I have in mind. In the first place, basic economic statistics are often critical in planning new Government programs. A recent example is the economic analysis that was undertaken in connection with the President's new proposal for a systein of family assistance payments and related work incentives. Evaluation of alternative proposals involved a close interaction between, on the one hand, statistical data dealing with the distribution of income and consumer expenditures and, on the other hand, program data dealing with the current costs of Federal and State welfare and training programs. Of particular concern was the potential effects of family assistance payments on incentives to work. Statistical analysis of family budgets and other data helped us to make a more realistic appraisal of this problem. The unemployment insurance program provides excellent examples of the interaction between statistics and programs. Such major economic indicators as the Bureau of Labor Statistics series on Employment and Earnings and the Office of Business Economics series on National Income Estimates and their more recent State and area estimates rely heavily on the employment and wage data reported as a part of normal unemployment insurance operations by employers subject to unemployment insurance laws. In turn, the bill for improvement in the unemployment insurance program, sent to Congress to incorporate the recommendations in the President's Message of July 8, was in large part based on data available from unemployment insurance operations and other sources. To summarize the bill's major changes briefly, it would extend coverage to more than five million additional workers, chiefly, in small firms, nonprofit organizations, State hospitals and universities, and farms with four workers in 20 weeks. It would add some new requirements for State laws, including a requirement that individuals not be disqualified for unemployment insurance because they are taking training. It would provide Federal extended benefits, to be triggered into operation by insured unemployment of 4.5 percent for three months. The obsolete $3,000 limit on taxable wages would be increased to $6,000 by 1974, thus providing the increased revenue needed for extended benefits and increased administrative costs with more equity *Presented at the 129-th Anniiual Meeting of the Amiericani Statistical Associationi, New York City, August 19, 1969.