Its surveys reach hundreds of thousands of households and employers every month, under confidentiality rules carrying criminal penalties. The CPI it publishes automatically adjusts Social Security checks, tax brackets, and union contracts.
Open the interactive page for BLS →Created byAct of June 27, 1884, ch. 127, 23 Stat. 60 (Bureau of Labor in the Interior Department); became the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the new Department of Labor under the DOL Organic Act, Mar. 4, 1913, ch. 141, 37 Stat. 736
Head appointed29 U.S.C. § 3: Commissioner of Labor Statistics 'appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate'; 'shall hold his office for four years, unless sooner removed' (PAS)
Removal standardno statutory protection — at will; the 4-year term explicitly yields to earlier removal ('unless sooner removed,' 29 U.S.C. § 3) — reading confirmed in practice by the Aug. 2025 removal of the incumbent Commissioner without litigation success
Funded underAnnual Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies appropriations act; general-fund appropriated
Congressional oversightHouse Education and Workforce · Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Inspector generalDepartment of Labor OIG (PAS IG under the Inspector General Act, 5 U.S.C. § 403)
Judicial reviewEffectively unreviewable in practice — statistical releases (CPI, jobs reports) are not final agency action with legal consequences under the APA; respondent data shielded from FOIA by CIPSEA confidentiality, 44 U.S.C. § 3572 (Exemption 3 statute)
Respond to BLS surveys; its statistical independence rests on professional standards and on congressional and public scrutiny.
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