# Chief Statistician of the United States The official who coordinates the federal statistical system. The post sits in the Statistical Policy Branch of the [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]], inside the [[Office of Management and Budget]]. The Chief Statistician: - issues and administers the OMB Statistical Policy Directives, including [[Statistical Policy Directive No. 1]] and [[Statistical Policy Directive No. 15]]; - clears statistical information collections under the [[Paperwork Reduction Act]]; - chairs the [[Interagency Council on Statistical Policy]]; and - represents the United States on the UN Statistical Commission. ## The statute's one qualification The [[Paperwork Reduction Act]] directs the OMB Director to "appoint a chief statistician who is a trained and experienced professional statistician" (44 U.S.C. § 3504(e)(7)). That is the whole of the statutory design. The post is **not Senate-confirmed**, carries **no fixed term** and has **no removal protection**. The one requirement Congress wrote is a professional qualification, and nothing enforces it. ## The lineage The function predates the Act. Stuart Rice held it at the Bureau of the Budget from 1939. Tenure was long by design: Katherine Wallman held it from 1992 to January 2017, and Nancy Potok served from 2017 to 2019. After a two-year acting stretch, Karin Orvis held it from April 2022. Then the tempo changed: | Holder | Tenure | Background | |---|---|---| | Karin Orvis | Apr 2022 – Jul 2025 | Career statistical-policy official; stayed on as branch chief after being replaced | | Mark Calabria | Jul 2025 – Jan 2026 | Economist; former [[FHFA]] director and [[Mike Pence]]'s chief economist; [[Cato Institute]] | | [[Stuart Levenbach]] | Jan 2026 – | OMB associate director for natural resources, energy, science and water; the November 2025 nominee to run the [[CFPB]] | OMB Director [[Russell Vought]] announced Calabria's appointment in July 2025. Levenbach's was never announced. It surfaced in January 2026 when the council's website listed him as chair. ## Why the seat matters The whole system's independence rests on directives this office issues and can rewrite ([[Federal Statistical System Tree]]). Three facts about the 2025–2026 holders define the risk: - Both came from outside the career statistical-policy line that had held the seat since 1992. Both were political OMB officials. - Both held other senior OMB roles at the same time. - The seat turned over twice in six months, during the same stretch in which the BLS commissioner was fired, the Census directorship stayed vacant, and Commerce rewrote the disclosure rules for two statistical agencies by departmental order ([[Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products]]). None of that required changing a statute. That is the finding: the office meant to hold the system together is the easiest seat in it to fill at will. ## See also - [[Federal Statistical System Tree]] · [[Statistical Policy Directive No. 1]] · [[Interagency Council on Statistical Policy]] - [[Office of Management and Budget]] · [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]] · [[Mark Paoletta]] - [[Stuart Levenbach]] · [[How a Census Question Is Added or Removed]] · [[The Politics of Official Statistics]]