White House Invites Public Comments to Enhance Measurement of Bioeconomy Manufacturing and Technology
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has initiated a public comment period as part of its ongoing efforts to enhance the identification, classification, and measurement of bioeconomy manufacturing, technology, and products. This initiative, led by the Interagency Technical Working Group on the Bioeconomy, aims to address the directives outlined in an Executive Order issued by President Joe Biden in September 2022, which emphasizes the importance of biotechnology and biomanufacturing.
In line with the Executive Order, the Office of the Chief Statistician of the United States (CSOTUS) has been tasked with improving the collection of federal statistical data to accurately evaluate the economic value of the bioeconomy in the United States. Additionally, CSOTUS has been directed to establish an interagency working group that will propose revisions related to the bioeconomy for the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the North American Product Classification System (NAPCS). The bioeconomy encompasses various sectors of the U.S. economy that utilize or derive value from biological resources, including industries such as fuel, food, medicine, chemicals, and technology.
The request for information (RFI) issued by the OMB on April 27 outlines the necessity of accurately measuring the bioeconomy, as this data plays a crucial role in assessing growth across industrial sectors, informing federal research and development investments, guiding private sector scaling efforts, evaluating emerging economic opportunities at the national and international levels, and promoting equitable distribution of health, food, and labor opportunities.
NAICS and NAPCS are two independent yet complementary classification systems. NAICS focuses on classifying individual business locations based on their economic activities and is widely utilized by federal agencies, state agencies, trade associations, private businesses, and other organizations for statistical data collection related to the U.S. business economy. On the other hand, NAPCS is a market-based classification system that categorizes goods and services, allowing them to be linked to the NAICS industry infrastructure. This system ensures consistency across all three North American countries and facilitates improved identification and classification of service products in international classification systems.
The working group convened by CSOTUS has been assigned the responsibility of developing recommendations for bioeconomy-related revisions to NAICS and NAPCS. These recommendations will promote accurate and reliable measurement of the bioeconomy while upholding the integrity of federal statistical products. Following completion, the recommendations will be submitted to the OMB and the Economic Classification Policy Committee of NAICS for consideration in the proposed revisions to be implemented in 2027.
The working group seeks input from stakeholders on the most effective methods for identifying, classifying, and measuring bioeconomy manufacturing, technology, and products. This includes aspects such as bio-based components of traditional manufacturing processes, nascent biobased processes and products, and primarily biobased products. Stakeholders are encouraged to provide information on how specific industries or products are connected to the bioeconomy. The RFI highlights various segments of the bioeconomy, including energy (fuel and biomass), health (medicine and genetic products), manufacturing (biomaterials/biochemicals and biobased industrial equipment), technology (bio-related software and products), and services (biobased research and development, production, waste management, and resource management).
Interested parties can submit comments in response to the RFI until June 12. This public engagement opportunity allows stakeholders to contribute their insights and expertise, ensuring that the measurement of the bioeconomy accurately reflects its significance and potential impact on various sectors of the economy.
