Ranking Republican of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) wants to know what actions are being taken after a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economist leaked confidential economic data to certain Wall Street traders.
“The agency must deal with these breaches seriously and immediately,” Sen. Cassidy wrote in an April 26 letter sent to BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer.
According to reports, the BLS economist provided details about the bureau’s methodology for calculating the Consumer Price Index for the housing market to a list of roughly 50 so-called “super users,” and reportedly provided non-public methodological details about forthcoming changes to BLS’s calculations for used car prices, according to the senator’s letter.
As soon as Wall Street received the BLS information, it had an immediate impact on trading, according to one Wall Street economist quoted by Sen. Cassidy in his letter.
“This conduct is unacceptable,” wrote the senator. “Given BLS’ stated mandate as a neutral fact-finding agency responsible for safeguarding statistical information, it is unacceptable that a BLS employee leaked confidential information with market-moving implications to a select, exclusive group of Wall Street insiders.”
BLS has tried to write off the housing market disclosure as a “mistake,” but Sen. Cassidy isn’t buying that excuse.
“In fact, on Jan. 31, before disclosing the non-public housing data, the same economist provided a three-page document to the same super users list detailing the calculations BLS used for car prices,” he wrote.
Sen. Cassidy seeks clarity from BLS on its actions to address the breach and whether the agency is reforming its policies to ensure leaks of confidential, market-moving information do not happen again, and has requested that McEntarfer answer several questions by close of business on May 13.
“Given your commitment to my staff during your nomination to remain a non-partisan economist intent on providing reliable statistical data to the American people, you must take the necessary steps to restore BLS’ reputation as a truly objective fact-finder,” wrote Sen. Cassidy.