U.S. Department of Commerce Information

The U.S. Department of Commerce has a broad mandate for the advancement of economic growth and jobs and opportunities for the American people. The Department of Commerce has cross cutting responsibilities in the areas of trade, technology, economic development, entrepreneurship, environmental stewardship, analysis and statistical research.

The department provides various services and products in varied fields including weather forecasts, the decennial census, patent and trademark protection for business houses and inventors. The main motto of the department of commerce is to provide new opportunities from the beginning and it still remains the primary obligation today.   

Bureaus under the Department of Commerce

There are several bureaus which fall under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Commerce like Bureau of Industry and Security, Economics and Statistics Administration, Economic Development Administration, International Trade Administration, Minority Business Development Agency, National Institute of Standard and Technology, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, National Technical Information Service, National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Patent and Trademark Office.

Bureau of Industry and Security

The main focus of the BIS is the advancement of the national security of U.S., foreign policy and economic objectives by ensuring treaty compliance, export control effectively to promote strategic technology leadership.

In order to serve the export community, the Bureau of Industry and Security or the BIS have come up with an online tool known as the System for Tracking Export License, also called as STELA. This system will help you to check and track the status of the export/re-export license applications, AGR notifications and classification requests from https://snapr.bis.doc.gov/stela. In order to track down your license status, the BIS assigned application control number or the ACN must be entered into the system by the applicant and they will be provided with the status information same as the communication made through the STELA voice response system, which is a phone based information system.

Economics and Statistics Administration

Under the Economics and Statistics Administration there are two major departments: the Bureau of Economic Analysis or the BEA and the Census Bureau.

The BEA or the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports to the Secretary for Economic Affairs. Some of the most crucial economic statistics are issued by this bureau and the government officials decisions gets influenced by these statistics. You can access the National Economic Accounts Data, International Economic Accounts Data, Regional Economic Accounts Data and Industry Economic Accounts Data from http://www.bea.gov/.

The Census Bureau reports directly to the Secretary for Economic Affairs. It’s the nation’s collector and timely, relevant, quality data provider about the economy and people of the United States. You can visit http://www.census.gov/ for information about American Community Survey, Estimates, Projections, State Median Income, Genealogy, Census, Economic Census, NAICS, Foreign Trade, Export Codes and others.

Economic Development Administration

The Economic Development Administration’s main agenda is to promote innovation and competitiveness and providing growth and success to various regions in the country. The programs that the department actively indulges in are public works and economic development, economic adjustment assistance, community trade adjustment assistance, planning program, global climate change mitigation, research and national technical assistance and local technical assistance. You can get reports about these programs from http://www.eda.gov/ .  

International Trade Administration

International Trade Administration was set up to promote trade and investment, strengthening competitiveness of the industry and ensuring fair trade. The Office of Trade and Industry Information is an integral part of the International Trade Administration, which provides a solid base to trade and industry data to give support in the process of national trade policy development.

The TPIS or Trade Policy Information System set up by the Office of Trade and Industry Information is currently accessible only by the Federal Government and the TPIS system can only be accessed to a certain limit by the contractors or institutions which are outside the federal government through an account in the federal agency under a contract or grant from that particular agency. To access the system, one will have to register by creating an account.

The TPIS system includes current and historical data related to trade from various sources like detail information about U.S. merchandise trade statistics provided by the Bureau of Census, United Nations trade statistics and multiple country statistics related to international finance, balance of payments, direction of trade and developing country debt provided by the IMF and World Bank. The records are available from http://mapil1.ita.doc.gov/ .

Minority Business Development Agency

The MBDA or Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce is the sole federal agency specifically created to foster establishment and growth of minority-owned business. The records are available from http://www.mbda.gov/ .

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Information related to storm warnings, weather forecasts, fisheries management, climate monitoring, marine commerce, coastal restoration are all available from National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration or NOAA. You can access the information from http://www.noaa.gov/.

National Technical Information Service

The NTIS or National Technical Information Service is the largest storehouse of government funded technical, scientific, engineering and other business related information available currently.

The NTIS database contains updated and latest researches which are sponsored by the United States government and foreign governments. The main contents are reports on research, computer products, audio cassettes, video cassettes, software’s and many more.

You can access the database of NTIS through commercial services or by direct lease from NTIS. You can also contact the Office of the Product Management by dialing 703 605 6515. You can visit the official website http://www.ntis.gov/.

National Telecommunication and Information Administration 

The NTIA or National Telecommunication and Information Administration is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce which is an executive branch and it is responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policies. There are several offices under NTIA are Office of Spectrum Management, Office of Policy Analysis and Development, Office of International Affairs, Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and Office of Telecommunication and Information Applications.

You can contact the department at the address: FOIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room 4713, Washington, DC 20230 or you can access it on http://www.ntia.doc.gov/.

United States Patent and Trademark Office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is a wing under the department of commerce which advises the President of U.S., the Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Government agencies on matter relating to IP or Intellectual Property policy, enforcement, protection of IP around the globe. The information originating and kept in this department are related to patents and trademarks from http://www.uspto.gov/ebc.

Updating Records

As these records are federal records of utmost importance they get updated regularly and are open to the public for viewing. For each visit or request received, the website collects and stores the time and date, the IP address, the type of operating system used, the URL visited, the requested information, request completion status and visited page.