January 2020
On December 31, the Trump administration issued the 2020 Federal Data Strategy Action Plan, providing agencies with a timeline to implement actions to support the initiative. The plan includes 20 actions in three categories: agency actions, community of practice actions that are related to a particular topic, and shared solution actions that represent government-wide services developed by an agency for all agencies to use.
Several actions are already underway in accordance with a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in July 2019 to guide the implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act. These include the launch of the Chief Data Officer Council and the establishment of a data governance body in federal agencies. Federal agencies will also be required to assess data and related infrastructure maturity, identify priority data assets for agency open data plans, and identify opportunities to increase staff data skills.
Under the shared solution actions, the National Center for Education Statistics will be responsible for developing a pilot automated tool for information collection reviews submitted to OMB to build agency data inventories. The Census Bureau will be piloting a one-stop standard research application that will provide a consistent process for requesting data access across all agencies.
The action plan supports the President’s Management Agenda Cross-Agency Priority Goal 2: Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset. Over the past two years, the administration sought input on the principles and practices of the Federal Data Strategy, on which AERA provided comment.
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