Slow Boring
The federal statistical system is at risk. Declining data quality would compound the harm of an economic downturn or financial crisis.
Here are five risks currently facing our federal statistical system, roughly in order of when they emerged:
- Disappearing data: Numerous datasets were removed from statistical websites, suddenly and without explanation. Some have been fully restored; others have been altered; and others remain missing. The still-missing or altered datasets cover topics directly related to Administration priorities, such as gender identity, environmental justice, and law enforcement. In addition, a much wider swath of data — including economic data — temporarily went missing. Large sections of the Census Bureau’s website were inaccessible for days, an apparently unintended consequence of the bureau’s need to review and confirm that no documents about gender identity were publicly accessible. As a result, in the week leading up the jobs report for January 2025, key benchmarking data on Census population estimates were unavailable.
- Budget cuts: Statistical agencies are expecting severe cuts in the still-under-debate Fiscal Year 2025 federal budget. Those cuts would be on top of recent high attrition and Executive Orders instituting a hiring freeze and workforce reductions. Many staff who conduct surveys in-person or gather on-site data like retail prices are probationary and therefore at elevated risk of being laid off. Such cuts could force the agencies to cease production and publication of some economic indicators, or to substitute modeled estimates for hard data.
- Lost expertise:
- Privacy risks:
- Reduced trust in government data:
