On Friday, July 22, the Census Bureau hosted the inaugural meeting of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking at the National Academy of Sciences building. All 15 members have been named, including two fellows and one member of the American Statistical Association (see the full list of members here with the meeting agenda and commissioner bios here) . Members of the commission were very optimistic about evidence-based policymaking, and noted that the formation of the commission is the first of many opportunities for the federal government. Based on the personal histories of commission members as well as the invited speakers, it is clear that the federal statistical agencies will have an important role to play as the commission continues its work.
During the public portion of the meeting, several speakers gave their perspectives on the purpose and significance of the commission. These speakers included Devin O’Connor, Associate Director for Economic Policy of the Office of Management and Budget, Ted McCann, the Assistant to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Righter, the Deputy Staff Director for the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Nancy Potok, the Deputy Director of the US Census Bureau. Access to data was of particular concern, and part of the commission’s duties will be balancing privacy and confidentiality concerns of U.S. residents with researcher’s ease of access to federally funded data collections. Nancy Potok, speaking on behalf of the 13 agencies that form the Federal Statistical System, described the need to modernize data collection methods. Additionally, she encouraged the agencies to be more focused on data dissemination over the historical concern of data collection. Finally, she noted that statistical agencies have a huge opportunity to make recommendations and identify the biggest barriers to cooperation (see the various ways the ASA supports the Federal Statistical System here).
There were also speeches on evidence in action from Federal and Research perspectives. Mary Bohman, Director of the Economic Research Service, spoke about a partnership between the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Census Bureau and how using administrative data can help answer key questions on who participates in SNAP and why. Jeri Mulrow, Acting Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and ASA Vice President, described how federal data can help give insights on everything from recidivism rates, substance abuse, firearm checks, and employment screening. Finally, Professor Raj Chetty of the Economics Department at Stanford University, lectured on his recent research on upward mobility—without the use of administrative data, his research would not be possible.
The Commission met during the afternoon for a closed session on the next steps to take. There is no word yet on when the next meeting will take place, but the Commission has just less than 15 months to create a report on their findings on evidence-based policymaking and submit it to Congress, along with recommendations for legislation. Ideally, the Commission would have completed their work under one President, but now has a unique opportunity to be impactful for the incoming administration. Be sure to continue reading the science policy blog for updates, and feel free to share comments in the space below or via email (nussbaum@amstat.org).