With the presidential election behind us, Washington, DC has turned its attention to the Trump Transition Team, a move accelerated by the naming of the “Landing Team” members. ASA Science Policy has compiled various recommendations for the incoming administration, mostly related to the federal statistical agencies, that are listed below. We share these for your information and to solicit any feedback from ASA members, including other recommendations. Feel free to contact me at nussbaum@amstat.org with comments and questions.
- A qualified and credible Science Advisor and Head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy should be appointed as soon as possible. After his or her appointment, the Science Advisor should play a large role in identifying experienced individuals for other science-related positions throughout the administration. Additionally, we encourage the transition team to reach out to the scientific community and build bridges so that knowledgeable experts can be called upon for the best possible advice regarding issues or events that may come up over the next several years. As an example of how some scientific organizations are making this request, see this letter organized by AAAS.
- Address the stature and autonomy of the federal statistical agencies. As the foundation for policymaking and policy administration, objective and credible statistical data are vital to our democracy, economy, governance, and well-being. All sides of a policy debate should be able to look to the statistical data as objective and high quality. Any perception that the data have been influenced by a partisan perspective undermines the policymaking and its administration. Statistical agencies should have complete control over the data collection, analysis, and publication.
In particular, we recommend that the head of the National Center for Education Statistics be a Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation. A statistical agency’s independence is greatly aided by presidential appointment and Senate confirmation because of the vetting and prestige it provides. Such a change would solidify the integrity, independence, and efficacy to the NCES (which has served a large leadership role since 1867) and ensure that the Institute of Education Science, the nation’s leading source for rigorous independent education research, evaluation, and statistics, has independent advice upon which to set its research priorities. See previously written blogs (posts from June 2014, September 2014, December 2014, and January 2015) as well as letters signed by former statistical agency heads for details.
In addition, we urge that the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics be Presidentially Appointed with Senate Confirmation (PASC). Specifically, we ask that PASC (removed in 2012) be restored and the director’s term be changed from serving at the will of the president to a fixed term of at least four years, staggered from the presidential elections. The BJS is vital to the Department of Justice because of its mission to “collect, process, analyze, and disseminate accurate and timely information on crime and the administration of justice and to assist States and localities to improve criminal justice record-keeping”. The fixed and staggered term further ensures both independence—because of the possibility of serving different administrations—and a fully qualified director. In addition, the PASC process ensures the director will maintain a stronger voice within DOJ and OJP to articulate budget and human resource needs to protect the long-term requirements of statistical series and the infrastructure underpinning the more than 60 national statistical programs on crime and justice and the nearly 50,000 agencies, offices, and institutions from which data must be collected. See these past ASA letters on this issue: 6/4/15 letter to Attorney General Lynch; 6/4/15 letter to House and Senate Judiciary Committee leadership; 5/18/09 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
As we understand, part of the current transition plans focus on transportation and infrastructure, including smarter decision-making with regards to roads, bridges, airports, transit systems, and ports. To that end, we encourage re-establishing the stature and autonomy of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In recent years, the BTS has endured both a lack of resources and autonomy over its budget and information technology. BTS data help to inform billions of dollars in public and private transportation decisions. For the federal, state, and local government, the data ensure better use of taxpayer dollars and smarter, more efficient government. The private sector also uses the data to inform where to place manufacturing plants or distribution centers and to improve their operations. Its constrained budget also makes it difficult for BTS to be as nimble as it could be to develop products to respond to new trends and take advantage of advances like Big Data. For more information, please read this post and select letters to leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, House Science, Space and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Research and Technology, and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- Ensure the continuity of leadership for BLS and U.S. Census Bureau: The terms for both Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica Groshen and U.S. Census Director John Thompson expire by the end of January. We urge either their prompt reappointment or the swift appointment of new heads to ensure continuous leadership of these two important agencies.
- Support the bipartisan efforts and commitment to the current Evidence-Based Policymaking movement. Last year, Speaker Ryan and Senator Murphy passed legislation to establish the Commission for Evidence-Based Policymaking. The Commission is currently hearing from various stakeholders on various topics, such as privacy and confidentiality issues, program evaluation, and data management and infrastructure. They are set to deliver a report with their recommendations within the year and we encourage thoughtful consideration. You can read more about the first, second, and third meetings of the Commission and the accompanying public hearing, as well as ASA’s Scientific and Public Affairs Advisory Committee’s statement on statistical language in policy and the background of the commission here.
These recommendations remain the top priorities of ASA Science Policy; however, we will also be voicing other concerns, such as federal research funding, reconsideration of a hiring freeze for the federal scientific workplace, and STEM education for the next generation, through partner groups such as the Consortium of Social Science Associations, Coalition for National Science Funding, Task Force for American Innovation, and STEM Ed Coalition. Again, we welcome comments and recommendations for other issues we might consider.