Trump Administration’s Deletion and Alteration of Federal Datasets

An online tracker launched by dataindex.us reports that, over the past year and a half, at least 28 federal datasets have been deleted and another 338 have been modified across more than 60 agencies. Health-related collections account for roughly 40 % of the changes, including the removal of gender-identity questions from several CDC surveys such as the National HIV Surveillance System and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Four health datasets are no longer being updated, notably the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s Drug Abuse Warning Network. Other deletions affect the USDA’s twice-annual farm-worker wage survey and a National Center for Education Statistics survey on teacher pay and working conditions.

The Guardian

Dataindex.us, a coalition of data-policy experts, researchers, and developers, created the tracker because agencies are not required to announce dataset terminations. The group combined systematic research on dataset usage, crowdsourced tips from media reports, government employees, and dataset users, as well as monitoring of notices from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The Guardian

Public-health experts warn that the loss of longitudinal surveys hampers the ability to detect emerging epidemics and to identify vulnerable populations. Without consistent data, researchers cannot track trends, compare current conditions with past episodes, or evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, thereby eroding institutional memory that supports evidence-based decision-making.

The Guardian

Denice Ross, former U.S. chief data scientist under the Biden administration and co-founder of dataindex.us, described the situation as leaving the nation “at a very vulnerable point” because essential information for life-saving decisions may disappear. She called for broader public input to locate obscure datasets that may have been removed without notice.

The Guardian

• “These data are critical for identifying emerging epidemics and what parts of the population are most vulnerable to different types of health conditions,” — Thomas Babor, a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut

The Guardian

• “We need to know what direction the trend is going, whether it’s the beginning of an end; we need to learn from prior episodes of epidemics and how they were responded to and what impact the responses had,” — Thomas Babor, a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut

The Guardian

• “The question we’re trying to answer is: are certain datasets being taken away that have an impact on the American people?” — Christopher Dick, a co-founder of dataindex

The Guardian