APDU Weekly

Features

Congress Learns More on the Importance of the ACS
Funding for the Census Bureau and ACS has been a hot topic on Capitol Hill lately. Congress is considering making responses to the survey voluntary (currently they are mandatory by law), eliminating questions from the survey that are considered too nosy, and even eliminating the survey entirely. On May 27, the Census Project, a network of organizations advocating for Census programs, held a briefing for Congressional leaders and their staff on the American Community Survey in the Capitol Visitors Center.

News

BLS Blog Post on Data Visualizations
BLS designed two publications to showcase data visualizations. One is The Economics Daily?or TED. Another publication geared toward data visualizations is Spotlight on Statistics.

4 Takeaways from New Census Population Data on Cities
The Census Bureau released new population estimates showing where cities stand in attracting and retaining residents.

Congressman Reintroduces Bill to Make ACS Voluntary
Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) has reintroduced his bill to make the American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary for the fourth Congress in a row.

House Panel Concerns of ACS “Burdensome Nature”
Just a week after Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced his bill to make the ACS voluntary, the House Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations subcommittee released its report language expressing its concern about “the burdensome nature of the ACS and directs Census to focus on its core, constitutionally mandated decennial Census activities.”

New & Updated Data Sources

President Launches Police Data Initiative
On the tail end of riots, protests and public disquiet surrounding police conduct, the president announced a new program that pits data against one of America’s hottest issues.

New Bipartisan Bill Promises Better Financial Data
Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Mike Quigley, D-Ill., have announced the Financial Transparency Act of 2015. The bipartisan bill would help bring a modern data approach ? much like that previously championed by Issa in the DATA Act ? to financial regulatory information.

Visualization of the Week

How Birthplace Affects Financial Mobility
The New York Times has created a data visualization that illustrates the varying economic mobility for children raised in different counties and cities across the United States. A pair of Harvard University economists found that where someone lives as a child determines his or her future economic mobility.

Notable Data Publications

GOVERNMENT

Bureau of Labor Statistics – Consumer Spending on Entertainment by Household Income in 2013
Department of Agriculture ? U.S. Agricultural Trading Relationship With China Grows
Government Accountability Office – Contingent Workforce: Size, Characteristics, Earnings, and Benefits
National Center for Education Statistics – Public School Safety and Discipline: 2013?14
National Center for Health Statistics – Insurance Status by State Medicaid Expansion Status: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, 2013?September 2014

NON-PROFITS & FOUNDATIONS

Pew Research Center – Childlessness Falls, Family Size Grows Among Highly Educated Women

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Calls for Comment

APDU maintains a list of open calls for comment on proposed federal data collections. We periodically alert APDU members to newly added calls for comment. Over the last several weeks, calls for comment on the following proposed data collections were published in the Federal Register (with due date):

Census Bureau