Voting Results Are In! Voting for the APDU Board concluded on December 15, and results are in: Kathy Pettit remains in her At-Large seat, Sarah Burgoyne replaces Ken Hodges as Secretary in a narrow victory over Kevin McAvey, and Mauricio Ortiz replaces Brian Maisano as Treasurer. Congratulations to all our new and re-elected office holders, and a big thank you to our departing board members and to our members who voted.
Census Project Updates on Census/ACS Funding Three months after the start of the fiscal year on October 1st, Congress is poised to vote on a final omnibus appropriations bill for FY2016. The measure rolls the 12 regular appropriations bills into one bill, doling out funds to federal agencies and programs in line with higher spending caps set by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. In the meantime, the federal government has been operating under a series of Continuing Resolutions (CR) that fund agencies at last year?s (FY2015) levels. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (H.R. 2029) funds the Census Bureau at $1.37 billion, $130 million below the President?s budget request of $1.5 billion, but well above the levels approved by the House and Senate earlier in the year.
News
APDU Member to Lead Census Bureau Directorate Cornell University professor (and APDU member) John M. Abowd will join the U.S. Census Bureau through an interagency personnel agreement as the new associate director for research and methodology and chief scientist, Census Bureau Director John H. Thompson announced recently. The appointment will be effective June 1, 2016.
Statistical Agencies Receive Flat Budgets A quick scan of the omnibus bill and shows flat increases for Census, BEA, BLS, EIA, NCES, NCHS, BJS, ERS, and NASS. The bill is expected to be voted on by Congress on December 17.
2015 Global Index Shows Decline in Open Datasets Open Knowledge International has published the Global Open Data Index 2015, showing that countries outside of Europe, the US & Canada have made some impressive gains in releasing key data. However, progress remains slow for most governments, who are still not providing key information in an accessible formats to be used, without restriction, by their citizens, civil societies, journalists and businesses.
Bloomberg Philanthropies Expand Data Help to More Cities The organization is spending $42 million to help the selected cities improve their performance and services using data-driven decision making. The initiative, ?What Works Cities,? pairs mayors? offices with nonprofits and university partners. Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation started by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has set aside $42 million over the next two years to pay organizations for the help they will provide to cities. The thirteen cities announced recently are the second batch after an initial eight joined the consortium in August.
A Call for States to Kill Annual Reports While these reports are a useful tool for providing insight and accountability on public-sector operations, such relics of a paper-based world are no longer the best option for an increasingly digital government. Instead, agencies should begin replacing annual reports with dynamic dashboards that provide real-time information on government programs. One of the main problems with annual reports is that, by definition, they are only published once per year, so the information they provide is not timely and only captures the state of government programs at a single moment in time.
What Good Data and Good People Can Accomplish A people-first strategy for government recognizes that data without good people who can wisely and attentively use it produces little real value. Strong leaders recognize the importance of recruiting, training and retaining valuable employees. Annise Parker, who is wrapping up her third term as Houston’s mayor, proved this point when in the wake of the 2008 recession she balanced necessary spending cuts with a data-driven effort to keep critical employees on board and motivated.
7 Ideas for Using Government Data More Effectively When it comes to delivering services, the proverbial rubber meets the road at the local level. So what do local government practitioners struggle with when trying to use data to deliver services? And when a locality uses data to improve efficiency and effectiveness, what kinds of problems stand in its way? From city managers to auditors, local officials offer ways to fix data collection.
It?s Humans, Not Algorithms, That Have a Bias Problem Bias in big data. Automated discrimination. Algorithms that erode civil liberties. These are some of the fears that the White House, the Federal Trade Commission, and other critics have expressed about an increasingly data-driven world. But these critics tend to forget that the world is already full of bias, and discrimination permeates human decision-making.
Visualization of the Week
Visualizing the Ease of Doing Business The World Bank has created a data visualization ranking 189 national economies on 10 factors that influence the ease of doing business, such as getting electricity, enforcing contracts, and paying taxes. The visualization allows users to examine the rankings by region and income group and provides a detailed breakdown of the factors for each country. For example, it only takes four days for a business to register a property in Denmark whereas it takes 49 days to do so in France. The data comes from the World Bank?s Doing Business 2016 report, an annual project examining regulations that affect business activity around the world.
Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about? Just email us and we?ll include it here.
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):
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HHS
Online Submission Form for Supplemental Evidence and Data for Systematic reviews for the Evidence-based Practice Center Program (January 11,2016)
Developing a Registry of Registries (January 11,2016)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) (January 11,2016)
National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA
Urban Agriculture Pilot Surveys (February 09,2016)
Residue and Biomass Field Survey (February 09,2016)
