APDU Weekly

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Features

COSSA Analyzes the Omnibus
On December 15, House and Senate negotiators unveiled their final fiscal year (FY) 2016 omnibus appropriations bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (H.R. 2029), which includes all 12 of the individual appropriations bills and totals $1.15 trillion. This report includes analysis of the final bill and accompanying report language as they pertain to social and behavioral science research ? including updates for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, and other agencies.

News

APDU Advocacy Makes a Difference
Happy New Year! As we look to 2016, we wanted to let you know that APDU has been hard at work advocating for the public data programs that you rely on. In the run-up to the passage of the Omnibus, APDU fought for the protection of funding for the Census Bureau, particularly in light of threats to its funding and ACS? mandatory status.

Economists Criticize Economic Data Gathering Funding

The Commerce Department has revised a decade’s worth of data on construction spending. Some economists say a much bigger mistake is the government’s decision to spend less on gathering economic data.

Event Recap: How Society Can Use Algorithms
At the Center for Data Innovation?s November 17 panel discussion, Deciding with Data: How Society Can Use Algorithms to Make Better Choices, panelists said that a lack of understanding of algorithms and their benefits has led to inflated concerns about them, which can slow adoption of technology and increase the potential for detrimental regulation. Though algorithmic decision-making does carry some risk of unintended outcomes, the panelists concluded that the public and private sectors are capable of designing and deploying algorithms responsibly, minimizing these risks and creating opportunities for society to make smarter decisions.

Top 20 Data Science Skills
Data science is a mashup of skills ranging from computer science and statistics, to machine learning and strong communication. Which subskills exist within that range is a hotly debated topic, yet the material available is usually opinion, or the results of a survey. These two sources are useful indicators, but they don?t do much to answer a very simple question: what are the most common data science skills?

New & Updated Data Sources

New Data Tools for Law School Data
The Center for Research and Policy Analysis? Data Tools provide law school data in an easily accessible format, allowing the legal education community to more readily analyze, research, and compare law schools. The tools utilize publicly available datasets from the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.

Visualization of the Week

Where Do Americans Have the Most Student Debt?
The collective student loan debt in America stands at $1.2 trillion. That?s ?the second-largest class of consumer debt behind mortgages,? according to a recent government report, and it?s growing. An analysis of this data released in September found that this amount is four times what it was 12 years ago. This year, the average student debt in the country surpassed $35,000?the highest it?s ever been in U.S. history.

Notable Data Publications

GOVERNMENT

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – Health Expenditures for Adults by Number of Treated Chronic Conditions, Race/Ethnicity, & Age, 2012
• Bureau of Justice Statistics – Correctional Populations in the United States, 2014
• Bureau of Labor Statistics – Women in the Labor Force: A Databook
• Census Bureau – 2014 Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll
• Department of Housing and Urban Development – Public Use Microdata Sample
• National Center for Education Statistics – Graduation Rates for Selected Cohorts, 2006-11; Student Financial Aid in Postsecondary Institutions, Academic Year 2013-14; & Admissions in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2014: First Look (Provisional Data)
• National Center for Health Statistics – Births: Final Data for 2014

MEDIA

• Governing
  • How States’ Dependence on Corporate Taxes Has Declined
  • Where New Businesses Are Starting Up

NONPROFITS & FOUNDATIONS

• Pew Charitable Trusts – Immigrant Employment by State & Industry
• Population Reference Bureau – Trends in U.S. Population Growth

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):

Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Eating and Health Supplement to the American Time Use Survey (March 7, 2016)
• Multiple Worksite Report and the Report of Federal Employment and Wages (February 16, 2016)
• Technical Advisory Committee; Request for Nominations (January 13, 2016)
• Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) (March 7, 2016)

Census Bureau

• Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) (January 22, 2016)
• Personal Census Age Search (January 22, 2016)

January 7, 2016

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