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Board Member Provides FY18 Appropriations Update
Last week, Congress adjourned for its traditional August recess, leaving unfinished business, and an unclear path forward, on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 appropriations bills?bills essential to keeping the federal government open once the current fiscal year ends on September 30. New APDU Board Member Mary Jo Hoeksema of the Population Association of America gives a thoughtful update of the FY18 appropriations process for statistical agencies.
Mary Jo is also organizing the Washington Briefing at the APDU Annual Conference next month. Participants will hear from an expert panel of Washington insiders who will address not only the current state of appropriations, but also how data users and stakeholders can more effectively represent the needs of statistical agencies when communicating with policymakers.
The early bird rate for the conference expires next Friday, August 18. Register today to take advantage of the reduced rate!
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Data and Budgeting for an Effective Economy
APDU Intern Michael Thomas analyzes the effects of the President?s proposed budget on federal statistics agencies, arguing that quality government data is an imperative which transcends the political spectrum.
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The Hidden Costs of Open Data
As more local governments open their data for public use, the emphasis is often on “free” — using open source tools to freely share already-created government datasets, often with pro bono help from outside groups. But according to a new report, there are unforeseen costs when it comes to pushing government datasets out of public-facing platforms — especially when geospatial data is involved.
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US Census Troubles Threaten Real Estate Development
Budget uncertainty has always been a fact of life with the census, but watchdogs believe if additional funding is not allocated, it could have a disastrous impact on the count in three years, which will trickle down to negatively impact a myriad of industries dependent on census data ? including commercial real estate.
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Opinion: Sec. Ross Should Stop Charging Public for Data
When it comes to open data, the U.S. government?s scientific agencies are usually ahead of the curve. Usually. In July 2015, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched the Reference Data Challenge to spur the development of apps that could make its repositories of Standard Reference Data (SRD)?quantitative information about physical science?more accessible and to lower barriers to taxpayer-funded research. Although the competition went off without a hitch, it highlighted a strange contradiction: NIST wants to make SRD as accessible as possible, and although it makes much of its SRD catalog freely available online, it still restricts access to a substantial portion of this catalog by putting it behind a paywall.
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Visualization of the Week
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The Unusually Popular Summer Travel Spots for Each State
Someone living in Arkansas is far more likely to visit the Marshall Islands than the average American. In Kansas, they?re more likely to visit Germany. And for Virginians? Bolivia is the top destination. These are the findings in new data from Facebook, which has tracked where users ?check in? when they?re traveling abroad during the summer since 2012.
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Notable Data Publications
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GOVERNMENT
HIGHER EDUCATION
NONPROFITS & FOUNDATIONS
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Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about? Just email us and we?ll include it here.
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Federal Rulemaking and Calls for Comment
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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):
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Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HHS
- Medical Expenditure Panel Survey?Insurance Component (August 28, 2017)
Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Cognitive and Psychological Research (October 2, 2017)
- Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) (October 2, 2017)
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
- Annual Tank Car Facility Survey (August 28, 2017)
Children and Families Administration
- Personal Responsibility Education Program Promising Youth Programs (October 8, 2017)
Federal Reserve System
- Survey of Household Economics and Decision Making (October 10, 2017)
US Census Bureau
- Annual Business Survey (October 6, 2017)
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