The founders were data people. I know — not the phrase you expected! But counting was America's first act of self-government, in Article One. Good data doesn't belong to a party. It belongs to the country. Happy Fourth. Let's keep moving forward. #America250 #OpenData #US250 #1776to2026

About half of FRED's visitors are now AI agents. @stlouisfed is getting ready with an #AI connector, and every agency that publishes data should take notes. My new op-ed in @NextgovFCW: nextgov.com/ideas/2026/10/fe…

Now hiring at @NASA -- a new #CDO: usajobs.gov/job/888942400

Americans value federal statistics more than they trust them and we can work to address this. New @data_foundation brief using Census Bureau data: 📊 74.8% say policymakers need federal statistics 📊 51.5% say they trust them Measuring trust is how gov't can start to earn it. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23348…

A few years ago, a rare diagnosis, and then another, had me carrying my own medical records between health systems on CDs and USB drives. On Monday, at the @MAHA_Institute's Open Data Summit, I heard federal health officials describe how they are working to fix that. What stood out was how neutral and substance-forward the conversation about data was: open data paired with privacy protections, outcomes over process, data standards and governance, and transparency in research. That is the cross-partisan language of evidence-based policymaking. 🔗 A few scenes from the day, and my full reflections here: datafoundation.org/news/blog… #opendata #CMS #EvidenceBased #Privacy #MAHA

Joined @GovNavigators this week to debrief #govDATAx and talk federal data: the progress agencies are making, balancing representation with privacy, and why good public data is key to fighting fraud. (Yes, Jaws came up.) Thanks to @Allocore for sponsoring. govnavigators.com/the-govnav…

The @Data_Foundation is launching a process to create a National Data Strategy -- more here: linkedin.com/posts/nickrhart…

If you aren't listening to Data for the People! You are missing out! More -- > linkedin.com/posts/nickrhart…

Check out my latest article: Killer Robots: Claude Literally Killed Me, and I'm Still Here to Tell the Story linkedin.com/pulse/killer-ro… via @LinkedIn

Congress heads home for August recess this week. The work of shaping federal data infrastructure doesn't. Right now there are open data plans, information collection requests, and proposed rules out for public comment. Each one shapes what data gets collected, protected, and made usable. Each one is a chance for the data and evidence community to weigh in. A principle we keep coming back to: volume is not the standard. Substance is. That's what the @Data_Foundation's Expert Engagement Guides are built for—comments that land with weight, not just numbers. There's one for proposed rulemakings and one for Information Collection Requests. There's an open comment period out there with your name on it. Guides linked 👇 Both Expert Engagement Guides are available here: datafoundation.org/news/blog… For Evidence Act resources that complement them: EvidenceAct.org Questions? Reach us at [email protected] #OpenData #EvidenceAct #PublicComment #FederalData

Here's a short, nonpartisan explainer on the new U.S. Department of Commerce privacy order (DAO 216-26), and what it does and doesn't mean for federal government data. The @data_foundation takes no position on the order. We are here to help decision-makers, policymakers, and our community understand the facts. Full explainer and fact sheet: datafoundation.org/pages/Und…

The most effective expert comments aren't the loudest. They're the ones agencies can't ignore on the merits. Proud to share two new Expert Engagement Guides from @data_foundation's Center for Evidence Capacity, on commenting on rulemakings and information collections --> datafoundation.org/news/blog…

Government spends trillions and rarely asks: does it work? Time to fix that. My new piece in @GovExec 🔗 govexec.com/management/2026/…

Improper payments affect over $150 billion per year in federal spending -- that's too much. Treasury's Do Not Pay system was designed to help address this, but only 4% of programs are using it. Today, the @Data_Foundation is endorsing the Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act ahead of tomorrow's markup in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The bill includes a strong privacy framework. It preserves independent verification before any adverse action, maintains confidentiality obligations, establishes congressional oversight and public reporting, and streamlines administrative processes — all without eliminating the protections that matter. Privacy and program effectiveness aren't at odds. They reinforce each other. This bill removes targeted administrative barriers while preserving core safeguards.  We're urging the Committee to advance this bill in its mark-up on April 29th. --> datafoundation.org/news/pres…

This week, key House leaders introduced the SECURE Data Act and GUARD Financial Data Act, the most significant federal privacy effort in years. As someone who has worked on federal data policy for decades, I welcome this step and the historic coordination between the House Committee on Energy and Commerce & U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. But we also have work to do. Meaningful privacy protection requires more than rights on paper, it requires accountability mechanisms that make those rights enforceable in practice. That means data protection impact assessments, proportionate safeguards against reidentification risks, and careful attention to preemption. Our most durable national privacy and transparency laws — the Privacy Act, the Evidence Act, OPEN Government Data Act, CIPSEA — were all built on bipartisan consensus. That's the standard this effort should meet. My full statement on behalf of the @data_foundation --> datafoundation.org/news/pres… #privacy #transparency