Voices from the Data Community: How 2025 Has Impacted Public Data Users

"Since the start of 2025, federal statistical agencies have faced staff reductions, program cuts, data purges, and the longest government shutdown in American history. To understand how these disruptions are affecting the researchers, analysts, advocates, and planners who rely on public data every day, SSRS — through the EMERGE Initiative — conducted a landmark survey of more than 500 federal data users across academia, government, nonprofits, and the private sector.

"The EMERGE Initiative seeks to provide reliable, publicly accessible data, serving as a crucial resource for state administrators, researchers, policymakers, journalists, and the American public, thereby upholding the principles of transparency and evidence-based governance. The initial task of the EMERGE Initiative will be to convene a meeting of stakeholders – both producers and users of these data – to conduct a thorough review of the emerging data gaps and recommend steps for remediation."

The report is available for download here. (See a previous DCSS news item from February announcing this survey.)

The Value of Reliable Statistics

By Nicholas Bloom, Erica L. Groshen, Duncan Hobbs & Michael R. Strain. NBER Working Paper 35135. DOI 10.3386/w35135. Issue Date: April 2026.

"On August 1, 2025, President Trump fired the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and claimed that the agency’s data were “rigged.” In the aftermath, measures of economic policy uncertainty rose sharply, consistent with the idea that reduced trust in official data increases uncertainty for investors, businesses, and households. We use an event-study design to estimate the effect of the firing on policy uncertainty, and then map that increase in uncertainty into implied macroeconomic outcomes. This yields a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the marginal value of public trust in official statistics. Our baseline estimate implies that preserving trust in the integrity and quality of official statistics generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the agency’s budget."

"This Field Guide was prepared by Denice W. Ross and Christopher Steven Marcum with support from the UC Berkeley Executive Fellowship in Applied Technology Policy.

"The Guide is organized into eight primary categories of federal data (described on the right), each representing distinct collection methods, policy frameworks, and use cases.

"This field guide focuses primarily on publicly available datasets created, maintained, and published by executive branch agencies of the federal government. This Guide does not include sensitive or classified datasets, or derivative works such as reports or interactive web tools that use data.

"The purpose of this guide is to provide a more complete context for federal data users and stakeholders that will inspire them to consider a broader range of data types in their research and advocacy; we also hope it will also inform national dialogues about the future of federal data.

"Denice W. Ross is a Berkeley Executive Fellow in Applied Technology Policy and served as the nationʼs second U.S. Chief Data Scientist. Christopher Steven Marcum, Ph.D. is an expert on statistical and scientific data who served as Assistant Director for Open Science and Data Policy at the White House OSTP."

From Mark Mather, PRB (April 27)

Two provisions in the House Appropriations subcommittee's FY2027 CJS bill are worth flagging for the Census data community.

1) The new funding bill would bar the Census Bureau from including undocumented immigrants in apportionment counts--a direct challenge to the 14th Amendment's "whole number of persons" requirement.

2) It would only allow two follow-up attempts for "any survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census." A similar provision was stripped from last year's bill. It's back.

The bill passed subcommittee 8-6. Full committee and Senate still ahead.

NPR correspondent Hansi Lo Wang's post on LinkedIn

Journalist Dan Garisto first reported on Bluesky, April 25: "Trump has fired the membership of the National Science Board, which oversees NSF. I have confirmed separately with multiple now-former members of NSB."

Statement by Ranking Member Lofgren of the US House Science Committee (Apr 25)

Washington Post report (Apr 25, requires subscription)

COSSA Statement on the Dismissal of Members of the National Science Board (Apr 27) [PDF]

Statement from AERA Executive Director Tabbye Chavous on Dismissal of National Science Board Members (Apr 27)

The Association of Public Data Users (APDU) notes, "There's still time to submit a comment on proposed testing for the Current Population Survey (focus is on testing internet response and new race/ethnicity questions in alignment with new SPD15 standards)."

Federal Register notice is here.

Further information about SPD 15 Data standards on Race and Ethnicity

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) has released a comprehensive analysis, "The President's FY 2027 Budget Request for Social and Behavioral Science." [PDF, 36 pp.] COSSA summarizes as follows:

"The document released by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) highlights actions the Administration has taken during its first year in office to cut spending across the federal government, stating that, 'The full-year 2026 appropriations bills enacted the first real cut to spending in 12 years…[and] put us on a path to eliminate ineffective Federal agencies that do not serve a useful purpose…'

"The FY 2027 budget seeks additional cuts, including a 10 percent reduction to non-defense discretionary spending, while proposing a staggering $1.5 trillion budget for national defense (a 44 percent increase).

"With respect to federal science agencies, in some cases the budget proposes similar levels to the FY 2026 budget (which were ultimately rejected by Congress). For example, the budget once again proposes slashing funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) by more than half and continues down the path of shuttering the Department of Education. In addition, the FY 2027 budget again seeks a major reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"For other agencies, like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the budget changes course. While still slated for a 12 percent cut under the proposal, this year’s request for NIH is a far cry from the 40 percent reduction sought last year by the Administration. 

"As always, when considering an Administration’s budget proposal, it is important to remember that it remains a largely symbolic policy document outlining the Administration’s priorities for the year ahead. While it is possible that some of the President’s requests will be enacted, Congress has the final say over the appropriation of funds."

The Science & Community Impacts Mapping Project (SCIMaP) from the University of Maryland, College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences has updated its maps of "local and national impacts of federal investment in science— and how science funding cuts cause widespread losses that harm communities nationwide."

Despite the caution in COSSA's most recent analysis summarized above, our previous DCSS news item explained that "both Nature and Science reported on April 3, 2026 that NSF plans to eliminate its Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorate based on the President's Fiscal Year 2027 budget request. Although the President's budget request typically represents only the beginning of federal spending negotiations, actions during the past year have short-circuited the usual appropriation process and resulted in widespread cuts to agencies and programs throughout the federal government." In an April 7 "note," COSSA warned "...this year the threat is even more serious, potentially existential for the social and behavioral science community." COSSA has also created a a "Save SBE Toolkit" and other resources.

Tip via Mark Mather, Associate VP, PRB on Federal Data Users Forum

"The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is further extending a timeline in its Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. ... OMB is further extending the deadline for requiring the Chief Financial Officers Act Agencies and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to submit to OMB an Action Plan on Race and Ethnicity Data by an additional year, from March 28, 2026 to March 28, 2027."

OMB SPD 15 hub

PRB: "Race/Ethnicity Categories in Federal Surveys Are Changing: Implications for Data Users" (2024)

Census: "Implementation of SPD 15 in the American Community Survey" (2024) and "Race/Ethnicity Coding Improvement Project" (2024)

The Executive Director of the GameChange Project has contacted DCSS seeking a panelist for May 18, 2026, 12-2 pm in Washington, DC. “The intent is to discuss the current and future state of AI ethics & safety and economic and cultural trends/impact. All too often, sociologists who truly have insight into this arena are left out of the conversation. The right person would provide an invaluable component.” The panel is being organized in collaboration with the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies. 

If interested, contact Lauren@GameChangeProject.org. Please respond by April 20. Lunch would be provided. DCSS is passing along this request, but has not completed any further investigation.

Brian J. McCabe is a recipient of the 2026 Morris Rosenberg Award for Outstanding Sociological Achievement from the DC Sociological Society. The award nomination letter describes him as “a noted scholar of urban sociology and housing policy [and] outstanding teacher and mentor, [who] has maintained an energetic record of research, teaching, and service.” McCabe is Professor of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University, where he also holds an affiliated appointment in the McCourt School of Public Policy. He completed a Master’s degree in urban geography at the London School of Economics in 2004 and a PhD in Sociology at New York University in 2011.

His nominator notes that “Professor McCabe is a highly productive and engaged scholar working at the intersection of urban sociology, housing policy, and politics, and the quality and relevance of his research is remarkable.” He is the author of The Housing Lottery: How Scarcity Shapes America’s Rental Assistance Programs, to be published by the University of Chicago Press this year, and co-author of Democracy Vouchers and the Quest for Fairer Elections in Seattle (Temple University Press, 2024). He is co-editor of two recent works, “Fifty Years of the Housing Choice Voucher Program: A Symposium on the History and Future of Tenant-Based Rental Assistance” in Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research (2024), and The Sociology of Housing: How Homes Shape Our Social Lives (University of Chicago Press, 2023). He has also published several peer-reviewed journal articles including “Ready to Rent: Administrative Decisions and Poverty Governance in the Housing Choice Voucher Program” (American Sociological Review, 2023), which the nomination describes as “a rare examination of poverty governance focused on public housing agencies [that are] ‘omnipresent in the lives of the poor.’”

Professor McCabe has also demonstrated excellence in teaching and mentoring. The nomination letter notes that, “throughout his career, student evaluations of his courses have been outstanding. He brings a level of creativity to his courses that students appreciate. He has used his deep knowledge of the D.C. metropolitan area to imagine active learning activities that engage students beyond the classroom. In addition to a course studying gentrification through murals and public art across the city, he developed an innovative gentrification course with a lab component that takes students out of the classroom and into the real world.” The nominator elaborates, “another sign of Professor McCabe’s commitment to and investment in students is that he publishes with undergraduate students.”

McCabe has also participated actively in “major policy debates on housing and urban development.” His nominator explains, “Professor McCabe’s steady stream of publications, policy reports, and op-eds on housing policy position him as an influential scholar in this field.” He took a two-year leave of absence from Georgetown (2022-2024) to serve as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Office of Policy Development and Research at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Biden Administration.

The nomination letter also describes Professor McCabe’s “substantial service to our department, Georgetown University, and the field of sociology more broadly. Among other activities, he currently serves as co-editor of the ASA journal City & Community, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology, and on Georgetown’s Curriculum Committee. He is a past Faculty Director for Research and Scholarship at Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service. He has also served a three-year term on the council of ASA’s Community and Urban Sociology Section.”

The nominator concludes, “Professor McCabe’s record of service, teaching, and scholarship paints a picture of a highly productive and engaged scholar [who] is a valuable asset to the sociology community in the DMV.”
Brian McCabe will receive the Rosenberg award at the annual DCSS Awards Reception on April 30, 2026.

The Morris Rosenberg Award is presented for outstanding sociological achievement during the past three years by any member of DCSS. Nominations are encouraged for individuals from any career setting, including but not limited to: academics, government service, private research, consulting, retirement and/or independent scholarship. Achievements may include—but are not limited to—scholarship, teaching and mentoring, use of sociology in public policy analysis, contributions to professional organizations, advancement of public awareness of sociological practice, or leadership in the use of sociological knowledge in non-traditional settings. 

Morris Rosenberg began his career as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cornell University in 1955, and moved to the Laboratory on Socio-environmental Studies of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1957. He re-entered the academic world in 1974 as Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974, and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1975, where he taught until his death in 1992. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is a widely-used measure in social science research. Read more about the Rosenberg award, including a list of past winners, on the DCSS website.

Yuki Kato is a recipient of the 2026 Morris Rosenberg Award for Outstanding Sociological Achievement from the DC Sociological Society. Kato is an urban sociologist whose research interests intersect the subfields of social stratification, food and environmental justice, culture and consumption, and symbolic interaction. In addition, her nomination for the Rosenberg award highlights her contributions to teaching and community service. Kato is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University and earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology at the University of California-Irvine.

In the words of her nominator, Professor Kato’s work “shows how urban politics and social relations structure the production and consumption of food.” Her new book, Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City (NYU Press, 2025) is based on ethnographic observation, interview data, and content analysis of archival material drawn from urban growers’ experiences in post-Katrina New Orleans. In the book, Kato introduces the concept of “prefigurative urbanism” to account for the motivations and experiences of urban growers. She describes prefigurative urbanism as “a form of civic engagement to enact alternative futures now, but as individuals not as a collective social movement. … growers prioritized ‘doing something now’ over theorizing and organizing as they continued to innovate, adapt, and experiment in the garden. The book offers both inspirational and cautionary tales for those of us moved to take actions in times of crisis and uncertainties, and reveals what we often do not understand about what it takes to start and sustain a cultivation project in the city.” Professor Kato has also published 14 peer-reviewed articles and a 2020 co-edited volume, A Recipe for Gentrification: Food Power, and Resistance, which also includes a chapter she co-authored with a community grower/scholar. Her nominator notes that “her entire body of work stimulates both academic research and urban policy.” She is currently working on several research projects, including one that uncovers and examines the history and memories of local food provisioning practice in DC’s Black communities.

Regarding her teaching, the award nomination explains that “Dr. Kato teaches courses that apply sociological insights to a range of pressing social issues to integrate the classroom and the ‘real world.’” These include a community-based learning course called Environmental and Food Justice Movements, which examines environment and food through the lens of social justice and human inequality, specifically focusing on categories of race, class, and gender. “This course reflects her fundamental sociological approach, sensitive to both human action and the social context. Students from the class praise the way the course makes connections in the classroom that introduce and inspire efforts to remove barriers in society.”

Kato’s community engagement includes contributions to conversations across the Georgetown campus and the broader DMV community, including talks such as “Cultivating DC’s Food Economy to Sustain Racial Justice” for the Georgetown MLK Initiative. She has participated in the Georgetown Prison Initiative, serving on the faculty advisory council for the Bachelor of Liberal Arts and teaching a course at DC Jail through the Georgetown Scholars program. She has been an active member of the DC Food Policy Council’s Urban Agriculture Working Group, and has consistently involved local urban farmers and advocates as research and teaching collaborators. Her nomination concludes that “Professor Kato’s service to her department, university, discipline, and the broader DMV community is outstanding” and “the intellectual community of sociologists in the DMV is improved by her presence.”

Yuki Kato will receive the Rosenberg award at the annual DCSS Awards Reception on April 30, 2026.

The Morris Rosenberg Award is presented for outstanding sociological achievement during the past three years by any member of DCSS. Nominations are encouraged for individuals from any career setting, including but not limited to: academics, government service, private research, consulting, retirement and/or independent scholarship. Achievements may include—but are not limited to—scholarship, teaching and mentoring, use of sociology in public policy analysis, contributions to professional organizations, advancement of public awareness of sociological practice, or leadership in the use of sociological knowledge in non-traditional settings. 

Morris Rosenberg began his career as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cornell University in 1955, and moved to the Laboratory on Socio-environmental Studies of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1957. He re-entered the academic world in 1974 as Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974, and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1975, where he taught until his death in 1992. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is a widely-used measure in social science research. Read more about the Rosenberg award, including a list of past winners, on the DCSS website.