Statement of Commissioner Bruce D. Meyer on Congressional Passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act

CHICAGO – Following is a statement by Bruce D. Meyer, the McCormick Foundation Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, on Congressional passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Act). 

Professor Meyer served as a Commissioner on the 15-member Commission for Evidence-Based Policymaking, which sent its final report to the President of the United States and Congress in September 2017. The Act, co-sponsored by Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray, implements recommendations put forward by the Commission.

“Twenty-first century democracy rests on a foundation of informed public decision-making, and making effective policy decisions requires access and analysis of public data while respecting the confidentiality concerns of our citizens.  

“By making vitally needed information available to researchers and policy analysts, this bill will help improve our understanding of where government succeeds – and where it does not – and develop smart new policies that are based on sound data and analysis. 

“The act implements eleven of the twenty-one recommendations of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking that released its report last year. Robert Groves, the former Census Director described the act as “the most important step for data sharing for common good purposes in my lifetime.”  

“Many parts of our government already are working to expand data-driven policymaking. The provisions in this act support those efforts by requiring the major federal agencies to establish learning agendas to determine the evidence they would need to achieve their objectives.  It encourages the use of data both to reform programs that can be improved and to eliminate those that cannot be made to work. 

“The act will make data access dependent on its value to the general public, rather than limiting access based on the more narrow interests of the single agency that may have captured the data.  Given that the federal government already collects mountains of data in the administration of its programs, expanding the availability of such data for research would increase efficiency by reducing the need to ask multiple redundant questions in government surveys.  Increasing data access would further improve statistical accuracy and would support the growing body of high-quality research that relies on data collected by government programs. 

“This act also provides thoughtful and pragmatic steps to enhance the transparency of data access and research while improving privacy protections for survey and program participants. 

“The efforts of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking have been taken up by the Bipartisan Policy Center that has ably advanced its initiatives. The Commission grew out of an initial idea that a group of us developed more than four years ago. We are indebted to Speaker Ryan and Senator Murray for sponsoring the Commission’s enabling legislation and for sponsoring the act.  We are very proud of the work done by all 15 commissioners and staff in producing the report and the Bipartisan Policy Center in working with the legislative sponsors to pass the act.  

“I am thrilled by the passage of the act, and hope that further legislation and administrative actions will soon follow to implement the remainder of the Commission’s timely and potentially transformative recommendations.”

The bill next goes to President Trump for his signature.

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About Harris Public Policy:

One of the largest graduate professional schools at the University of Chicago, Harris Public Policy has been driven by the belief that evidence-based research, not ideology or intuition, is the best guide for public policy. For more than three decades, our exceptional community of scholars, students, and alumni have applied this exacting perspective to world’s most important problems using the latest tools of social science.  Through our graduate degree programs, we empower a new generation of data-driven leaders to create a positive social impact throughout our global society.