Ted McCan, policy assistant to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), has said lawmakers are expected to introduce in the next few weeks a bill that aims to advance the development of evidence-based policies by federal agencies, Federal News Radio reported Friday.McCan said Thursday at the Government Executive Fedstival 2017 the new measure would be based on a report from the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking and seeks to help agencies understand how federal initiatives work through the use of government data.
“I think you’ll see parts of the commission — from that access, the privacy side and the evaluation capacity side — all three of those will be included in the first round of legislation,†he added.
The commission’s The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking report includes 22 recommendations for Congress and agencies that seek to increase data access, promote data privacy and build up the government’s evidence-building capability.
Nancy Potok, a member of the commission and chief statistician at the Office of Management and Budget, said the report recommends the establishment of a national secure data service that will work to link government records that could be delivered back to its original owners after use.
“So it’s not that all the data in government gets put into a central data warehouse,†Potok said.
“If you have a project or evaluation that you want to do and it requires confidential data, protected data, there is a service that is expert at this, that can link that for you, you can get secure access,†she added.
