Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018
Latest action. Became public lawWhat a bill becomes when enacted, numbered by Congress and order of enactment: Public Law 119-4 is the 4th law of the 119th Congress.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) No: 115-435.
Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018
This bill requires agency data to be accessible and requires agencies to plan to develop statistical evidence to support policymaking.
TITLE I--FEDERAL EVIDENCE-BUILDING ACTIVITIES
(Sec. 101) The bill requires agencies to submit annually to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress a systematic plan for identifying and addressing policy questions. The plan must include, among other things
questions for developing evidence to support policymaking;
data the agency intends to collect, use, or acquire to facilitate the use of evidence in policymaking;
methods and analytical approaches that may be used to develop evidence to support policymaking; and
challenges to developing evidence to support policymaking, including any statutory or other restrictions to accessing relevant data.
Each agency shall designate a senior employee as Evaluation Officer to coordinate evidence-building activities and an official with statistical expertise to advise on statistical policy, techniques, and procedures.
The OMB shall establish an Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building.
Agency strategic plans shall contain an assessment of the coverage, quality, methods, effectiveness, and independence of the agency's statistics, evaluation, research, and analysis efforts. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) shall submit to Congress a report that (1) summarizes agency findings and highlights trends in the assessment, and (2) recommends actions to further improve agency capacity to use evaluation techniques and data to support evaluation efforts.
The OMB shall issue guidance for program evaluation and identify best practices for evaluation. Agencies must implement such guidance.
The Office of Personnel Management shall, for program evaluation within an agency, identify key skills and competencies, establish or update an occupational series, and establish a new career path.
TITLE II--OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA ACT
Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act or the OPEN Government Data Act
(Sec. 202) This bill requires public government data assets to be published as machine-readable data. The General Services Administration must maintain an online federal data catalogue to provide a single point of entry for the public to access agency data.
The summary continues for 6 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Public Law" stage on January 14, 2019. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
This bill has been enacted. It is law.
The record's latest action, on January 14, 2019: Became Public Law No: 115-435.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced it on October 31, 2017, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 1 Democrat, 2 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HousePassed
- SenatePassed
- PresidentSigned into law