“Whether you’re making business decisions, or deciding whether to buy a house in a certain area that might be flood prone,” says Sloan grantee @denicewross.bsky.social, “government data can’t be replaced.”
Ross is building a more resilient national data infrastructure: time.com/7344773/wome...
@denicewross.bsky.social compiled an excellent list of statements of gratitude for federal data sets:
www.linkedin.com/posts/denice...
Webinar Rapid Response Data Briefing Understanding the Food Security Supplement Tuesday, October 7 3:00 - 3:30 PM ET
🚨 USDA has terminated the Food Security Supplement (FSS), the only nationally representative measure of household food insecurity.
🗓️ Register for our Rapid Response Data Briefing here: tinyurl.com/FSS-webinar
✍️ Submit a comment to save the data: tinyurl.com/FSS-comment-...
New episode! Special guest Denice Ross joins to talk about the federal data ecosystem and why it matters for democratic accountability. Plus: H1B changes, new senate rules on nominations, and yes, the great gaggle of gobsmacked GOFOs. Plus: Robert Redford! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
📣 In the first 6 months of the Trump Administration, we found 100s of information collections influenced by Presidential Actions. These numbers illustrate how policy shifts at the executive level can shape federal data.
www.dataindex.us/newsletter/a...
Five surprising ways federal data makes your life better
Bats save billions. The humble bat is working for free to get food on your table, to the tune of $53 BILLION a year in free pest management. The NABat database monitors these little critters so that highway construction and mining operations don’t infringe on their habitats.
In space no one can hear you mine Rare-earth elements aren’t just on earth – they are abundant in the final frontier. America depends on rare earths to build next gen fuel cells, develop cutting-edge medical imaging tech, and make the screens you’re using to read this right now. Thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we can find these elements on the moon, and reduce our dependence on foreign nations.
Get your Labubus faster A shipping tech startup trains its AI algorithms for planning the safest and most fuel-efficient ocean routes on data collected by NOAA's Argo fleet of drifting buoys.
Here are FIVE surprising ways federal data make your life better, with our friends at @essentialdata.us:
1. We get up to $53B/yr free pest control because we don't accidentally build bridges through bat habitats
2. We know where to get those sweet, sweet space minerals
3. Labubu matcha
The CDC quietly neutered the best Covid data on the planet yesterday. ED data visualization has been stripped of age stratification, and state-by-state trends.
ED data has been far better for state by state trends than WW. Poof.
The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) has been cancelled for 2025. In our latest blog post, Peter Bonner explains what key stakeholders will lose when this legally required data isn’t collected.
Read the full blog post to learn more: www.dataindex.us/newsletter/a...
“Losing trust in government statistics wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would be the end of the world as we know it.”
Sobering thoughts for investors and others from Jeff Sommer.
What if You Can’t Believe the Official Numbers? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/b...
#econsky @aaronsojourner.org
"The first rule of government transformation is: there are a lot of rules. And there should be-ish. But we don’t need to wait for permission to rewrite them. Let’s go fix and build some things and show how it’s done.”
We don't need to wait for permission to rewrite them! fas.org/publication/...
The public data that we all rely on is under attack, from economic statistics 📈 to weather data🌪️. So we are sharing stories every day about how essential public data is. Calling all data nerds to add your favorite dataset to the collection at essentialdata.us 🤓
On @marketplace.org: former U.S. Chief Data Scientist & @scientistsorg.bsky.social sr fellow @denicewross.bsky.social
There’s been a “targeted, surgical removal of data sets, or elements of data sets, that are not aligned with the administration’s priorities” 🧪📉
www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...
What I’ve been up to:
In this 6 min read I cover a lot of data ground -- 📪 junk mail, the 🚢 Titanic, 🦇 bats, 👮 police, 🛫 air travel, and 🤖 🌊 captainless ships
TL;DR If you use federal data, now's the time to start telling the story about why it matters
As the former U.S. Chief Data Scientist, Denice Ross knows first-hand how valuable and vulnerable our nation’s federal data assets are.
For those who rely on federal data in small or large ways, it’s time to champion the federal data we often take for granted ⤵️
fas.org/publication/...
🥗 @dataindex.us uncovered a notice of an alarming new National SNAP Information Database, which will include PII like SSN, name, address of SNAP participants (and applicants!).
updates.dataindex.us/archive/unco...
Federal data friends -- NEW resource @dataindex.us tracks changes to federal forms and surveys subject to the paperwork reduction act. It's pretty wonky, but the patterns start to emerge when you watch the changes over time.
Got it, thanks!
❌ NOTICE Federal US website newly deleted.
https://greengov.gov
Action taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (Office of Federal Sustainability) at or around 2025-04-11 06:11:02.
Are you finding it works for ToH? Any secrets? We’ve tried “hack and spray” in the fall without success
1. We have enough information to act on the climate crisis NOW, even if every single measurement stops.
2. We need to know how bad it's going to get, and if our mitigation efforts are working.
These can be true at the same time.
Today marks my first day as a senior fellow with the amazing team at @scientistsorg.bsky.social! For the next 6 mos, we’ll be working together to document the value of federal data (incl statistical surveys, administrative records, & biophysical measurements) for the American people ❤️🇺🇸📊. More soon!
1/ I suspect we are days away from hearing Elon is "using AI" to “streamline” benefits programs.
You should know why fully automating decisions about who gets critical assistance is a terrible idea that will have disastrous consequences.
A 🧵 based on work I’ve done with the great @awhf.bsky.social
