Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act

(Redirected from Evidence Act 2018)

The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act) is a United States law that establishes processes for the federal government to modernize its data management practices, evidence-building functions, and statistical efficiency to inform policy decisions.[1] The Evidence Act contains four parts ("titles"), which address evidence capacity, open data (OPEN Government Data Act),[a][2] and data confidentiality (the reauthorization of the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act).[3]

Evidence Act
Great Seal of the United States
Long titleFoundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018
NicknamesEvidence Act
Enacted bythe 115th United States Congress
Effective01/14/2019
Citations
Public lawPub. L. 115–435 (text) (PDF)
Legislative history

Legislative history

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The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by former House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on October 31, 2017.[1] Senator Patty Murray filed counterpart legislation in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Ryan and Sen. Murray acknowledged that the basis of the legislation was a set of recommendations issued by the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. The Evidence Act addresses half of the recommendations from that commission.[3]

In November 2017, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform advanced the bill, which was approved unanimously by the full House. The Senate advanced a modified version of the bill in December 2018, which returned to the House for a final vote. The U.S. president signed the bill into law on January 14, 2019.[1]

Implementation

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Federal agencies have undertaken extensive activities to support implementation of the Evidence Act, beginning in 2019. Many activities are documented in a report from the Data Foundation describing the status of the Evidence Commission's recommendations after 5-years.[4] The federal government also published new resources that describe implementation progress that reflect respective titles of the law. For example:

  • Title 1 relates to evidence-building functions and evaluation with additional information available at evaluation.gov
  • Title 2 relates to data management and chief data officers with additional information available at cdo.gov and through the Federal Data Strategy
  • Title 3 relates to statistical policy with additional information available at statspolicy.gov

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The OPEN Government Data Act is Title II of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act

References

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  1. ^ a b c H.R.4174 - Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Congress.gov, retrieved June 6, 2019
  2. ^ 132 Stat. 5534
  3. ^ a b "Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018" (PDF). Data Coalition. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  4. ^ "Evidence Commission After 5 Years: A Progress Report on the Promise for a More Evidence-Informed Society". Data Foundation. Retrieved 2023-09-14.

Further reading

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