Promising signals from the White House on data policy in FY 2022 Budget Request

Just before Memorial Day, the Office of Management and Budget released the first President’s Budget request of the Biden Administration. As expected, the full FY 2022 budget builds on what we saw in the “skinny budget” released in April, with large investments in research, science, and technology.

The budget proposal addresses core priorities from the Biden campaign and earlier policy announcements from the administration, including for economic recovery, climate change, and equity. Across all these areas there are strong data and evidence themes, woven into the policy proposals. The Biden administration also used the budget release to acknowledge the Federal Data Strategy will continue and an updated action plan is expected in coming months.

Some traditional information and crosscuts from the Analytical Perspectives, a document which helps highlight and contextualize the administration’s budget priorities, were not included. We also saw that, once again, the administration proposed to eliminate a $5 million pot of money to support implementation of open data and data inventory requirements in the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act). We expect Congress will maintain that funding as they have for the past few years.

But overall, this budget proposal contains promising signals for government data. We were glad to see investments in the Office of Management and Budget’s staffing as well as see that the administration is committed to investing in the Federal workforce, expanding IT capabilities, and providing training government wide. Good news for those wondering how the government is planning to meet the demands of the 21st century. 

Even without a more behind-the-scenes role in the administration’s agenda-setting documents, we have seen data and evidence play a part in initial discretionary proposals in agency budget justifications, including implementation of the DATA Act and Evidence Act and funding for initiatives within Offices of Chief Data Officers. We also saw many agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation include references to learning agendas in their budgets, a good sign of progress on one of the Evidence Act’s planning and organizing activities to promote data use. 

The administration’s initial signals that it would support science and technology are being supported by large investments in research and development across civilian agencies, with an emphasis on applied research. The administration pointed to energy and climate as some of its focus for applied research dollars, but includes pockets of investment for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics throughout the federal enterprise. 

Cybersecurity and IT modernization also received some attention in the budget request. The Technology Modernization Fund, to which agencies can submit IT modernization proposals, received an additional $500 million boost, after receiving $1 billion in the American Rescue Plan. Modernizing IT and improving cybersecurity can be used to further data work as well as address trust and confidence in our data infrastructure.

As the data and evidence community continues to pour through thousands of pages of budget and policy documents, it is vital that the themes we see around data, technology modernization and evidence building continue to be meaningfully incorporated into the business of government