Data for the People! Podcast Interview: Bill Hoagland

In the inaugural episode of Data for the People!, Bill Hoagland reflects on the federal government’s progress at using data and evidence for decision-making and how to rebuild public trust in government and scientific institutions, including federal statistical agencies.

Hoagland is a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center where he helps direct and manage fiscal, health, and economic policy analyses. During his 33 years with the federal government, Hoagland served as director of the Senate Budget Committee, director of budget and appropriations in the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), and administrator of the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. 

The interview covers his recent participation in an event hosted by the American Academy of Political and Social Science, where he spoke about restoring public trust in the federal government and the data it produces. In light of the Data Foundation’s current initiative to highlight national datasets that bring the greatest value to Americans, the People’s Data 100, Hoagland also shares a few of his favorite federal data sources, their value, and his pitch for why Americans outside of the Washington beltway should care about federal data. 

Listen to the full interview: 

Restoring Public Trust

Public trust in federal statistics declined last summer, according to survey data from NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak® panel cited in a December 2025 report from the American Statistical Association. But the full story is complicated because “the public basically does trust scientists,” Hoagland notes. At the same time, “the average American doesn’t quite feel that scientists have the same values as they do, that they may have biases in their analysis.”  

The Pew Research Center’s recent surveys of public perceptions of scientists suggest almost 80 percent of Americans have confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public. Americans have greater confidence in scientists than many other types of professionals, including journalists, elected officials, and religious leaders. However, far fewer (51 percent) believed scientists should take an active role in public policy debates about scientific issues. Similarly, Americans were split on whether scientists make judgements solely based on facts or were just as likely as other people to make biased judgements. 

In the interview, Hoagland says researchers need to make sure “we understand what our own biases are so that we do a better job reflecting those in our analysis and therefore maybe help to rebuild trust with the American public in the final reported recommendations or policies that are put together.” 

Hoagland also points out that policymakers have better infrastructure and more tools to regain public trust and demonstrate to Americans that decisions are based on objective, high quality information. He notes that federal leaders have access to an expanding data ecosystem within the federal government, thanks in large part to the enactment and implementation of the Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act), as well as technological advances that allow for more timely collection, sharing, and analysis of data. 

Those improvements have coincided with the explosion of alternative information sources online, which Hoagland worries can compete for policymakers’ attention. For policymakers and their staff, Hoagland says, “evidence-based data [is] being challenged by the daily onslaught of, ‘What’s on the internet or what’s social media saying?’” 

Valuable National Datasets

The Data Foundation is currently gathering nominations for its People’s Data 100 initiative, which identifies national datasets that provide the greatest value to Americans. When asked to name his favorite national dataset, Hoagland starts with the Current Population Survey, sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is essential for determining household incomes and measuring poverty in the country. He also references data sources from the Department of Commerce, Department of Labor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health that collectively help determine the gross domestic product; the consumer price index; the national unemployment rate; and measures of diseases and mortality in the country. 

Hoagland also notes examples of federal data regularly informing individual Americans’ lives in everyday situations: Federal weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helps farmers know when to plant and harvest crops. The same data can help people decide to dress warmly on a cold day or alert them when they need to prepare for hurricanes and winter storms. 

“There are plenty of places within the federal government where the basic data goes right back to the individual in terms of activities that they participate in, and in their daily business lives,” Hoagland says.