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| 13 May 2026 | |
| Evidence Act Hub |
The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking was a 15-member federal advisory body established by the bipartisan Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016, jointly sponsored by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), and signed by President Obama on March 30, 2016. The Commission was charged with developing a strategy to increase the availability and use of government data to build evidence about federal programs, while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of that data. Its work centered on several key questions: how to integrate administrative and survey data for research and evaluation; what changes to data infrastructure, security, and statistical protocols were needed to support that integration; how to incorporate rigorous evaluation into program design; and whether a federal clearinghouse for government survey and administrative data should be created. The Commission released its final report, "The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking," in September 2017.
The Commission's recommendations became the direct legislative blueprint for the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act). Where the Commission identified fragmented data access, inconsistent evaluation practices, and inadequate data governance as barriers to evidence-building, the Evidence Act created the infrastructure to address them: new statutory positions, requirements for strategic evidence-building activities such as learning agendas, and the OPEN Government Data Act's open-by-default data framework. For the evidence community, the Commission's work matters not just as history but as context. Its background papers and final report remain foundational references for understanding why the Evidence Act's specific provisions exist and what problems they were designed to solve.
2017 The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking: Report of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking
2016 Barriers to Using Administrative Data for Evidence-Building
2016 Using Administrative and Survey Data to Build Evidence
2016 Comprehensive Data Inventory
2016 Privacy and Confidentiality in the Use of Administrative and Survey Data
2016 Overview of Federal Evidence-Building Efforts
