Washington, D.C. – Data Coalition Chief Executive Officer Nick Hart, Ph.D. issued the following statement on the Department of Commerce’s November 6th announcement of the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building and request for nominations for members:

“The Data Coalition welcomes the creation of the Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building. The advisory committee is required by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 and is a natural next step in implementing the unanimous recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. The committee members will play a key role in helping government establish a National Secure Data Service, furthering the goals set out in the Federal Data Strategy and the Evidence Act. The creation of such a data service will substantially advance the country’s capabilities to generate the evidence policymakers need and want, while ensuring strong privacy protections are in place for sensitive data. The business, non-profit, and academic communities must support this important committee that is essential for promoting government’s evidence-building activities and data-driven decision-making. The Data Coalition encourages experts in transparency policy, privacy policy, disclosure avoidance methods, statistical policy, information management, data security, data science, research, policy analysis, and program evaluation to submit a nomination by December 4, 2019.”