White House Finalizes 2020 Data Strategy Action Plan
The White House has released its final 2020 Action Plan for the Federal Data Strategy (see COSSA’s previous coverage). The Federal Data Strategy, which is being coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is a “ten-year vision for how the Federal government will accelerate the use of data to support the foundations of democracy, deliver on mission, serve the public, and steward resources while protecting security, privacy and confidentiality.” The Strategy consists of 10 principles and 40 best practices to guide federal agencies on how to leverage the value of their data.
The next phase in the Strategy’s implementation is its first-year Action Plan, which details concrete steps to align existing efforts and establish a firm basis of tools, processes, and capacities to leverage data as a strategic asset. The action plan also incorporates several mandated actions from the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, which was signed into law in 2019. A draft plan was released over the summer and the final version was revised in response to feedback received (see the detailed description of changes made).
The steps planned for 2020 are organized into three categories—actions to be taken by agencies, actions to be taken by a specific agency or group of agencies related to a common topic, and government-wide data services and pilot projects.
Agency Actions
- Action 1: Identify Data Needs to Answer Priority Agency Questions
- Action 2: Institutionalize Agency Data Governance
- Action 3: Assess Data and Related Infrastructure Maturity
- Action 4: Identify Opportunities to Increase Staff Data Skills
- Action 5: Identify Priority Data Assets for Agency Open Data Plans
- Action 6: Publish and Update Data Inventories
Community of Practice Actions
- Action 7: Launch a Federal Chief Data Officer Council
- Action 8: Improve Data and Model Resources for AI Research and Development
- Action 9: Improve Financial Management Data Standards
- Action 10: Integrate Geospatial Data Practices into the Federal Data Enterprise
Shared Solution Actions
- Action 11: Develop a Repository of Federal Enterprise Data Resources
- Action 12: Create an OMB Federal Data Policy Committee
- Action 13: Develop a Curated Data Skills Catalog
- Action 14: Develop a Data Ethics Framework
- Action 15: Develop a Data Protection Toolkit
- Action 16: Pilot a One-stop Standard Research Application
- Action 17: Pilot an Automated Tool for Information Collection Reviews that Supports Data Inventory Creation and Updates
- Action 18: Pilot Enhanced Data Management Tool for Federal Agencies
- Action 19: Develop Data Quality Measuring and Reporting Guidance
- Action 20: Develop a Data Standards Repository
The Strategy outlines a series of milestones, measurements, target dates, and responsible entities for each action. The full action plan is available on the data strategy website. COSSA will continue to report on the activities related to the Data Strategy as the actions are implemented and the next year’s action plan is developed.