The assault on public data is a threat to good policy

A version of this column originally appeared in Michigan Advance.

At Kids Count in Michigan, we know that good data helps inform good policy. This is why we work hard each year to maintain the KIDS COUNT Data Center, which boasts over 100 indicators showing trends in child and family well-being for every county in Michigan. 

All of the data we collect comes from trusted sources of information, primarily state and federal agencies like the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the National Center for Education Statistics. But our access to certain federal sources of information is now at risk, as the current administration takes steps to erase, undermine, and misuse the data we have long relied on.

The federal data threats are part of this administration’s efforts to redefine or hide the facts. The first major threat is seen in the modification of datasets or their removal from public websites altogether. One example of this is the announced discontinuation of the annual Household Food Security Report. For more than 30 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has produced this report containing the data necessary to help researchers and decision-makers develop policies to combat hunger.

The cancellation of the report comes at a time when food insecurity is on the rise across Michigan. As of 2023, 1 in 5 children is food insecure, a rate that has worsened 30% in the past five years after more than a decade of improvement. Despite the state’s robust agriculture industry, food insecurity affects urban and rural areas alike, with Wayne, Mackinac and Roscommon counties reporting the highest rates of childhood food insecurity in the state.

Even more concerning, the loss of this report will obscure the harms of recent cuts to federal food assistance. In 2025, the USDA cut over $1 billion in funding that allowed schools and food banks to buy food from local farms while congress oversaw the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history. The absence of the Household Food Security Report will make it much more difficult to track the harmful impacts of these policy changes.

A second major threat to federal data involves the staffing of statistical experts at federal agencies. Most major news outlets covered the high-profile firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner after the July jobs report showed a weakening labor market, but the Reductions In Force of numerous federal agencies have left key statistical agencies without the capacity to conduct their work.

At the Department of Education, 97% of staff at the National Center for Education Statistics were eliminated, forcing the team to pause, delay, or cancel reports. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also saw cuts, with the entire team overseeing a survey on infant and maternal health placed on administrative leave. 

The survey, known as the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, or PRAMS, has long helped researchers understand racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes. In Michigan, the infant mortality rate for Black infants is double the statewide average, a gap we cannot begin to remedy without reliable data like that provided by PRAMS.

The third major data threat we’re seeing under the current administration is non-statistical uses of private data. Although our federal datasets provide a huge amount of valuable information for researchers, that information is only as good as the ability to keep personally identifiable information private. 

The current administration has repeatedly broken standards of data ethics, such as by attempting to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to sensitive Medicaid data, demanding colleges release race-related admissions data, and allowing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access sensitive tax data. These flagrant privacy violations will lessen the quality of our data by increasing nonresponse rates, particularly among sensitive populations such as immigrant families or transgender individuals.

Diminishing data access and quality will not only make it more difficult for decision-makers to design good policies, it will also impede our ability to evaluate if they work. This administration’s push for “efficiency” in government cannot be successful without data to track investments and measure impact. To learn more about our current federal data threats and how they will affect Michiganders, check out our new fact sheet, The Stakes Are High: Federal Data Threats.