AIBS endorsed a letter led by the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS) to Senate and House leadership expressing opposition to the unprecedented removal of taxpayer financed data from federal agency websites.
“Removing or curtailing access to these data, even temporarily, erodes the public trust that federal statistical and scientific agencies have earned,” the letter reads. “We are also alarmed that this violation of trust through this restriction of access to public data was done without regard for legal and administrative precedent. Federal laws, including the Paperwork Reduction Act, Title 44 of the U.S.C., and the Evidence Based Policymaking Act, are but a few of the major laws governing the collection, dissemination, and protection of federal data.”
The letter, signed by more than 230 national, state, and local organizations and 2,600 individuals representing data users from the private, public, non-profit, and scientific sectors nationwide, calls on Congress to “demand the complete restoration of any federal data that have been removed and to work with the Administration to prevent any future purge or removal of data from federal agency websites and portals.”
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