Bipartisan Team Launches Effort to Better Assess Whether Programs Work

As promised, a bipartisan and bicameral pair of congressional budget leaders on Thursday introduced their bill to create a commission to recommend ways to expand the use of data to weigh the effectiveness of programs and tax expenditures. 

Coming from House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Budget panel ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., the bill (H.R. 1831 and S. 991) would give the panel 15 months to make recommendations on evaluation criteria and establish a governnmentwide data clearinghouse that would merge data sets to inform policymaking.

“If we want to make government more effective, we need to know what works,” Ryan said in a statement. “Too often, Washington rewards effort instead of results, and this commission will help us change the focus.”

Murray added that she looks forward to working with Ryan and other colleagues “to get this done as soon as possible.”

The commission would also study how best to protect privacy rights of people who interact with federal agencies.

With a budget of $3 million from several agencies and a director, the 15-member commission would include specialists in data management, statistics and economics, appointed three apiece by the House and Senate party leaders and the president.

Agencies helping out would include the Office of Management and Budget, the Census Bureau, and the departments of Health and Human Services, Education and Justice.

A version of the bill introduced last fall would have tasked the nonprofit National Academy of Public Administration with managing the commission. Instead, the new version would place it at the Census Bureau.