Overview for USA federal data

Since January 2025 there has been a lot happening on the federal data landscape. This page will provide an overview, information on on-going efforts, and resources. The MIT Libraries staff is also here to help, whether you have questions about changes to data and data management requirements (data-management@mit.edu) or scholarly publishing.

Overview

In mid-2025, the Center for Open Data Enterprise (CODE) published report, “America’s Data Future: Towards A Roadmap for Action,” provided a solid summary of the current and expected challenges to federally-funded data, whether generated directly by government agencies or via funding provided by federal agencies, along with associated materials. Changes have ranged from removal of variables and entire datasets, attempts to shut down research centers (e.g., National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)), cessation of data collection (e.g., Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)), removal of privacy protections (e.g., US Census Bureau), to the on-going instability of data systems due to uncertain funding and loss of experienced personnel. In response, there are a number of groups and resources diligently working to track and mitigate these risks.

On-going efforts

• dataindex.us created the Information Collection Request (ICR) Tracker to capture the required requests that US federal agencies must submit for when they create, renew, modify an information collection
• The CODE U.S. Data Action Hub airtable is a great resource for identifying the groups and initiatives that are currently underway
• The Data Rescue Project (DRP) offers more context on some of these groups

The MIT Libraries are connected to some of this work, and we can facilitate reaching others in your research community or identifying places where data might be stored and available.

Resources

• Use our Checklist for federal data backups to check on the status of the federally-funded data you are using, and if you need to, save it!
• Share your story on why federally-funded data is important at America’s Essential Data portal
• See what has already been secured, and help improve it at the DRP’s Project Portal
• Nominate an at risk dataset for preservation using the DRP submission form or one from Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) (more environmental-data focused)
• Check out tools for data rescue, and so many other resources at DRP’s Resource page
• Advocate for data using Coalition for National Science Funding resources

[Updated 2026-06-17]