It’s Love Data Week! This week we’ll be featuring guest contributors from the Library’s Research Data Services team. Today’s post comes from Laura Hjerpe, Senior Research Data Management Librarian.
As a librarian who has worked with data in government and academia for almost six years, I find myself experiencing mental whiplash. The federal government was making big strides in making data open, at least through policy and legislation, but since the beginning of 2025, we have witnessed removals and redactions of federal government data and information, in a manner notable for its abruptness and impact.
On January 31, 2025, federal agencies took down thousands of web pages, which included datasets and data access tools, to comply with Executive Orders addressing diversity programs and gender-related policies. Data stakeholders, such as health professionals, researchers, journalists, librarians, archivists, and citizens responded with emergency archiving and litigation. Doctors for America filed a lawsuit on February 4 of that same year, demanding immediate restoration of health data and information needed for treating patients and for research. On February 11, Judge John Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the CDC, FDA, and HHS to stop removing and modifying health-related websites and to restore websites already removed or modified, citing harm to “everyday Americans” seeking healthcare. After the content was restored, users noted changes in wording and broken links.
Soon after, USDA removed landing pages focused on climate change, which included data, interactive tools and information on climate-smart agriculture, forest conservation, climate change adaptation, and investment in clean energy. Advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against USDA. On May 12, USDA filed a letter agreeing to restore climate-focused webpages.
For now, government data and information systems continue to be under severe pressure from reductions in force, dismantling of agencies, firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner, and discontinuation of data collection efforts. A couple examples of discontinued data products are NOAA's Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters and USDA’s Household Food Security Report.
You may ask yourself what U.S. law says about this and how you can help. Below are my thoughts based on professional and personal explorations.
How does U.S. law speak to these removals and redactions? What does it say about stakeholder involvement?
The lawsuits referred to above cited the Paper Reduction Act mandate that all agencies “ensure that the public has timely and equitable access to the agency’s public information” and “provide adequate notice when initiating, substantially modifying, or terminating significant information dissemination products.” See 44 U.S.C. § 3506(d)(1), (3).
Based on my reading of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, (aka Evidence Act), it does not directly address data removal or redactions though its second part – the Open Government Data Act – emphasizes that federal data should be “open by default.” This suggests that removal or redaction requires strong justification. In fact, Section 202(b) lists reasons for not making data public, such as personally-identifiable-information (PII) disclosure risk, security, intellectual property, and other considerations deemed relevant by the Office of Management and Budget Director.
Also, Section 202(c) directs federal agencies to “develop and maintain a strategic information resources management plan” that facilitates “collaboration with non-Government entities (including businesses), researchers, and the public for the purpose of understanding how data users value and use government data.”
What can I do as a stakeholder?
Visit our Government Information Data Rescue guide. This guide provides information about the Data Rescue Project that serves as a clearinghouse for data rescue-related efforts and data access points for public U.S. governmental data currently at risk. This guide includes lists of archiving and advocacy organizations, archives of government websites and data, alternative data sources, and Data Rescue activist tools.
Monitor changes and weigh in. Dataindex.us provides a list of surveys and forms the government intends to change, renew, or introduce, under the heading “Take Action.” You can also check specific agencies, such BEA’s Discontinued or Delayed Statistics: 2024-2025 or the NOAA/NDESDIS Notice of Changes.
Make a data deposit. If your research project is based on federal government data that you think is at risk, put a copy of the dataset with available documentation into a data repository. Note the data source and when it was accessed.
Most works created by a U.S. government office or employee are in the public domain and can be edited, adapted, and republished without permission but works produced by non-employees may still be copyrighted. Therefore, confirm ownership of the data and check for a license explaining terms of use, such a Creative Commons “CC-BY” license that requires attribution for use. For more information, see Copyright in U.S. Government Works.
For further reading:
- Levenstein, M., & Kubale, J. (2025, August 18). Data that taxpayers have paid for and rely on is disappearing – here’s how it’s happening and what you can do about it. The Conversation. January 15, 2026, https://theconversation.com/data-that-taxpayers-have-paid-for-and-rely-on-is-disappearing-heres-how-its-happening-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-251787
- Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century—Supporting Materials: D. Foundational Documents for Federal Statistical Agencies (The Nation’s Data at Risk). (2024). [Inaugural Report]. American Statistical Association & George Mason University. https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/the-nation's-data-at-risk-supporting-materials/foundational-documents-for-federal-statistical-system.pdf
- This supplementary document provides summaries of the Paper Reduction Act and excerpts from the Evidence Act.