Roundtable:
Evidence Building for Policymakers: Census Bureau Efforts
(The Impacts of Politics on the Policy Process)
Thursday, November 3, 2016: 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Columbia 12 (Washington Hilton)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Roundtable Organizers: Amy O'Hara, U.S. Census Bureau
Moderators: Christine Heflin, U.S. Department of Commerce
Speakers: Bethanne Barnes, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Maria Cancian, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Nancy Potok, U.S. Census Bureau and Robert Goerge, University of Chicago
President Obama signed the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016 (also known as the Ryan-Murray Act) on March 30, 2016 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1831). While the Commission considers the optimal arrangements to integrate administrative data on federal programs and tax expenditures, survey data, and related statistical data series to facilitate program evaluation, many efforts are already underway. At this roundtable, we will describe the Census Bureau's authority and capacity to support evidence building. Speakers will describe academic partnerships supporting policy-relevant data linkage pilots, a representative from the Office of Management and Budget’s Evidence Team will discuss the opportunities and challenges of assembling data to support program evaluation, and a former policy official will discuss the challenges and successes of capacity building.
