Trump’s Cuts Are Making Federal Data Disappear
Online tools that professionals use for everything from diagnosing diseases to calculating insurance payouts are going dark.
Doctors are struggling to treat patients with complex sexually transmitted infections as certain types of health data are being purged from public websites. Insurers won’t be able to pull fresh data from a frequently consulted repository of climate and weather disasters. School districts are left to work with a scaled-down version of the nation’s report card, which is critical for setting benchmarks for student achievement and allocating resources.
These datasets are collateral damage in President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the US government. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency says it’s canceled almost 12,000 contracts totaling about $44 billion in savings, plus billions more in terminated grants. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of government workers who’ve departed through voluntary resignations, firings and other exits, leaving several agencies gutted and gaping holes in others. Among them are linchpins of the sprawling federal statistical system, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, as well as a host of lesser-known offices that research science and engineering, transportation, health and more.