(full disclosure: I am a board member on the Public Data Project) On May 7, 2026, Molly Hardy, Project Lead for the Public Data Project, sat down for an interview with Chris Marcum, Senior Fellow for Data Policy at the Data Foundation and former Senior Statistician at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This conversation centers around a report that Chris recently published, “The Integrity of Public Access to Federal Data: Evaluating Disruptions to Open Government Data, 2025–2026.” Chris gives perhaps the most thorough, fulsome, and understandable description of the federal data ecosystem including the policies and regulations that govern federal data. As he notes in the introduction of the report:
Open government data is a cornerstone of transparency, productivity, accountability, and evidence-based policymaking in the United States (US) and abroad. Open government data enables researchers, journalists, policymakers, and the public to monitor government performance, accelerate discovery, evaluate programs, and safeguard democratic institutions. These data represent an important, non-excludable and non-rivalrous, public good. Yet over the past decade, open government data has faced growing threats, including program disruption from funding shortfalls, political interference, and an erosion of trust government.
Read this important report and listen to the whole interview with Chris Marcum and Molly Hardy to better understand the federal data ecosystem and the issues and troubles regarding public access to federal open government data assets during the disruptions to the federal data ecosystem in 2026 that have impacted real human lives and livelihoods across the US and indeed the entire world.
Libraries and Public Access to Federal Data: Chris Marcum Talks to the Public Data Project
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