[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 229 (Thursday, December 2, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68465-68466]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-26161]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs


Request for Comments on the First Annual Report of the Advisory 
Committee on Data for Evidence Building

AGENCY: Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, Department 
of Commerce.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 
requires Federal agencies to modernize their data management practices 
to develop and support evidence-based policymaking. The Act requires 
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), or the head 
of an agency designated by the Director, to establish the Advisory 
Committee on Data for Evidence Building (Advisory Committee). In a 
letter dated September 3, 2019, OMB delegated managerial and 
administrative responsibility for this Federal advisory committee to 
the Department of Commerce Office of Under Secretary for Economic 
Affairs (OUSEA). The Advisory Committee is required to deliver publicly 
available annual reports on its activities and findings to the OMB 
Director. The Advisory Committee submitted its first-year report on 
October 29, 2021. This FRN requests comments from the public on the 
Advisory Committee's first annual report.

[[Page 68466]]


DATES: Comments must be received by December 31, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by emailing [email protected]. Begin 
with the phrase ``Comments for the Advisory Committee on Data for 
Evidence Building;'' and indicate which section(s) of the report your 
comments address. Comments by fax or paper delivery will not be 
accepted.
    Privacy Note: Comments submitted in response to this notice may be 
made available to the public through relevant websites. Therefore, 
commenters should only include information they wish to make publicly 
available on the internet. Do not submit confidential business 
information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
    Please note the confidentiality of routine communication and 
responses to this public comment request are treated as public comments 
and may therefore be made publicly available, notwithstanding the 
inclusion of the routine notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gianna Marrone, Program Analyst, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, 4600 Silver Hill Road (BE-64), Suitland, MD 
20746; phone (301) 278-9282; email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Comments

    The Advisory Committee submitted its first-year report to the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget on October 29, 2021. 
The report is also available publicly on the Advisory Committee's 
website. The report summarizes the Committee's first-year activities 
and resulting findings, laying out a vision for a National Secure Data 
Service and the future of data sharing, data linkages, and privacy 
enhancing techniques across Federal agencies and with state and local 
governments. The report describes recommended actions that can be taken 
today to build towards that vision while also articulating the path 
that the Committee intends to take across the next year to further 
develop recommendations for implementing the vision.
    Over the past 12 months, the Committee has engaged in extensive 
fact-finding, including examining the recommendations of the Commission 
on Evidence-Based Policymaking and the implications of their partial 
implementation through the Evidence Act; leveraging the expertise of 
its members; hearing from researchers, government leaders, other 
experts, and the public; conducting virtual site visits to existing 
data facilities; and beginning to collaboratively synthesize the 
different perspectives and use cases into a coherent understanding of 
the current state and future needs for the use of data for evidence 
building. The Committee members recognize their efforts as a work-in-
progress that will continue across the next 12 months.
    This request for comments offers researchers, evaluators, 
contractors, government entities, and other interested parties the 
opportunity to inform the Committee's second-year plans. This is a 
general solicitation of comments from the public. The FRN commentors 
may respond to any section of the report. Please clearly indicate which 
section(s) of the report you address in your response and provide 
evidence to support assertions, where practicable.
    Dated: November 29, 2021.
    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 315.

Alyssa Holdren,
Designated Federal Official, Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence 
Building.
[FR Doc. 2021-26161 Filed 12-1-21; 8:45 am]
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