Marketplace Tech The federal data and tools that "died" this year
Nov 25, 2025
Denice Ross, a senior advisor at the Federation of American Scientists and former U.S. chief data scientist, dives into the recent loss of crucial federal datasets during the Trump administration. She highlights specific datasets gone missing, from climate to health data, and discusses how this hinders access for researchers. Ross explores the challenges of private sector attempts to fill the gaps and shares lessons from past disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Finally, she proposes ideas to safeguard remaining data, emphasizing the need for transparency and integration with everyday applications.
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Centralized Tools Amplify Federal Data
- Federal data tools like EJ Screen and HIGH-FIELD made complex, cross-agency data accessible to communities and emergency managers.
- Losing those tools raises barriers to turning federal data into actionable decisions for public safety and equity.
Federal Scale Underpins Data Equity
- The federal government uniquely produces fair, nationwide data sets at scale that private actors can't fully replicate.
- Digital tools lower barriers to action, but their value depends on the continuity of underlying federal data streams.
Back Up Federal Tools Externally
- Support nonprofit and academic efforts to archive and rebuild public tools when agencies cut them.
- Expect these stopgaps to be less robust than full federal collections and plan for continuity gaps.