The crisis for government data in a 21st century shutdown

[Commentary] US society depends on open government data. When the government shuts down, that data is at risk, and so are the citizens who rely on it.

Across the government’s data offerings, the now ten-day shutdown has meant disruptions, downtime and confusion. A sampling of what’s available and what isn’t: Data.gov is down; so is the Census. The Bureau of Labor Statistics website (BLS.gov) is up, but it’s not releasing any new data. Federal Register staffers say they’re keeping the system up, and that some new data might come through, but that they can’t correct errors. The Library of Congress said its THOMAS system would be going offline, then decided it would stay up. Regulations.gov is still online, thanks to a technicality about how it’s funded. And it appears that you can still pull historical records about train accidents, for some reason. But countless other data services are down or display vague messages about the possibility of bad data. The Obama Administration needs to take action to restore faith in government data as a civic resource and platform for business. Confusingly, the House Republican majority that has engineered this shutdown has, until now, been among the most reliable and forward-thinking sources of open data leadership in our government. One can only hope that it will soon resolve the internal tensions that have led to this crisis.

[Lee is Director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation]