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1 1 (October 21, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveras0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Infrnrning the legislitive debate since 1914 October 21, 2024 Standardizing Federal Data: Categorizing Approaches Congress has at times enacted laws that specifically require federal agencies to use data standards, which establish rules to enhance the usability of data. This In Focus provides an overview of three topics related to data standards in the federal context: (1) their role in federal data management, (2) the terminology surrounding data standards and some of the resulting implications for Congress, and (3) categories for the data standards Congress has required in statute. Further discussion of federal data standards is available in CRS Report R48053, Federal Data Management: Issues and Challenges in the Use of Data Standards. Federal Data Governance and Data Management The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified data standards as a key practice for governing and managing data. GAO has described data governance as a framework for ensuring that an agency's data are transparent, accessible, and of sufficient quality to support its mission; improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations; and provide useful information to the public. Data governance includes the authorities, roles, responsibilities, organizational structures, policies, processes, standards, and resources for the definition, stewardship, production, security, and use of data. As such, data governance is concerned with how to manage data and is a precursor to data management, which is concerned with implementation of those decisions. Information Resources Management. Data governance generally operates within a broader framework for information resources management (IRM), which is directed by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA; codified at 44 U.S.C. §§3501-3521). IRM is the process of managing information and related resources (e.g., information technology) to accomplish agency missions and to improve agency performance (44 U.S.C. §3502(7)). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is tasked with developing, coordinating, and overseeing IRM policies among executive branch agencies (44 U.S.C. §3504(a)(1)(A)). When a law requires data standards for some federal purpose, OMB often plays a role in forming such standards. Agencies are also expected to manage information to meet certain objectives, such as improving the use of information within and outside of the agency (44 U.S.C. §3506(b)). Under the PRA, program officials are responsible for defining the program's information needs and developing the strategies, systems, and capabilities to meet those needs in consultation with the agency's chief information officer and chief financial officer (44 U.S.C. §3506(a)(4)). Congress has also established more specific data governance and management responsibilities for individual agencies or programs that operate outside of the PRA. Chief Data Officers. Within agencies, chief data officers (CDOs) are responsible for data management (44 U.S.C. §3520). A 2017 House committee report suggested that CDOs would improve data interoperability in the executive branch and the transparency of federal data by centralizing data management. Among other activities, an agency CDO may work with stakeholders in the agency to demonstrate how data analytics can address challenges and priorities, including the role of data standards in these types of projects; initiate the development of data standards to educate stakeholders about the value of data management, data architecture, and data-driven decisionmaking; and facilitate a common language for data among data stewards-those that have day-to-day data management and data analysis roles. Defining Data Standards for Federa Purposes OMB, the General Services Administration, and National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) jointly maintain online resources for federal data management. They have characterized the universe of data standards as large, varied, and complex and indicated there is no single, simple definition to adequately convey their purposes for all the ways agencies may use them to manage and use data. For example, data standards can dictate data definitions, data types, data formats, and data structures and relationships. Data standards include metadata standards such as those required by NARA for permanent electronic records transferred to it. The adequacy of the term data standards is not always straightforward. For example, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) maintains the standards for federal financial spending data pursuant to requirements in the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act; P.L. 113-101). While the law uses the term data standards, BFS initially named its implementation of the requirements the DATA Act Information Model Schema (DAIMS). In 2023, BFS said it rebranded DAIMS as the Governmentwide Spending Data Model due to new legislation and policies that went beyond the DATA Act. Thus, three terms were used interchangeably: data standards, information model schema, and data model. Similarly, the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-263; 136 Stat. 3421) required several financial regulatory agencies to promulgate joint standards for certain data reported by financial entities to these agencies. In a Federal Register notice of the proposed data standards, the agencies noted that the area of data standards is rich with well-established practices and also rapidly evolving and discussed interpreting the meaning of certain words used in the law. Specifically, the act indicates that the data standards should, to the extent practicable, enable high

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