Newsletter Archive
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Take Action! National Survey on Drug Use and Health and More
April 14, 2026by Meghan MauryRead MoreField Test of the Week: National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Methodological Field Tests. Data from the NSDUH are used to provide estimates of substance use and mental illness at the national, state, and substate levels. NSDUH data also help to identify the extent of substance use and mental illness among different subgroups, estimate trends over time, and determine the need for treatment services. Generally, the methodological tests included under this listing will explore things like questionnaire design, participation incentives, and sampling techniques.
Comments due May 12.Every time the government makes a change to a survey or a form — or introduces a new survey or form — you have the right to weigh in on that decision. The Take Action! newsletter highlights surveys or forms the government is changing, renewing, or introducing. Click the links to tell the government what you think about the changes they are making.
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Take Action! Shaping the Future of Loan Repayment and More
April 07, 2026by Meghan MauryRead MoreStudy of the Week: Shaping the Future of Loan Repayment. This new Participation and Repayment Progress in Federal Student Loan Plans study is intended to help IES understand which borrowers do and do not enroll in Income Driven Repayment plans, why they do so, how long they stay in their plans, their repayment behaviors, and other household finance and life course outcomes, as feasible.
Comments due May 18.Every time the government makes a change to a survey or a form — or introduces a new survey or form — you have the right to weigh in on that decision. The Take Action! newsletter highlights surveys or forms the government is changing, renewing, or introducing. Click the links to tell the government what you think about the changes they are making.
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SPD 15 Progress: Implementation Despite No Implementation Plans
April 02, 2026by Amy Vertal and Meeta AnandRead MoreIn March of 2024, OMB modernized its Statistical Policy Directive 15 (SPD 15), its standards for the collection of race and ethnicity data at the federal level: an important step towards capturing more thorough and actionable data. Many federal agencies collect information about the race and ethnicity of U.S. residents through surveys, program and benefits applications, and other mechanisms. Data on race and ethnicity serve several critical purposes, from informing federal services and program administration to protecting civil rights and ensuring equal opportunity. Complete, detailed, and high-quality race and ethnicity data are vital for federal agencies to function effectively and better serve the nation’s increasingly diverse population, allowing all U.S. residents to thrive.
The 2024 SPD 15 standards went into immediate effect when released for all new data collections, and established a 5-year timeline for agencies to implement the updated standards on other data collections. This timeline initially required federal agencies to publish and submit to OMB their plans to implement 2024 SPD 15 by September 28, 2025, and to fully implement the updated standards by March 28, 2029. On September 26, 2025, OMB announced a 6-month delay to both deadlines. On March 27, 2026, the day before agencies were due to provide their implementation plans, OMB further pushed back the deadline for the submission of implementation plans: now they are due on March 28, 2027. However, the deadline for full implementation remains March 28, 2029. In the meantime, in the past year alone we have seen 75 collections implementing the 2024 SPD 15, in whole or in part – and we look forward to continuing to see such implementation take place, even in the absence of published implementation plans.
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Public Commenting on Federal Data: More Powerful (and More Doable) Than It Looks
April 01, 2026by Meghan MauryRead MoreI recently did a short webinar on how to write effective public comments on federal data collections. If you missed it, you can watch the recording here:
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Take Action! SNAP Requirement for Interstate Data Matching To Prevent Multiple Issuances and More
March 31, 2026by Meghan MauryRead MoreData Matching Agreement of the Week: SNAP Requirement for Interstate Data Matching To Prevent Multiple Issuances. Under this program, each state is required to participate in an interstate data system called the NAC to prevent multiple issuances of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to an individual by more than one State agency simultaneously in the same month (also known as interstate duplicate participation). States are required to upload their data to this system each working day and must perform queries using the NAC to determine if an individual is currently receiving SNAP benefits in another State whenever they are processing a new application, recertification, or adding a new household member. States are required to verify information following a positive NAC match. These activities are expected to require just over one million hours of effort by state governments to identify less than 45,000 households that have received duplicate payments.
Comments due May 4.Every time the government makes a change to a survey or a form — or introduces a new survey or form — you have the right to weigh in on that decision. The Take Action! newsletter highlights surveys or forms the government is changing, renewing, or introducing. Click the links to tell the government what you think about the changes they are making.