by Meghan Maury
Survey of the Week: Contingent Work Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The CWS questions focus on people with contingent jobs - those that people do not expect to last or that are temporary - and workers in alternative employment arrangements, such as independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary help agency workers, and workers provided by contract firms. Proposed changes to the digital labor platform work portion of the survey will provide more information about digital platform work that might be of short duration or intermittent and will help to understand how many days per week and hours per day were typically spent on work obtained through an app or website and what type of work was done.
Comments due April 13.
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.
Note: The Take Action tab of dataindex.us provides information about even more surveys, forms, evaluations, and records notices than are listed in your weekly newsletter.
Data Sharing and Data Matching
FCC and Pennsylvania Data Sharing and Matching Agreement. The proposed National Lifeline Eligibility Database (LED) would match data about Lifeline applicants and subscribers with other data sources to verify the eligibility of an applicant or subscriber. According to the listing, the FCC believes that the National Verifier would reduce compliance costs for Lifeline service providers, improve service for Lifeline subscribers, and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.
Comments due March 19.FCC and Indiana Data Sharing and Matching Agreement. This new agreement will permit eligibility verification for the Lifeline program and ACP by checking an applicant's/subscriber's participation in SNAP and Medicaid in Indiana Family and Social Services Administration Division of Family Resources. Under FCC rules, consumers receiving these benefits qualify for Lifeline discounts and also for ACP benefits.
Comments due March 20.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Patent and PTAB Pro Bono Programs. The USPTO works with and supports various non-profit organizations to operate a series of autonomous regional hubs that endeavor to match under-resourced inventors with volunteer patent practitioners across the United States. This Survey collects information regarding the activity of the regional hubs. Although it's unclear what changes PTO is making to the survey at this time, in 2025 PTO revised the survey to remove all demographic questions, which makes it more difficult to know if the program is serving under-resourced inventors.
Comments due March 20.
Disability
Survey to Promote Resources and Opportunities for aUtistic Teens and young adults (SPROUT). SPROUT will survey SEED cohort members and their caregivers to better understand the healthcare utilization of, service and support needs of, and impact of co-occurring conditions on autistic people and their families; and the educational, social, and/or vocational needs and experiences of autistic adolescents and young adults.
Comments due March 30.Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP). The WRP is a recruitment and referral program that connects students with disabilities to opportunities for federal employment. The listing indicates that DOL is making substantive changes to this collection, but it's unclear from the listing what those changes are.
Comments due April 10.
Immigration
Placement and Transfer of Unaccompanied (Alien) Children Into Office of Refugee Resettlement Care Provider Facilities. The 22 forms in this package are used in ORR's processes to place and transfer unaccompanied youth in its facilities. ORR is making dozens of changes to these forms through this listing. Language changes include shifting "gender" to "sex" and changing references from "unaccompanied children" to "unaccompanied alien children." Content changes include adding sections on disability considerations and translation and adding more information on secure facilities and placement determinations.
Comments due March 23.
Intimate Partner Violence
Safe Access for Victims' Economic Security Data Collection for Safety in Child Support Program Research. The SAVES program aims to increase safe access to child support, parenting time, and establishment of parentage services for survivors of intimate partner violence. Overall, the project will assess the experiences of survivors and support personnel in the SAVES program. Survivor interviews and surveys will help ACF understand how safety concerns - such as the risk of re-engagement with an abusive partner, fear of retaliation, concerns about personal information being shared, or negative experiences with legal or court processes - affect survivors' decisions to engage with or avoid the child support system.
Comments due April 3.
Military
Status of Forces Active-Duty Survey (SOFS-A). The SOFS-A is an annual Department wide large-scale survey of active-duty members that is used in evaluating existing policies and programs, establishing baseline measures before implementing new policies and programs, and monitoring the progress of existing policies/programs. The survey assesses topics such as financial well-being, retention intention, stress, tempo, readiness, nutrition, and suicide awareness. It's unclear from the listing if any changes are being made to the survey.
Comments due April 3.
Economic Security
Report of Terms of Credit Card Plans. The forms in this package collect data on credit card pricing and availability. CFPB is making a number of changes to the methodology of the survey component of this collection, including expanding the sampling frame beyond the approximately 700 credit card issuers already in its Collect system to about 2,200 banks and credit unions with credit card balances exceeding $1 million. CFPB is considering a number of other methodological changes that are outlined in the listing.
Comments due April 7.