by Meghan Maury
Form of the Week: Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. The Defense Department is revising the federal forms used by military and overseas voters to register, request absentee ballots, and cast emergency backup ballots. The revised forms would require voters to provide a state driver's-license or ID number if they have one, the last four digits of their Social Security number if they do not, or information from another government-issued ID if neither is available; the Department says these changes clarify existing federal voter-registration requirements. More significantly, the Department is removing the option for U.S. citizens living abroad who have never lived in the United States, arguing that they are not specifically covered by the federal overseas-voting law, even though many states allow some of these citizens to vote based on a parent's former residence.
Comments due November 9.
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.
Health
National Survey on Drug Use and Health. SAMHSA is proposing several changes to the 2027 NSDUH, a major federal source of data on substance use and mental health. The survey would add questions about use of GLP-1 medications and several types of psychiatric medications, use of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and other crisis services, and reinstate questions about workplace drug and alcohol testing. SAMHSA would also change how it measures use of multiple substances by focusing on substances used within the same 30-day period, along with several smaller changes intended to improve or update existing drug-use questions.
Comments due November 16.Data Intermediaries and Approaches To Strengthen Public Health Data Exchange. CDC is seeking input on how “data intermediaries” could improve the exchange of public health data among health care providers, laboratories, pharmacies, public health agencies, and other sources. These intermediaries could include health information exchanges, health data utilities, national health-information networks, or other platforms that aggregate, link, transform, route, and potentially analyze data rather than requiring every provider and public health agency to build direct connections with one another. CDC is asking particularly detailed questions about data standards and quality, privacy and security, governance and permitted uses, funding, equitable access, oversight, and the potential role of AI.
Comments due November 20.Reporting of the Essentials for Childhood (EfC): Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action Program. CDC is revising reporting requirements for its Essentials for Childhood program, which funds improvements to data collection and prevention strategies addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The revisions streamline annual performance reports and assessments, consolidate questions about implementation challenges and successes, and eliminate some reporting requirements. CDC explicitly states that it is also changing language to comply with executive orders targeting DEI programs and recognition of transgender identities. The supporting statement does not identify exactly which terms or questions were changed, making it difficult to assess what information may be lost.
Comments due October 28.
Violence
2026 National Survey of Victim Service Providers. BJS is reinstating the NSVSP, last conducted in 2019, to produce national data on organizations serving victims of crime and abuse. The 2026 survey will collect information from roughly 3,600 active providers on the types of victimization they address, services they provide, the size and composition of their workforce, and their preparedness to respond to mass-violence incidents.
Comments due November 10.
Labor/Employment
DOC--Census Workforce Development Collection. Census is proposing a new annual data collection on participants in federally funded workforce training programs administered by NIST and EDA. Participant records would be linked with Census demographic, household, and employment data to evaluate long-term program outcomes and inform future investments. The collection could improve understanding of workforce training effectiveness, although linking individual records raises privacy and data governance considerations. Participation is voluntary, and Census confidentiality protections apply.
Comments due October 31.
Criminal Justice
Incarcerated People's Communications Services (IPCS) 2026 Mandatory Data Collection. FCC is reducing mandatory financial reporting by companies providing phone and video services to incarcerated people, eliminating most detailed reporting on payments to correctional facilities, security costs, and ancillary service charges. The changes reduce estimated reporting hours by 38%, while retaining facility-level cost data and audited financial statements needed to establish permanent rate caps. Eliminating these cost details could weaken oversight of fees and charges imposed on incarcerated people and their families.
Comments due October 29.
Immigration
ORR Unaccompanied Children Bureau (UCB) Administrative Program Records. ORR is revising privacy rules governing sensitive records about unaccompanied migrant children, their sponsors, and household members. The changes make it easier to share information with DHS, law enforcement, and the State Department by eliminating requirements for individualized determinations that disclosures serve a child's best interests and written restrictions on further use. ORR also clarifies that records may be shared for research and predictive modeling. Although the notice retains prohibitions on sharing information for immigration enforcement, removing these procedural safeguards raises concerns about oversight and potential misuse of children's and families' information.
Comments due October 28.
Data Sharing
FCC is establishing a data-matching agreements with Georgia and Connecticut to verify eligibility for Lifeline, which provides discounted phone and internet service to low-income households. The program will match applicants’ names, birth dates, and partial Social Security numbers against state SNAP enrollment records, receiving a yes/no eligibility response. This extends existing federal verification systems to state SNAP data rather than creating a new enforcement program.
Comments due October 29.DOI and Treasury Data Sharing and Matching Program. DOI is establishing a new data-matching program with Treasury’s Do Not Pay system to verify eligibility and identify potentially improper payments across 20 federal programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Fish and Wildlife Service. Programs include child care, energy assistance, TANF, employment services, and Tribal programs. The matching will use identifying and financial information, including Social Security numbers and bank account details. Agencies must independently verify matches before taking adverse action, but the expansion raises privacy and benefit-access concerns, particularly for Tribal communities and low-income households.
Comments due November 2.
ICYMI
Census and BEA Data Sharing Agreement. Census is expanding its sharing of confidential business-level data with the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), including data from surveys covering retail, manufacturing, services, construction, and business trends. BEA will use the records to improve the accuracy of national and regional economic statistics, identify gaps, and reduce duplicative data collection. The sharing is limited to statistical purposes, with access restricted to authorized, sworn personnel under existing confidentiality protections. No federal tax information will be shared.