A governmentwide council of chief data officers met for the first time Friday, satisfying the first of 20 goals agencies must fulfill under the one-year action plan of the Federal Data Strategy the Trump administration released in December.
More than a year after President Donald Trump signed the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking into law, most but not all agencies have named a permanent chief data officer. But every agency sent at least an acting CDO to participate in the inaugural meeting at the General Services Administration’s headquarters.
While CDOs play a central role in meeting the short and long-term goals of the Federal Data Strategy, Margaret Weichert, the Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management, said the plan carries weight for every federal employee, whether that’s an enlisted member of the Coast Guard or an accountant at the Treasury Department.