Statistical agency staffing cuts put federal data under new scrutiny on Capitol Hill

The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee is seeking a hearing on the state of federal statistical agencies, following a report documenting deep staffing cuts and leadership vacancies. 

Citing “alarming” data in a recent report from the American Statistical Association, Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott, D-Va., is asking the committee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., to give members “the opportunity to explore the hard choices these agencies have had to face as they absorb these cuts and do more with less.” 

Scott’s requested hearing would focus on three statistical agencies that fall under the committee’s purview – the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics.

“I ask that you schedule a hearing in September so that Committee Members have the opportunity to hear about the erosion of our nation’s federal statistical infrastructure and better understand the downstream effects of poorer data quality and less frequent product releases,” Scott wrote. 

All 13 principal federal statistical agencies have seen staffing cuts since the start of the Trump administration. Six of them shed at least a third of their headcount, and two of them lost more than two-thirds of their employees.

The American Statistical Association’s midyear report, released last month, found staffing cuts and persistent leadership vacancies “put the agencies in a weakened and vulnerable position to meet rigorous production schedules,” and “keep up with the demands of producing relevant, timely, and accurate statistics for decisionmakers and the public.”

“These agencies serve as vital lifelines for policymakers, businesses, and the public—producing nonpartisan, reliable statistics describing the realities confronting our constituents every day,” Scott wrote. 

The association found in a report last year that widespread staffing and spending cuts, along with policy changes under the Trump administration, led to certain public-facing data sets being delayed, suspended or canceled.

The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics lost nearly all its employees last year, as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing plans to dismantle the department.  NCES, which operates within the department’s Institute of Education Sciences, shrank from about 100 staff to just four employees last year, but now has about a dozen full-time staff.

Scott wrote that NCES projects and studies on school crime and safety, teachers and principals, homeschooling and virtual education, and adults’ skills and competencies remain “inactive” amid these staffing cuts. Other work has been reduced in scope or transferred to other agencies. 

Savannah Newhouse, the department’s press secretary, said in a statement that NCES and IES “were in need of reform,” and that the Trump Administration “is committed to ensuring that IES delivers usable, high-quality statistics, data, and resources for educators, researchers, and other stakeholders.” 

USDA’s Economic Research Service cut a third of its workforce between fiscal 2024 and 2026. ERS, which produces data on the agricultural economy, food and nutrition, food safety, global markets, and rural economies, is planning to relocate employees to Kansas City this fall, doubling down on staffing moves carried out under the first Trump administration. 

Many employees who received relocation notices in 2019 quit rather than move to keep their jobs. ERS in the process lost more than half its staff and dealt with productivity declines that took years for the agency to recover from. 

Federal employee unions and nonprofit groups are suing to block USDA’s widespread relocation plans, arguing that they are a veiled attempt to intentionally shrink its workforce. 

“It is both the Administration’s prerogative and our concern that staff departures will continue to undermine the ERS’s irreplaceable work to understand the challenges faced across the country regarding agriculture and food security,” Scott wrote. 

Last summer, President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the agency produced a monthly jobs report that showed hiring had slowed. The incident raised concerns about the long-term independence of federal statistical agencies. 

The Senate confirmed Brett Matsumoto as the bureau’s new permanent director last week, but many of its leadership positions remain vacant. The bureau cut its staffing by 20% between fiscal 2024 and 2026. 

BLS announced last month that it would no longer produce monthly state-by-state data snapshots of job openings, hiring, layoffs and workers quitting their jobs. Instead, the bureau will now publish monthly estimates for the prior year in annual data releases. 

BLS never resumed data series that had been cut due to sequestration cuts from 2013, including the elimination of the Mass Layoffs Statistics program, which provided “information that identifies, describes, and tracks the effects of major job cutbacks in the economy.” 

“These changes reflect long-standing understaffing and underdevelopment, despite warnings from current and former staff,” Scott wrote.