Unstable funding for federal statistical agencies such as the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, both based in Suitland, Md., is putting at risk the government statistics the U.S. uses to track changes in the country’s economy and population, officials and data users warn.

Brian Witte/AP

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Brian Witte/AP

The stability of the federal government’s system for producing statistics, which the U.S. relies on to understand its population and economy, is under threat because of budget concerns, officials and data users warn.

And that’s before any follow-through on the new Trump administration and Republican lawmakers‘ pledges to slash government spending, which could further affect data production.

In recent months, budget shortfalls and the restrictions of short-term funding have led to the end of some datasets by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, known for its tracking of the gross domestic product, and to proposals by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to reduce the number of participants surveyed to produce the monthly jobs report. A “lack of multiyear funding” has also hurt efforts to modernize the software and other technology the BLS needs to put out its data properly, concluded a report by an expert panel tasked with examining multiple botched data releases last year.

Long-term funding questions are also dogging the Census Bureau, which carries out many of the federal government’s surveys and is preparing for the 2030 head count that’s set to be used to redistribute political representation and trillions in public funding across the country. Some census watchers are concerned budget issues may force the bureau to cancel some of its field tests for the upcoming tally, as it did with 2020 census tests for improving the counts in Spanish-speaking communities, rural areas and on Indigenous reservations.

While the statistical agencies have not been named specifically, some advocates are worried that calls to reduce the federal government’s workforce by President Trump and the new Republican-controlled Congress could put the integrity of the country’s data at greater risk.

“We’re getting close to the bone now,” says Erica Groshen, a former commissioner of BLS who was appointed by former President Barack Obama. “So even if [the funding situation is] exactly the same, the impact is going to be worse” because of ongoing challenges with producing reliable data.

Why today’s government data is like “crumbling infrastructure”

Like roads and bridges, the federal statistical system is indispensable but usually overlooked, its supporters say. Groshen compares its current state to “crumbling infrastructure” that is still doing its job but with “visible cracks.”

“You’re still filling the potholes on the top, but you’re not repaving,” explains Groshen, now a senior economic adviser at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “You’re not shoring up the undergirding of the bridge. You’re not developing the new bridge that has to replace the old bridge when you discovered that its life is about to end.”

While advocates and officials say government data remains reliable for now, they point to troubling conditions ahead.

“The economy is not becoming any simpler to measure, right? Things are getting more complex. You know, there’s lots of new things we have to learn how to measure,” said Vipin Arora, the BEA director, at a meeting last month of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics.

The statistical agencies are also faced with a crisis facing the broader survey and polling industry — a shrinking rate of people willing to an