Honest government data and scientific integrity

A democracy needs honest information about itself: employment, inflation, public health, environmental conditions, agency performance, the state of the world its policies affect. Government statisticians and scientists do not work for whichever party holds office; they work for the public, and their job is to report what the data say, not what their political leadership wishes the data said. The integrity of public records and scientific output is what makes informed citizenship — and informed policy — possible at all.

The abuses tracked here include the suppression or delayed release of agency data on political grounds, the appointment of unqualified loyalists to scientific or statistical roles, retaliation against career scientists whose findings inconvenience leadership, the alteration of official records after publication, and the censorship of agency research. When government becomes the editor of its own performance, the public loses both accurate ground truth and the ability to hold anyone accountable for the gap between rhetoric and reality.

Further reading: Government Accountability Office — non-partisan oversight reports on agency performance and program integrity. Library of Congress Constitution Annotated.