§3520 Chief Data Officers

Summary

Each agency must pick a nonpolitical employee to be its Chief Data Officer. The choice must be based on proven training and experience in handling data, including managing and governing data, collecting and analyzing it, protecting it, sharing it, and using techniques to protect and de-identify confidential data. The Chief Data Officer is in charge of the full life of the agency’s data and has many duties: coordinating with other data officials, managing and publishing data assets, consulting the agency’s statistical official, following related legal data duties, promoting good data practices, involving employees, the public, and contractors, helping the agency’s Performance Improvement and Evaluation Officers use data, working with the Chief Information Officer to make data easier to access, maximizing data use for evidence, cybersecurity, and operations, naming contacts for open data work, working with other agencies and OMB on statistical use of data, and following any required rules, certifications, and training. If statistical laws require it, the Chief Data Officer must hand over duties to the head of the agency’s statistical unit. Where allowed by law, that statistical head should consult the Chief Data Officer, and the Chief Data Officer must defer to them on delegation decisions about data covered by statistical law. Each Chief Data Officer must send an annual report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House that explains how the agency is meeting these duties and what it cannot do or still needs.