§3520 Chief Data Officers

Summary

Each agency head must appoint a nonpolitical employee to be the agency’s Chief Data Officer. That person must have training and experience in managing, protecting, analyzing, and sharing data, including methods to keep data private and de-identify it. The Chief Data Officer must manage agency data from creation to disposal, set common formats, help share and publish data under the law, and work with the agency’s statistical official (as designated under section 314 of title 5). They must carry out the agency duties in subsections (b) through (d), (f), and (i) of section 3506, section 3507, and section 3511. They must use data best practices, involve staff, the public, and contractors, help the Performance Improvement Officer under section 1124(a)(2) of title 31 and the Evaluation Officer under section 313(d) of title 5, work with the Chief Information Officer to remove tech barriers, support use of data for evidence (as defined in section 3561), cybersecurity, and operations, identify open-data contacts (as required by the Director), serve as the agency liaison to other agencies and OMB on statistical uses (as defined in section 3561), and follow rules and required training under subchapter III. If needed to follow statistical laws, the Chief Data Officer must give duties to the head of the agency’s statistical unit (as defined in section 3561). The delegate should consult the Chief Data Officer when allowed by law, and the Chief Data Officer must defer to the delegate about handling data covered by statistical law. Each year the Chief Data Officer must report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives about how the agency met these requirements, what it could not do, and what it needs to comply.