USAFacts Campaign Turns America’s Data Challenges Into Action

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, USAFacts, the nonpartisan civic organization founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, launches The Data We Depend On. Ahead of the 2026 midterms, the national campaign spotlights the critical role public data plays in everyday American life. The campaign will come to life this June through mobile activations in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Miami. The activation will coincide with the release of an open letter to Congress calling for investment in better data infrastructure to strengthen national decision-making and inviting the public to join Steve Ballmer in signing it.

"A functioning democracy requires a shared factual foundation. It's as essential as our roads and electricity grids."

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“A functioning democracy requires a shared factual foundation. It's as essential as our roads and electricity grids,” said USAFacts President Lauren Woodman. “When that data is outdated or incomplete, we lose civic participation from the Americans who could be shaping their government and communities. This campaign is our call to Congress to act.”

Since 2024, some of the federal government’s public data tools have declined in quality, making it harder for Americans to access the reliable information they need to understand their government and the issues that shape their lives. This campaign aims to drive awareness of the issue among the public and policymakers.

An Open Call for Better Data

Government data shows how taxpayer dollars are spent, evaluates whether programs are achieving their intended outcomes, and provides the public with a shared foundation of facts. Without it, our collective understanding of national challenges begins to weaken. Yet many Americans may not realize how deeply this data shapes daily life — informing everything from where roads and schools are built to how the nation protects its food supply. It is one of the most consistent and essential drivers of sound decision-making across society.

USAFacts’ open letter to Congress touches on two main issues that the American people want addressed:

• Use data to legislate. Make data a standard part of policymaking. Use it to define problems, compare options, allocate resources, and measure outcomes.
• Fix the data when it falls short. When data is too slow, fragmented, or inaccessible, it’s a failure of public infrastructure. Decision-making suffers. So does public trust.

Mapping a New National Data Ecosystem

With the launch of the campaign, USAFacts also released a vision for a national data ecosystem that America deserves, co-authored with the Center for Open Data Enterprise. This in-depth policy report incorporates input from over 150 of the nation’s leading data experts and presents a roadmap for modernizing government data.

“The U.S. federal data system is meant to serve the American people, and it must be updated for the 21^st century,” said Richard Coffin, Chief Research and Advocacy Officer at USAFacts. “AI is changing the way people seek out information on everything from their taxes to their kids’ schools. It’s critical that our public data resources reflect the way people are using technology today.”

New technology, the changing needs of the American public, and disruption in government have created an opportunity to reshape the national data ecosystem itself. USAFacts wants the public to play an active role in that transformation.

Bringing Data’s Impact to Life with The Fact Fleet

The Data We Depend On campaign will use custom-built mobile out-of-home (OOH) visuals, called The Fact Fleet, to illustrate the importance of data in providing the services and infrastructure people use every day. The visuals depict broken roadways, disappearing schools and hospitals, and other potential impacts of data loss, in public view and on a life-size scale to match the stakes of the issue.

Learn more about the campaign and sign the letter at usafacts.org/data-we-depend-on.

About USAFacts

USAFacts is a nonpartisan civic organization making government data easy for all Americans to access and understand. USAFacts provides an online resource of well-visualized data and trends in US spending, revenue, demographics and more to help ground public debate in facts. It produces topical content each week and produces three annual reports: State of the Union, 10-K and America in Facts: A Data-Driven Report to Congress. Follow @USAFacts on X, TikTok, Instagram and sign up for the data-driven newsletter at usafacts.org/signup.