- The report argues that the United States has substantial data assets but no executable national data strategy, leaving federal efforts under-resourced, state rules fragmented, and public and private datasets difficult to use at scale.
- SCSP identifies data accessibility as important for evidence-based government, supply chain resilience, economic productivity, artificial intelligence development, medical innovation, and broader public-good applications.
- The report says U.S. data policy gaps impede alignment with allies and partners, while the European Union advances a regulation-heavy model and China pursues state control, data localization, and global influence over data governance.
- Public trust is presented as foundational to the U.S. data ecosystem, requiring comprehensive federal privacy protections, clearer rights for individuals, stronger controls on data brokers, and enforcement mandates for the Federal Trade Commission.
- The report finds that U.S. government data accessibility is limited by incomplete guidance, inadequate resources, ineffective access mechanisms such as the current data.gov portal, and unequal access for smaller institutions and researchers outside well-resourced organizations and national laboratories alike together today nationally broadly across sectors important for innovation competition and.
This interim report presents SCSP’s case for a National Data Action Plan focused on making U.S. data assets more accessible while protecting privacy and security. It defines data broadly and frames data access, analysis, and use as a national competitiveness advantage in strategic competition, especially with China. Drawing on examples from government services, supply chains, industry, health care, artificial intelligence, and public-private data sharing, the report argues that the United States has major data assets but lacks a coherent strategy, comprehensive federal privacy protections, adequate infrastructure, and scalable mechanisms for sharing data across government, industry, academia, and civil society. It compares U.S. approaches with the European Union’s regulatory model and China’s state-directed data governance and localization agenda, warning that U.S. inaction could weaken democratic influence over global data rules. The report organizes its recommendations into three action areas: protect and promote public trust in the U.S. data ecosystem, improve accessibility of U.S. government-held data, and facilitate appropriate flows of non-government data. Proposed actions include comprehensive federal privacy legislation, support for privacy enhancing technologies, a stronger federal data governance structure, a revamped data.gov, support for the National AI Research Resource, and data-sharing public-private partnerships in priority technology areas.
The United States must approach its data assets with the same logic and urgency driving America’s new industrial policy, reshaping the Pentagon’s defense strategy, and reorienting U.S. foreign policy.
SCSP
- Pass comprehensive federal data privacy protections into law. Congress should pass comprehensive data privacy legislation that establishes a sufficient level of protection and sets reasonable, transparent…
- Incentivize the creation and use of privacy enhancing technologies. The USG should continue to prioritize and fund the open source advancement of individual PETs and their integration into demonstration sandboxes.
- Apply data governance principles to engender public trust. Organize governance by use and sector, empower existing regulators, focus on high-consequence uses, and strengthen non-regulatory data governance.
- Issue an Executive Order to improve USG data accessibility. Establish a national-level Chief Data Officer in the Office of Management and Budget that drives implementation of a government-centric data strategy…
Published by the Special Competitive Studies Project. Co-publishers and external authors, where they exist, are credited in the byline above.