A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that Federal agencies believe the assessment process for evidence-based policymaking to be useful, but that the guidance provided by the White House to help them do so is confusing.
The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 requires the 24 CFO Act agencies – every four years – to assess aspects of their statistics, evaluation, research, and analysis efforts. Agencies published capacity assessments for the first time in 2022.
Federal decision-makers need evidence about whether government programs and activities are achieving intended results. The Evidence Act aims to enhance Federal agencies’ capacity to build and use evidence – such as data and the results of studies.
The interagency Evaluation Officer Council, chaired by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has responsibilities for sharing information and helping agencies with Evidence Act implementation.
GAO conducted a content analysis of 23 agencies’ capacity assessments as well as interviewed officials at the 24 agencies directed by OMB to conduct capacity assessments.
According to GAO’s 61-page report, agency officials said they faced challenges understanding OMB guidance and how the capacity assessments would be used.
“GAO found variation in what agencies assessed and how they presented their findings,” the watchdog agency said. “Additional guidance could help agencies provide more comparable information in future iterations. This could also help decision-makers identify and address common issues across agencies.”
Agency officials also said it was a challenge to identify appropriate approaches for conducting the assessment, the report notes.
“They used different methodologies to assess their evidence-building capacity, which sometimes did not result in useful information,” GAO said. “Identifying, documenting, and sharing lessons learned could help agencies select appropriate methodologies to ensure future capacity assessments consistently provide useful information.”
GAO recommends that OMB leverage the Evaluation Officer Council to identify agency officials’ needs for additional guidance on capacity assessments and address them accordingly as well as identify, document, and share lessons learned on capacity assessment methods.
OMB neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO’s recommendations and stated that it would take them into consideration moving forward.
