HIDING ECONOMIC DATA: FOR WHOM AND WHAT PURPOSE? By Mark Anderson, Legal and Legislative Assistant, NMBA Over the past year, in my view, there has been a strange and concerning trend happening within our federal government. Federal statistical agencies (FSAs), once the gold standard for information, have seen unprecedented attacks on their independence and capacity, creating questions around whether they can be relied upon to report on problems within the U.S. economy. Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, there have been a series of choices that lead one to conclude that the federal government is deliberately trying to hide economic data from the American public. That begs the question: Why are they trying to hide it, and what do they think this will achieve? Early in the second Trump administration, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disbanded the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC), a crucial body that worked under the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis to ensure that the federal government produces accurate data on economic indicators. Then, the Trump administration gutted the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Technical Advisory Committee, which advises the Department of Labor on the impact of economic changes on data collection. Next, in August, the President terminated 14
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