The Trump administration has moved to scale back or eliminate multiple government data collection programs, including the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, NOAA’s tracking of billion-dollar weather disasters, and CDC divisions that maintain statistics on injuries, violence and crashes.

Critics argue these actions undermine efforts to address climate change and public health. Supporters say the changes reduce burdensome reporting and refocus agencies on their core missions, while outside groups are working to preserve federal data sets at risk of being lost.

“When we don’t measure things, it makes it much harder to claim that there is a problem and that the government has some kind of responsibility to help alleviate it,” says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

“Measuring itself is a political act with political consequences,” Pralle says. “And clearly the Trump administration does not want to do anything to alleviate a problem like climate change.”

Read more in the New York Times article, “A Trump Administration Playbook: No Data, No Problem.”