# FAS Tracks Federal Dataset Removals

The Federation of American Scientists’ Data Policy Institute is tracking removals of federal datasets and encouraging public engagement with data policy, including implementation of the OPEN Government Data Act. The signal identifies no solicitation, award, or funded procurement, but highlights agency needs related to data preservation, monitoring, governance, and data-management capacity as implementation and public oversight continue.

- Contractors offering data inventory, preservation, governance, or monitoring capabilities can assess how those services align with agency data-management needs; the signal does not identify a specific buying agency or active opportunity.
- Procurement teams should distinguish this policy and market signal from a bid opportunity: no contract value, solicitation number, or proposal deadline is reported.
- Denice Ross and Melanie Klein of the Data Policy Institute are tracking dataset removals and engaging the data community, providing a source of context on the issue and public oversight.

**Jurisdictions:** federal
**Industries:** Information Technology
**Topics:** Digital Infrastructure
**Published:** October 16, 2026

### Government Entities
- Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
- United States Congress (Congress)

### Key Quotes
> We have search agents that are doing daily searches to find things on news and social media and federal sites, but at the end of the day, we’re going to need to lean on our community of data experts so they can flag for us what datasets are no longer being collected.
> — Melanie Klein, Senior Associate of Federal Data Policy at the Federation of American Scientists

### Sources
- [Meet the former U.S. data chief taking the ‘Lorax’ approach to disappearing federal data | FedScoop](https://fedscoop.com/lorax-disappearing-federal-data-denice-ross) - FedScoop