Looking for federal data? Go local.

A Sunshine Week reminder that local governments have a lot of federal data, too

By Miranda S. Spivack

As it continues its multi-pronged war on its own government, the Trump administration has been gutting its own trove of data and documents while trying to exempt from public view the details of Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn system to deconstruct the civil service. The result has been the disappearance or, in some cases, alterations in federal data and documents about a wide range of issues: health care, environmental justice, public safety and police conduct, among many others.

Though the personal and professional cost to the discarded federal employees of their massive firings is substantial, there is a less publicized but nonetheless significant related expense: the cost of the loss of reams of federal data and documents. Since the Musk attack from his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” began in late January, not only have federal employees been pushed out, but information that they created and nurtured about such matters as hate crimes, medical research, public health, and the Census have disappeared online or appear to have been altered. Some items have been restored, but much has not. Some datasets appear to have been adjusted to remove material that was linked to gender or equity. Entire websites have been taken down. The data and documents that the federal government routinely collects and publishes is full of crucial information that affect real people, businesses, state and local governments, schools and colleges, health care and more.

There is, however, a way to salvage some of the information that your tax dollars have already paid for: ask state and local governments to show you what they have.

Many of the personnel cuts and disappearing data caused by Musk’s DOGE affecting health care, education, civil rights, parks, tax collections, and the environment also have a direct impact on state and local governments. The connection is twofold. The success of many of the scuttled federal programs is often based on information state and local governments give to the federal government. At the same time, state and local governments are on the receiving end of all kinds of directives from the federal government. The public might ask for the orders from the Trump administration with details for state and local governments on how to comply with these directives, especially those affecting programs that send money directly to the states, such as Medicaid, education funding, environmental programs, public safety and more. In many states, state and local websites routinely post some of the data the states regularly supply to the feds. The information also can be obtained via state or local public records requests.

Under every state and territory public records laws, the bulk of this material should be a matter of public record—and it should be released to anyone who asks if it isn’t already on a state or local website. There can be a fee. But when you file your public records request, ask for a waiver of fees because you can assert that you are asking for this information “in the public interest.” If you are rebuffed on fees, one strategy is to enlist help from national advocacy groups with local chapters, and also complain publicly about any big expenses you are being asked to pay because you already bought them with your taxes.

Here are some items you can ask for: Request the guidance and data your state receives from the federal government about how to respond to drastic weather conditions. Request information on airline safety and near misses at your local airport. Seek out data that has been shared by the federal government with state health agencies about the effectiveness of new drugs to help cure cancer or to attack the devastation of dementia. Or ask the state agencies that track maternal and child health and mortality, nutrition, and HIV infections for their data and information they sent to the federal government. I have tracked the work of state and local governments for years, including how secretive they can be. I have seen residents across the country, without any investigative training, successfully push their state and local governments to release important information to make their communities safer. Sometimes you need a lawyer to help. If you do, ask your local bar association for a list of those willing to work pro bono and with experience extracting information from the government.

There is another way, but its usefulness is at risk. That is the federal Freedom of Information Act allowing you to ask the federal government directly for the missing information. Despite the general lack of transparency about what, precisely, Musk’s group is doing and what they are charging the taxpayers for their work, there is, at least on paper, this federal law providing tools for the public to try to extract data, documents, reports and other items. A federal court judge has ruled that the work of DOGE is subject to public disclosure, but the fate of the missing data and documents has not been resolved. And even with the possibility that the DOGE will have to start keeping track and responding to public records requests, it won’t come easily. The government’s lawyer in the case said it would take three years—three years!—to comply with the ruling, even though the government under the law, is supposed to at least acknowledge a FOIA request within 20 business days.

No administration has been great at complying with FOIA, but it appears that the Trump administration might hit a new low. It is still worth a try, if for no other reason than to create a record about lack of compliance to provide fodder for future lawsuits.

But for now: go local. The method that is likely to lead to success in retrieving important information that the federal government has collected is to ask state and local governments to provide it. Though it might be a time-consuming effort, it is one key way that frustrated members of the public can get federal data and documents that, by all rights, they already own.

Miranda S. Spivack, a former Washington Post reporter and editor, is the author of the forthcoming book “Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities - and the Local Heroes Fighting Back.”