2.15 Open Government Data Act (2018)

Requires public government data assets to be published as machine-readable data, and each agency shall develop and maintain a comprehensive data inventory and designate a Chief Data Officer.

On January 14, 2019, the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act, (Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act. 3/29/2017) as part of the Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act, became law. The OPEN Government Data Act makes Data.gov a requirement in statute, rather than a policy. It requires federal agencies to publish their information online as open data, using standardized, machine-readable data formats, with their metadata included in the Data.gov catalog. Data.gov is working with an expanded group of federal agencies to include their datasets in Data.gov as they implement the new law. In addition, the law requires that GSA work with OMB and the Office of Government Information Services to establish an "online repository of tools, best practices, and schema standards to facilitate the adoption of open data practices across the Federal Government." This new repository, which will be an update and expansion of Project Open Data, will also be available on Data.gov. (GSA. Data.gov at Ten and the OPEN Government Data Act. 5/31/2019.)