The late Sen. Patrick Moynihan would often quip, “If you want to solve a problem you must be able to accurately measure it in order to measure progress”. Two of us, former secretaries of agriculture in Democratic and Republican administrations, and one as USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service administrator, relied on dependable and timely data to carry out the mission of the department.
Consumers, farmers, and food producers depend on the USDA to fulfill that mission: ensuring safe and affordable food, supporting agriculture, and strengthening communities across America. That mission depends on reliable, nonpartisan data that tells us whether families can access and afford the food they need.
That is why the administration’s decision to terminate the Household Food Security Report is so alarming. The department recently announced that it would terminate this report as being “redundant, costly, politicized and extraneous” and doing nothing more than “fear mongering”. We strongly disagree.
For nearly three decades, this survey has been the nation’s most trusted measure of food insecurity, guiding programs like WIC and SNAP, shaping bipartisan farm bills, and providing accountability to taxpayers. This report is critical to ensuring the programs and services administered by USDA reach the most vulnerable in society and those who are at greatest risk. To eliminate it undermines both the department’s mission and public trust.
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This is not an isolated incident. During the past several months, we’ve seen similar actions in other agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice data tool has been taken offline, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed thousands of public health web pages, the department of Justice erased accountability and hate crime databases, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shut down its climate data website and dismissed the team preparing the next national climate assessment. When data disappears, so does accountability.
The Household Food Security Report is a powerful example. It was born out of bipartisan legislation signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, implemented by President Bill Clinton, and supported through the years by Republican and Democratic administrations alike. The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Food and Nutrition Security Task Force we chaired issued major recommendations in 2023 to improve the targeting of federal food assistance programs to reduce food insecurity. The recommendations were based largely on the data provided from the 2022 survey.
The survey is not a political document. It is based on a statistical model focusing on a basic public policy issue – food security. In 2006, the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies conducted a rigorous technical 2-year review of the survey and concluded its appropriateness as a measure of food insecurity. The underlying data is gathered by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement.
It is not redundant or extraneous. It is the only nationwide benchmark for food insecurity.
The data is critical to understanding how economic and policy changes affect households’ ability to afford food.
The most recent report found that nearly 18 million U.S. households experience low or very low food security, up sharply from just over 11 million in 2001. It found disproportionately more low food security families in rural areas. These are not abstract numbers. They represent families forced to make painful trade-offs, seniors stretching their budgets, and communities where access to healthy food is increasingly out of reach.
This is not “fear mongering”. These are facts.
Further the timing of the administration’s decision to end the survey is inconsistent with other administration policies. Eliminating the survey is puzzling at a time when the administration’s focus is also to Make America Healthy Again through shifting the American diet away from ultra-processed foods, at a time when the administration is emphasizing reduced sugar sweetened beverages in our diet, at a time of increasing food price inflation, and at a time a major policy changes to SNAP.
The final 2024 report was scheduled to be released later this month, assuming the government shut down ended. We will see, in the words of Sen. Moynihan, if progress is being made to reduce food insecurity. But it, of course, will not reflect the major policy changes currently being implemented via the One Big Beautiful Bill that could impact food security in the future.
More troubling than the administration’s decision has been the silence of Congress. With farm bill negotiations currently underway, lawmakers should be insisting on more transparency and data, not less. Ending this survey erodes confidence in USDA and leaves policymakers without the evidence they need to act responsibly.
We urge Congress to use its authority to restore the Household Food Security Report and protect other critical data sources being dismantled across government. Oversight is not optional; it is Congress’s duty to safeguard the tools that ensure federal agencies serve the public effectively.
America cannot afford to govern in the dark. Reliable data is not partisan; it is the backbone of sound policy and good governance. Congress must act now to re-establish these essential reporting systems and reaffirm that facts, not politics, will guide the future of our food system and our democracy.
Dan Glickman and Ann Veneman served as secretaries of agriculture during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations respectively. G. William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, once served as administrator of USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.