Trump administration erases federal datasets on chemicals, maternal health, hunger, LGBTQ youth, and climate disasters
The Trump administration has removed or disabled key federal datasets and terminated staff responsible for them, including the EPA's Risk Management Plan public tool, CDC's PRAMS maternal health survey, and USDA's food security survey, undermining public safety, environmental justice, maternal health, and hunger monitoring.
The Trump administration is systematically deleting or restricting access to federal datasets that are essential for public health, safety, and environmental justice. In April 2025, the EPA removed its Risk Management Program (RMP) public data tool, which allowed residents to look up nearby facilities storing hazardous chemicals. Now, the only way to access this information is to visit one of several dozen EPA reading rooms to examine paper records—a barrier that disproportionately harms low-income and minority communities already living near chemical plants. The administration has also proposed rolling back accident-prevention regulations under the RMP rule, even though the U.S. still averages one chemical accident every two days.
At the CDC, the entire full-time team overseeing the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS)—the nation's most comprehensive survey on maternal and infant health—was dismissed. PRAMS data is now inaccessible, and Mississippi, which has the highest infant mortality rate, has terminated its data collection. This leaves researchers and state health departments without the evidence needed to design programs that reduce maternal deaths, low birth weight, and disparities. Meanwhile, the USDA terminated the Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey, the gold standard for tracking hunger, calling it 'redundant' and 'fear mongering.' The final survey published in December 2024 found nearly one in seven U.S. households food insecure, a rate that had been rising.
These actions, part of a broader campaign targeting 'woke programs' and 'gender ideology,' also include removing data on LGBTQ youth and climate risk tools. The result is that the government is actively blinding itself—and the public—to the very problems it is supposed to address. As former chief data scientist Denice Ross noted, 'When data disappears, we might not know or be able to connect the dots for why our lives are getting harder – but our lives will get harder.'
The humanitarian alternative
Congress should immediately restore funding and staffing for the CDC's PRAMS program, order the EPA to reinstate the RMP public data tool, and direct the USDA to resume the food security survey. Legislation such as the OPEN Government Data Act should be strengthened to explicitly prohibit the removal of publicly funded datasets that inform public health and safety. Agencies should be required to publish a public inventory of any data removals or restrictions and justify them in writing. Independent watchdog groups like the Federation of American Scientists' America's Data Index should be supported to continue monitoring changes to federal data.
Falsifiable predictions
What this entry claims will happen, and what data would prove it wrong. The Reckoner revisits these against current reality.
- Within 90 days, at least one additional state health department will suspend its PRAMS data collection due to loss of federal support.
- Within six months, the EPA will finalize a rule that weakens accident prevention requirements for chemical facilities, citing reduced regulatory burden.
- Within one year, the number of peer-reviewed studies using PRAMS data will decline by more than 50% compared to 2023 levels.
Grounded in
- Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management ...
- Trump Administration Moves to Redo Chemical Disasters Safety ...
- Common Sense Approach to Chemical Accident Prevention – Risk ...
- EPA's Proposed Rule Signals Rollback of Chemical Safety ...
- EPA To Revamp the Risk Management Plan (RMP) Rule … Again
- PRAMS maternal mortality database in limbo as CDC staff placed on ...
- Shuttering the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System ...
- What Is PRAMS, and Why Is It at Risk? | Commonwealth Fund
- PRAMS - CDC
- CDC Suspends Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System ...
Original source — excerpted
user submission The Trump administration is deleting government data. From infant deaths to hunger, here are five ways it’s hurting Americans This information was used to understand the problems Americans face. The"When we think of what governments do, we think of everything from building highways to waging war. What they also do is capture the world in the form of information. The US government may be the foremost producer of information in the world. For decades, federal agencies have gathered data on everything from climate risk to the rising cost of childcare. It is information funded by taxes, and that belongs to the American people. This data is often how the government decides what to do: what is a problem, what is a policy priority, what should be funded. It tells the story of America. But over the past year, the Trump administration has been altering and removing decades’ worth of datasets as part of a sweeping campaign targeting so-called “woke programs”, “racial equity”, “gender ideology” and “climate extremism”. This censorship has affected not just datasets, but also a wide swath of federal resources: tools that helped the public access data, ongoing surveys and, perhaps most concerning, the agency staff that made it all possible. Experts warn that Trump’s destruction of the country’s data infrastructure will have lasting impacts on all aspects of life – whether it’s …"