Signed by President Trump on January 14^th, 2019, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policy Making Act of 2018 (“Evidence Act”), as implemented by the Department of Commerce, requires rigorous statistical evaluation methods to scrutinize the effectiveness of our programs and operations, to be efficient with taxpayer resources, and to make our data more accessible whenever possible. To aid with these efforts, the Evidence Act requires that each agency designate an Evaluation Officer, Chief Data Officer, and Statistical Official.  In the Department of Commerce, these positions report to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs (OUSEA).

The Evaluation Officer

The Evaluation Officer and supporting staff are responsible for the Departmental assessments of the coverage, quality, methods, effectiveness, and independence of their statistics, evaluation, research, and analysis efforts. The assessment is intended to help agencies measure their ability and infrastructure to carry out evidence-building activities like foundational fact-finding, performance measurement, policy analysis, and program evaluation. The Capacity Assessment is developed as part of the Departmental strategic planning process. Also, the officer leads the development of an Annual Evidence Plan that lists the priority evaluations that will be conducted primarily within a fiscal year and are funded in the budget for that year.

• Shawn Klimek serves as the Department’s Evaluation Officer.
• Natasha Murray serves as the Department's Deputy Evaluation Officer.

The Commerce Evaluation Officer and Deputy Evaluation Officer work extensively with a community of bureau-designated Evaluation Leads throughout the Department of Commerce. These Evaluation Leads serve as champions for instilling a culture of evidence-based decision-making and evaluation within their bureau, as well as sharing their knowledge, expertise, and experience through the Evaluation Officer-led community of practice.  Links to published works from bureaus or offices are published under the tag: Evaluation.

Program Evaluation

In addition to compliance with the Evidence Act, the Evaluation Officer also promotes:

Adherence to Department Standards - evidence-building activities and evaluations must be actionable and timely addressing questions that align with Department priorities, use the most appropriate design and methods, be objective, transparent and conducted with the highest ethical standards.

Data for Evaluation – evaluators and analysts should use existing administrative and statistical data for their analysis whenever feasible, consistent with applicable laws and regulations. The Evaluation Officer will identify impediments to Commerce staff using data to develop evidence and will work with the Chief Data Officer and the Statistical Official to improve access and usability of data.

Reporting – the Deputy Secretary will receive a biannual report from the Department Evaluation Officer on compliance with Department Administrative Order 216-21: Program Evaluation.

Evidence Act Deliverables

Annual Evidence Plans

The Evidence Act requires the agency Evaluation Officers to coordinate the development of an Annual Evidence Plan that is published concurrently with the agency's Annual Performance Plan and the annual budget. The Annual Evidence Plan describes significant evaluations and related information for the subsequent fiscal year. The Evaluation Officer issues annual guidance on the process, templates, and schedule. A complete draft is due to OMB in early December and the final draft is published concurrently with the budget.

FY 2027 Department of Commerce Evidence Plan, under development

FY 2026 Department of Commerce Evidence Plan, under development

Capacity Assessment for Statistics, Research, Evaluation, and Other Analysis

The Capacity Assessment is the third document in the series that the Evaluation Officer is responsible for. It reports on the Department’s resources to carry out the Learning Agenda. The Capacity Assessment reviews and appraises the statistics, evaluation, research, and analysis capabilities of the Department. Bureau evaluation resources are reviewed to assess if they meet requirements for achieving quality, rigor, and relevance for their evidence and evaluation projects. The FY 2026-2030 Capacity Assessment is being developed in three project phases: review of existing documents related to evidence-building and evaluation activities, the FY 2025 Department of Commerce Survey of Evidence-Building Capacity and bureau-level focus groups.  The Capacity Assessment will also be published with the FY 2027 President’s Budget.

FY 2026-2030 Capacity Assessment for Statistics, Research, Evaluation, and Other Analysis, under development

FY 2022-2026 Capacity Assessment for Statistics, Research, Evaluation, and Other Analysis

Prior Plans

Please visit Evaluation.gov for links to previous Department of Commerce evidence plans starting in FY 2022.