The speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 234. The nays are 193. The previous question is ordered. The question is on adoption of the resolution. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The gentleman from florida. Mr. Hastings mr. Speaker, i ask for a recorded vote. The speaker pro tempore the ayes have it. A recorded vote is requested. Those favoring a recorded vote will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. The Unfinished Business is the ote on the motion of the georgia, mr. Hice, to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 2331 as amended. On which the yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk georgia, mr. Hice, to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 2131, a bill to require a new or updated federal website that is intended for use by the public to be mobile friendly, and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 423. The nays are zero. 2 3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, rules are rules are suspended, bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. For what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Ordered. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered. Or votes objected to under clause 6 of rule 20. The house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. He house will be in order. The house will be in order. Members take your conversations off the floor. Members take your conversations off the floor. He members in the back for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 41 is 74, the evidencebased policymaking act of 2017, as amended. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk h. R. 4174, a bill to amend titles 5 and 44 United States code to require federal evaluation activities, improve federal Data Management, and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. Farenthold, and the gentlewoman from new jersey, mrs. Watson coleman, will each control 20 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Farenthold. Mr. Farenthold thank you, mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Farenthold mr. Speaker, it is my distinct privilege to yield one minute to the sponsor of the bill, my friend, the speaker of the house of representatives. Mr. Paul ryan. The speaker pro tempore members take your seats or conversations off the floor. The speaker is recognized. The speaker first of all i want to thank the gentleman for yielding. My colleagues, i rise today in strong support of the foundations for evidencebased policymaking act. First, i want to thank the sponsor of the bill. I want to thank mr. Farenthold, i want to thank mr. Kilmer. Chairman gowdy. Blake farenthold and derek kilmer were the key drivers of this measure and made it stronger by incorporating their open Government Data act. Tray gowdy and his staff, i dont know where he is, trey gowdy and chairman his staff, e kathy, spent countless hours working with our team, especially ted, and others to turn the commission on evidencebased policy vision into legislation. All the members of this commission did incredible work. I want to especially thank senator patty murray for her willingness to Work Together on this issue. We may be on different sides of one isle, but there is we passionately agree on and that is what the government does, it should do it well. The taxpayers money should always be protected. And that is exactly why we came together to write this bipartisan legislation. So what does this bill actually do . It protects privacy. It improves transparency. It ensures that federal agencies are protecting the Data Collected by the government. The American People deserve to know and they deserve to understand we passionately agree on and that is what the government does, it exactly whae government is actually collecting. And they deserve to know that the strictest safeguards are placed on that data. The driving purpose of this legislation is very simple. Were requiring federal agencies to prioritize evidence when they are measuring a programs success. Go figure. Heres what were talking about. Lets just take poverty, for example. Instead of measuring success based on inputs, instead of measuring success based on how many programs we have created, how much money are we spending, how many people are on the programs, lets measure success based on results. Is it working . Are people getting out of poverty . Are the goals and objectives of these bills and these laws actually being achieved or not . By directing agencies to do this , no longer will we dont know an acceptable answer when asked if a program is actually working. I mean its really just crazy, but so much of what g overnment does, government doesnt actually see whether or not its actually succeeding at doing it. So we have got to get off this input effortbased system, this 20th century relic and on to clearly identifiable evidencebased terms, conditions, data results outcomes. With this bill were asking the federal bureaucracy to step up its game. Were asking ourselves how can we improve the lives of our federal sithzens by better understanding the citizens by better understanding the programs we put in place. How can we make sure that monty being spent on behalf of the Hardworking Taxpayers who send the money here in the first place is being spent wisely, efficiently, effectively. We need results not just effort. This is just good common sense policy. Its going to mean a real sea change in how we solve problems and how government actually works. With that i urge passage of this bill and i thank the sponsors for all their hard work. I yield. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from texas. Mr. Farenthold reserve. The speaker pro tempore reserves the balance of his time. The gentlelady from new jersey. Mrs. Watson coleman thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady is recognized for as much time as she wishes to use. Mrs. Watson coleman the foundations of evidencebased policymaking act as amended would establish a framework to support greater access and use of Government Data. I want to thank representatives derek kilmer and Blake Farenthold for their work on the open Government Data act, which is the basis for the title 2 of this bill. Also want to thank speaker ryan, senator murry, and chairman gowdy for their bipartisan work on this issue. The bill would require that agenties make data, quote, open by default, close quote, and develop a plan for building evidence in their agencies. The bill would require that the office of management and budget develop a federal catalog and inventory of agency data assets and that each agency designate chief evaluation officers and chief data officers who would work to ensure that agencies utilize data effectively. He goal of this bill is to congress and the executive branch are able to make important policy decisions based on evidence. This is not always currently the case. For example, take the team pregnancy prevention program. Funding for this program was recently cut even though there is significant evidence that it worked. If were going to demand more and Higher Quality evidence from these federal agencies, it is imperative that congress and the executive branch advance policies supported by that evidence. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time. Congress and the executive branch are able to make important policy decisions based on the speaker pro tempore the gentlelady reserves her time. The gentleman from texas. The gentleman from texas is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Farenthold im here to support h. R. 4174 introduced by speaker ryan and of which i am an original cosponsor. The American People deserve an efficient and effective government. I think we can all agree on that. Taxpayers have the right to know their money is being spent wisely and all too often decisionmakers throughout the federal government make choices without sufficient evidence and data to inform them and guide them in making those decisions. In the previous congress, speaker ryan and senator patty murray introduced the bicameral, bipartisan evidencebased policy Commission Act of 2016. That commission was charged with studying and making recommendations related to access and use of evidence to support policymaking. And believe it or not, they finished in about a year. The commission on evidencebased policymaking released their report september 7 of this year. The commission made 22 recommendations on how to improve evidence on how evidence is accessed, produced, secured and maintained by the federal government. On september 26, 2017, the House Committee on oversight and government reform held a hearing entitled recommendations of the commission on evidencebased policymaking. At that hearing, four members of the commission explained the intent of the recommendations and the need for more evidence to improve policymaking. According to dr. Ron haskins, the cochair of the commission, evidence showed many of the nations social programs produced modest to no impact. Foundations for evidencebased policymaking of 2017, the bill lays the groundwork for critsl examination of whats working critical examination of whats working and whats not working in the federal government. Policy decisions should be made on facts. Those folks of my generation will remember sergeant friday in dragnet. Just the facts, maam. But according to the evidencebased policymaking, few meet this need. The Commission Found cumbersome procedures create confusion create unnecessary costs and are a barrier to evidence building. Additionally, according to the Government Accountability office, agencies continued lack of evaluations, maybe the greatest barrier to informing managers and policymakers and constituents of lost opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness of a limited government resources. These barriers are standing between the taxpayers and the effective government that they have paid for and that they have that they deserve. H. R. 4174 removes some of the barriers that commission identified and encourages agencies to expand the use of evidence in decisionmaking. First, each agency will need to designate a chief evaluation officer and submit annual evidence building plans to congress and the office of management and budget. This bill establishes an Advisory Committee to review, analyze and make recommendations on how to make, expand access to evidence building. It also include the open gov data act that representative kilmer and i introduced. The act addresses the commissions recommendation to expand access to information about data. The open Government Data act requires federal agencies to develop a comprehensive inventory of federal data and increased access to specific data assets that are appropriate for public release. This isnt personally identifiable, confidential, private or classified information. It also establishes an open by default standard for federal data. Meaning the data will be available under an open format, open license and will be in a machinereadable format. We are going to crowdsource some of this evidence building. Were going to let the private sector or nonprofits or whomever access this data, find ways to use it, build data and, again, get more bang for the taxpayers dollar. The bill further improves Data Management and collection by codifying the position of chief data officer in clarifying the c. D. O. s roles and responsibility. And finally, h. R. 4174 establishes the process by which statistical agencies can access data, ensure effective and consistent privacy considerations, and develop methods to reduce the sensitivity of data. This will expand opportunities for use of data by the evidencebuilding community. The foundation for evidencebased policymaking act of 2017 was reported favorably out of the house government oversight and reform committee. I come back to the bottom line on this. Americans expect policymakers to make decisions based on fact and decisions based on facts are better decisions that will save taxpayer money and be good for america. H. R. 4174 will help make these expectations a reality. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas reserves his time. The gentlelady from new jersey is recognized. Mrs. Watson coleman thank you, mr. Speaker. I now like to yield my colleague from the state of washington, representative kilmer, as much time as he may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from washington is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. Mr. Kilmer thank you, mr. Speaker. And i thank the gentlelady for yielding. Imagine youre a coder and you have a great idea for an app that predicts the weather or identifies traffic flows or helps people navigate the social Service System and you know how to code the app but you cant afford to set up your own system to collect the data, the weather data or the traffic data or what have you. Now, imagine you build the app and you can pull data that the government is already collecting so you can build the app and use the data, and it turns out that you got something thats either good at predicting the weather or helping commuters or helping folks navigate the social Service System or whatever and it grows into a business and you can actually employ people. You can put people to work that a project that may have started as a hobby can become your lifes work. The evidencebased policymaking and section 2 will help stories like that become a common thing. This gives entrepreneurs and innovators huge amounts of publicly funded data so they can innovate and come up with applications that we havent even thought of yet. It also means that Government Agencies can share data more easily and ultimately provide services more effectively and most importantly, it allows citizens to participate in their government by making government more transparent and accountable. Mr. Speaker, data is the spark that drives innovative ideas, and i drafted the open Government Data act with representatives farenthold and senators schatz to providing innovators with the legal elbow room to use Public Information and public data and to create jobs. It reduces the burden to entry by lowering the cost to access and format data. It will open new business opportunities. Making more Government Data public will pump up the Data Analytics to drive new innovation and i believe access to this data will lead to hings we havent thought up of yet. I am glad they incorporated that bill into this broader legislation. It will help us measure how Government Programs are actually working or not. Establishing a data inventory will help government officials understand what data they have so they can use it and so they dont duplicate work thats already getting done. Making the governments data searchable and accessible will help Public Servants make better decisions and it will help the public and the press hold government more accountable. Let me give you an example. Mr. Speaker, i represent more military veterans than just about any member of this body. And like many of us, i was horrified to learn several ago that the department of Veterans Affairs was struggling to provide the services and treatments that were earned by military veterans. Now, imagine, manley if the house Veterans Affairs committee or the g. A. O. Imagine if the house Veterans Affairs committee or the g. A. O. Had the data about wait time. The pain could have been afforded. Imagine the leaders of the Veterans Organization knew newspapers would have access to that data, whether in my district or the New York Times or whomever. Its time for government to move into the 21st century and start using the data its collecting to improve the services its providing. Let me just speak briefly about what this bill does. This gets a little wonky but i actually think its pretty important. This legislation sets up a way for everyone to use the governmen