March 20, 2025 Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos - Executive Order
- Fact Seeker
- 24 hours ago
- 2 min read
What’s This About?
The federal government collects and manages massive amounts of data across its many departments and agencies. But too often, this information is locked away in isolated systems — or “information silos” — limiting its usefulness for identifying waste, fraud, and inefficiency.
This executive order takes aim at those barriers, instructing agencies to make unclassified government data more accessible for authorized officials, and to better share information between agencies. The goal: reduce bureaucratic duplication, improve fraud detection, and help ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely.
Key Facts & Figures:
Multiple federal programs rely on shared data systems to detect improper payments and fraud — and this order seeks to break down remaining information-sharing obstacles.
Cited statutes and authorities include:
44 U.S.C. § 3502 — which defines “agency” under federal information policy law.
Executive Order 14192 — mentioned here to exempt certain regulatory changes made under this new order.
What the Order Directs:
Breaking Down Data Barriers: Agency heads must ensure designated federal officials get full and prompt access to unclassified data, records, and IT systems. This includes promoting both intra- and inter-agency data sharing for efforts aimed at rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.
Revising Existing Rules: Within 30 days, agencies must:
Rescind or modify internal guidance that restricts the sharing of unclassified information.
Review their regulations governing data access and submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cataloging those rules and recommending changes.
Access to State-Run Program Data: Effective immediately, agencies must ensure federal access to comprehensive data from all state programs receiving federal funding — including third-party managed databases — to support fraud prevention and oversight.
Special Focus on Unemployment Data: The Secretary of Labor and their designees are granted unrestricted access to all unemployment data and payment records, aligning oversight functions across the Department of Labor and its Office of Inspector General.
Reviewing Classified Information Policies: Within 45 days, agency heads are to review their classified information policies to identify and recommend changes to prevent over-classification while protecting national security interests.
Overrides Older Orders: This order explicitly supersedes any previous Executive Orders, rules, or regulations within direct presidential rulemaking authority if they conflict with these new data-sharing mandates.
Legal & Policy Framework:
44 U.S.C. § 3502: Defines “agency” for federal information management.
Executive Order 14192: Mentioned to exempt regulatory changes made for this data-sharing initiative.
Specific data access authorities extended under this order, especially concerning labor and unemployment records.
What This Means:
This Executive Order signals a push for a more interconnected, accountable federal government where data is viewed as a shared asset for public oversight — not an isolated, agency-specific resource. It reflects a longstanding goal across administrations: to streamline operations, combat fraud, and better serve the public interest by making full use of the information the government already collects.
Writer's Note: Summary made with the use of AI tools for editing and quick processing, facts checked against the order before publishing.
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