White House names new official to oversee federal statistical system
The White House Office of Management and Budget has a new official leading and coordinating the U.S. government’s federal statistical system.
OMB Director Russell Vought on Thursday appointed Mark Calabria as chief statistician, adding to his existing government roles, a senior administration official confirmed to FedScoop on Friday. Calabria is currently a senior economist already working in OMB and at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Calabria replaces Karin Orvis, who had served in the role since 2022. The senior official said Orvis is still serving as the branch chief of the statistical policy arm within OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
“At least for a little while, a few extra responsibilities as Chief Statistician of the United States,” Calabria said in a post to X on Thursday announcing his appointment.
The role of the chief statistician oversees policy for the decentralized system of federal statistical agencies in the federal government, which translates into everything from developing statistical standards and guidance to promoting the dissemination of statistical information. That network of statistical agencies includes the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis, among others.
Prior to joining the current Trump administration, Calabria was a senior adviser at the Cato Institute. He also served during Trump’s first term as chief economist to Vice President Mike Pence and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Calabria has a PhD in economics from George Mason University.
Nick Hart, president and CEO of the nonpartisan open data think tank Data Foundation, acknowledged Calabria’s appointment in a written statement Friday and emphasized the increased importance of the role following the 2019 passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act.
Signed into law by President Donald Trump, that statute expanded the responsibilities of statistical agencies and led to the so-called public trust rule issued under Orvis’s leadership during the Biden administration, which codified the responsibilities of federal statistical agencies to produce information that’s relevant, timely, accurate, and objective.
Hart said the chief statistician plays an important role in coordinating those responsibilities across the statistical agencies as well as making sure they have “autonomy and resources needed to maintain public trust.”
“Given recent concerns about rapid changes in capacity and decision-making to federal statistical activities, the Chief Statistician’s role in protecting statistical agency independence and relevance is vital,” Hart said. He specifically pointed to an example from May in which DOGE disclosed on X that it was reviewing Census Bureau survey activities, calling five surveys “wasteful.”
