USAFacts is anot-for-profit organization and website that provides data and reports on the United States population, its government's finances, and government's impact on society.[1][2] It was launched in 2017.[3]
USAFacts was founded by formerMicrosoft CEO and owner of theLos Angeles Clippers,[4]Steve Ballmer.[5][6] Ballmer invested his own money in the project.[7] USAFacts was launched on April 18, 2017Tax Day, with the goal of making government data about tax revenues, expenditures, and outcomes more accessible and understandable. USAFacts's platform is designed to provide information to the public about government spending and impact at all levels, from federal to local.[8][9][10] It includes information about border apprehensions, climate, immigration, active shooters, medicare, education, military spending and opioids.[4] It also helps entrepreneurs to figure out the best location to launch or invest in businesses.[7][non-primary source needed]
At launch, the website gathered data from over 70 government agencies and pulls data from more than 130 US governmentstatistical databases and reports.[11][non-primary source needed] Only official government data is included in the site.[12][13][5]
In September 2018, USAFacts launched a new Voter Center. This compares government data with the positions members of Congress state publicly and shares information about education, healthcare, tariffs, jobs, immigration, economy, guns, etc. Partners of the Vote Center are Countable, BallotReady andTurboVote.[14][non-primary source needed]
In October 2019, USAFacts linked up withU.S. News & World Report. This provided an outlet to share their data in visual form and in the context of the relevant daily matters to and at the same time increasing U.S. News' 2020 election coverage.[16][non-primary source needed]
In November 2019, USAFacts in cooperation with AP-Norc, conducted a poll which showed that more than 50% of Americans glean their government-related news from social media, while only 11% would trust its correctness and 64% saw it as untrustworthy information.[17][18][non-primary source needed]
President Poppy MacDonald testified in front of theUnited States House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in an October 2021 hearing called Strengthening the Lawmaking Process: How Data Can Inform and Improve Policy. She urged the government for datasets that are timely, contextual and relevant to Americans, and talked about the need for more cross-agency and cross-government collaboration.[23][non-primary source needed]
