Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats

Executive Order 13994 of January 21, 2021

Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and
Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats

By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of my
Administration to respond to the coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through effective approaches
guided by the best available science and data,
including by building back a better public health
infrastructure. This stronger public health
infrastructure must help the Nation effectively
prevent, detect, and respond to future biological
threats, both domestically and internationally.

Consistent with this policy, the heads of all executive
departments and agencies (agencies) shall facilitate
the gathering, sharing, and publication of COVID-19-
related data, in coordination with the Coordinator of
the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President
(COVID-19 Response Coordinator), to the extent
permitted by law, and with appropriate protections for
confidentiality, privacy, law enforcement, and national
security. These efforts shall assist Federal, State,
local, Tribal, and territorial authorities in
developing and implementing policies to facilitate
informed community decision-making, to further public
understanding of the pandemic and the response, and to
deter the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

Sec. 2. Enhancing Data Collection and Collaboration
Capabilities for High-Consequence Public Health
Threats, Such as the COVID-19 Pandemic. (a) The
Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the
Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the
Secretary of Education, the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB), the Director of National
Intelligence, the Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP), and the Director of the
National Science Foundation shall each promptly
designate a senior official to serve as their agency's
lead to work on COVID-19- and pandemic-related data
issues. This official, in consultation with the COVID-
19 Response Coordinator, shall take steps to make data
relevant to high-consequence public health threats,
such as the COVID-19 pandemic, publicly available and
accessible.

    (b) The COVID-19 Response Coordinator shall, as
necessary, convene appropriate representatives from
relevant agencies to coordinate the agencies'
collection, provision, and analysis of data, including
key equity indicators, regarding the COVID-19 response,
as well as their sharing of such data with State,
local, Tribal, and territorial authorities.
    (c) The Director of OMB, in consultation with the
Director of OSTP, the United States Chief Technology
Officer, and the COVID-19 Response Coordinator, shall
promptly review the Federal Government's existing
approaches to open data, and shall issue supplemental
guidance, as appropriate and consistent with applicable
law, concerning how to de-identify COVID-19-related
data; how to make data open to the public in human- and
machine-readable formats as rapidly as possible; and
any other topic the Director of OMB concludes would
appropriately advance the policy of this order. Any
guidance shall include appropriate protections for the
information described in section 5 of this order.
    (d) The Director of the Office of Personnel
Management, in consultation with the Director of OMB,
shall promptly:

(i) review the ability of agencies to hire personnel expeditiously into
roles related to information technology and the collection, provision,
analysis, or other use of data to address high-consequence public health
threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; and

(ii) take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to
support agencies in such efforts.

Sec. 3. Public Health Data Systems. The Secretary of
HHS, in consultation with the COVID-19 Response
Coordinator and the heads of relevant agencies, shall
promptly:

    (a) review the effectiveness, interoperability, and
connectivity of public health data systems supporting
the detection of and response to high-consequence
public health threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
    (b) review the collection of morbidity and
mortality data by State, local, Tribal, and territorial
governments during high-consequence public health
threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; and
    (c) issue a report summarizing the findings of the
reviews detailed in subsections (a) and (b) of this
section and any recommendations for addressing areas
for improvement identified in the reviews.

Sec. 4. Advancing Innovation in Public Health Data and
Analytics. The Director of OSTP, in coordination with
the National Science and Technology Council, as
appropriate, shall develop a plan for advancing
innovation in public health data and analytics in the
United States.

Sec. 5. Privileged Information. Nothing in this order
shall compel or authorize the disclosure of privileged
information, law-enforcement information, national-
security information, personal information, or
information the disclosure of which is prohibited by
law.

Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.

    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.

    (Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    January 21, 2021.