New BPC Report: Barriers to Evidence-Based Policymaking in Congress

Washington, D.C. – A new Bipartisan Policy Center report outlines the barriers facing Congress in using evidence-based policymaking for improving the performance of government programs.

Evidence Use in Congress: Challenges for Evidence-Based Policymaking, the first of a two-volume report, outlines three types of barriers facing congressional use of evidence for designing programs, budgeting, and oversight: perception, institutional, and systemic.

“Evidence-based policymaking holds the potential to begin making progress at restoring some of the lost public trust in America’s government institutions, including Congress,” Nick Hart, director of BPC’s Evidence-Based Policymaking Initiative, said. “Using evidence to make incremental changes to policies can improve the performance and effectiveness of public programs.”

Volume 2 of the report will outline options for enabling a stronger evidence culture in Congress and will be released in April.

Nick Hart is available for comment.