Social Security Administration (SSA) Evidence Act

Social Security Evidence Act Information

On January 14, 2019, the President signed H.R. 4174, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, which emphasizes collaboration and coordination to advance data and evidence-building functions in the Federal Government. The “Evidence Act” requires agencies to develop evidence-based policy and evaluation plans and designate Evaluation Officers, Statistical Officials and Chief Data Officers to support and implement Federal evidence-building activities, open government data, and confidential information protection and statistical efficiency.

Evidence Act Officials

  • Evaluation Officer – Susan Wilschke, Associate Commissioner, Office of Disability Policy
  • Statistical Official – currently vacant
  • Chief Data Officer – Chuck Borges, Office of Analytics and Improvements

Evidence Act Documents

Evaluation Plan

The Annual Evaluation Plan describes the significant evaluation and evidence building activities planned. It does not describe the entire set of activities the agency will conduct, rather it describes the most significant activities that will be focused on for the year. Significant activities are items required by law or are aligned with goals in the Agency Strategic Plan.

Learning Agenda

The Learning Agenda describes the agency’s evidence-building roadmap to support the goals in the Agency Strategic Plan (ASP). We identify priority questions that correspond to the ASP goals. The priority questions include short-term and long-term questions related to our mission, strategic plans, and agency operations.

Capacity Assessment

The Capacity Assessment provides a baseline the agency will use to measure improvements to the coverage, quality, methods, effectiveness, and independence of our evaluation, research, statistics, and data analysis.

FYs 2022-2026 Capacity Assessment

Evaluation Policy

The Evaluation Policy sets forth the agency policy on planning, implementing, and using evaluations. Evaluation, for the purposes of this policy, refers to an assessment using systematic data collection and analysis of one or more programs, policies, and organizations intended to assess their effectiveness and efficiency. All SSA offices should follow this policy for all evaluations.