Research Guides: Political Science: 2025 Administration Transition

Finding Government Information during the 2025 Administration Transition

This guide highlights resources that track actions by the 2025 administration and Congress aimed at reducing or eliminating access to federal government information. It also includes links to organizations involved in data preservation and website archiving efforts.

Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis (The Guardian)
Forest service website among many sites affected as agencies scramble to comply with president’s orders
Article on CDC Mass Retraction Order (Inside Medicine Blog)
CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals
Public lost access to Census Bureau data for days after a Trump order (NPR)
Public access to many U.S. Census Bureau data tables and research reports was cut off for days after President Trump released an executive order targeting gender identity.

Data & Website Rescue Efforts

End of Term Web Archive
The End of Term Web Archive captures and saves U.S. Government websites at the end of presidential administrations. The EOT has thus far preserved websites from administration changes in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.
DataLumos
DataLumos is an ICPSR archive for valuable government data resources. ICPSR has a long commitment to safekeeping and disseminating US government and other social science data. DataLumos accepts deposits of public data resources from the community and recommendations of public data resources that ICPSR itself might add to DataLumos.
Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive that captures and stores snapshots of web pages over time, allowing users to access and view historical versions of websites. Operated by the Internet Archive, it preserves digital content for research, reference, and historical purposes.
ICPSR
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), based at the University of Michigan, maintains a data archive with over 350,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It features 23 specialized collections covering topics such as education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, social media, politics, economics, government, GIS, and more.
IPUMS
The IPUMS Center for Data Integration provides global census and survey data, including microdata from the U.S. Decennial Census, the American Community Survey (ACS), and the Current Population Survey, while preserving original data from U.S. statistical agencies. By integrating data across time and space and enhancing accessibility through advanced dissemination technology, IPUMS democratizes access to social and economic data, supporting transformative research, education, and policymaking.
GovTrack
GovTrack is an independent website that tracks the activities of the U.S. Congress, including bills, resolutions, voting records, and committee activities. It provides tools for individuals to follow legislative developments and engage with their elected representatives.
Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool
The tool features an interactive map and utilizes datasets reflecting community burdens across eight categories: climate change, energy, health, housing, legacy pollution, transportation, water and wastewater, and workforce development. It was downloaded and rehosted to preserve access before the Trump administration removed the original website and its valuable data.
Public Environmental Data Project
The Public Environmental Data Partners are dedicated to preserving and ensuring public access to federal environmental data, having identified 57 high-priority databases and archived 37 of them as of February 2025. This volunteer coalition, composed of environmental, justice, and policy organizations, university researchers, archivists, and students, prioritized databases based on impact, archiving feasibility, and effort required, with input from environmental justice groups, state and local climate offices, and academic researchers.
Public Environmental Data Partners: EPA EJScreen
Public Environmental Data Partners' initial reconstruction of Version 2.3 of EPA’s EJScreen.
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Initial reconstruction of Version 2.3 of EPA’s EJScreen. Public access to the tool from EPA was discontinued on February 5, 2025.
The Climate Mirror Project
A project trying to mirror and safely archive U.S. Govt. websites and datasets related to climate, climate change, and global warming. Began before the Trump Administration took office.
CDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025
Internet Archive capture of CDC datasets uploaded to https://data.cdc.gov/browse before January 28th, 2025.
CDC.Gov Archive Index
Direct links to the Internet Archive's most recent mirrored versions of every public-facing web page on the Centers for Disease Control website prior to content being purged.
Clinical documents endorsed by ACOG
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists hosted immunization schedules and contraceptive use guidance from the CDC.
FDA.Gov Archive Index
Direct links to the Internet Archive's most recent mirrored versions of every public-facing web page on the Food & Drug Administration's website (FDA.Gov) prior to content being purged.
Biden White House archived website
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI)
A research collaborative and network of diverse professionals promoting evidence-based policy-making and public interest science that advances the Environmental Right-to-Know (ERTK).

Library Guides by Other Universities

Finding Government Information during the 2025 Administration Transition (University of Minnesota)

This guide will point to resources that identify and track steps taken by the Trump administration and Congress to scale back or eliminate access to federal government information. It also provides links to groups performing data and website rescue.

Finding Government Data During the 2025 Administrative Transition: General Data Resources (Michigan State University)

This guide is meant to assist researchers with finding government datasets that may no longer be available on official government websites.

Looking for U.S. Federal Data? (University of California, Merced)

UC Merced Library is sharing some alternative sources to find federal data that has been archived or published by other entities.

Political Science

Finding Government Information during the 2025 Administration Transition

Data & Website Rescue Efforts

Library Guides by Other Universities

This guide is meant to assist researchers with finding government datasets that may no longer be available on official government websites.

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