RICHMOND, Va. — A new law signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin aims to make it easier for the Virginia government to share data across state agencies.
There are over 100 state agencies and offices throughout Virginia, according to the state website.
House Bill 1632, which permits the Office of Data Governance and Analytics to oversee the Virginia Information Technologies agency, was passed to open lines of communication within government.
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"In the past, you had agency heads and department heads who felt like they had to protect their data and couldn't share it with anybody," said Delegate Cliff Hayes.
Delegate Hayes was the primary sponsor for this new legislation, which was passed unanimously by the House of Delegates and State Senate before its approval from Youngkin.
"This law is going to be transformational, requiring agencies to share their data," he said.
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The goal is to improve information sharing between state, regional and local governments, as well as public institutions of higher education. The data will be put into a "Commonwealth Data Trust," which will be a secure platform designed for the exchange of information.
Delegate Hayes said he hopes it increases accountability and transparency among the various state agencies.
Under the new law, a Chief Data Officer will now work under Virginia Information Technologies Agency. They will help compile, protect and organize state data sourced from various organizations.
"We're talking about improved inter-agency collaboration, more informed policy and program decisions, innovation and advanced analytics, reduced duplication and operational costs, and better citizen services," Hayes said.
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Hayes provided some examples of problematic scenarios where sharing data would be helpful. He said one example was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Virginia Employment Commission disbursed tens of millions in fraudulent unemployment claims. This happened partly because it was unable to cross-check information with the DMV, prison records, or other verification systems.
He said another example is when a citizen applies for food assistance, Medicaid, and housing support — but, they have to provide the same documents multiple times to different agencies.
Data sharing is even tied to the News 3 Investigation into unclaimed property. We explained how other states were sharing data and sending out claims automatically to the public. This was not a practice in the commonwealth until lawmakers got involved and introduced new legislation to make it easier for the public to get their money.
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“The Department of Treasury has now been instructed to automatically send the money to the people. Don't sit on the money. Send the money back to the people that it belongs to in the first place. Thankfully, WTKR and your investigations helped us find that there were $4 billion dollars that belonged to the people,” Hayes said.
Hayes expressed that people may not realize the lack of sharing going on between agencies in Virginia. The state could be dramatically changed by House Bill 1632 streamlining the process for data to be shared.
“It's going to transform the way that the commonwealth does business, and you'll see exponential improvements,” Hayes said.
The new law will take effect on July 1.
