Research Guides: Social Work: Find Missing Goverment Information

Alternative Sources for Federal Government Information & Data

Web sites are changeable by their nature, and new presidential administrations often change information presented on their web sites. However, the large number of U.S. Government web pages and data sets that have been removed and edited since the beginning of the 2025 Trump administration is unprecedented. These links can help you find alternative sources for this information. There are also resources for saving copies of pages that might be removed or changed in the future.

Archives Preserving Websites

Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (Archives)
Unofficial copy.
End of Term Web Archive
The End of Term Web Archive captures and saves U.S. Government websites at the end of presidential administrations.
Restored CDC
Restored version of the CDC website as of January 20, 2025.
Wayback Machine
Use the Wayback Machine, part of the Internet Archive, to find copies of web pages that have been changed or removed from the web. You can also use it to save copies of web pages that you want to preserve, with archive links.
Webrecorder US Government Web Archive
Archives of several federal websites: PatentsView.org, digital.gov, Global Change Research Program, FEMA, Indian Health Service, CDC, Climate.gov, EPA, Department of Education, Sea Level Change, Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool, and USAID.

Alternative Sources for Federal Government Data

CDC Datasets (Internet Archive)
CDC datasets uploaded before January 28, 2025.
Census Reporter
An independent project that makes data from the American Community Survey (ACS) easier to use.
Data.gov Archive
A complete archive of federal public datasets linked by data.gov, starting from 2024. Provided by Harvard's Library Innovation Lab Team.
DataLumos - ICPSR
A large repository of government data. More info: Five Things to Know About ICPSR Data Rescue Efforts.
Data Rescue Project: Current Efforts
A comprehensive list of current data rescue projects and events.
Data Rescue Project Portal
Browse and search by dataset name, government offices, and categories.

ICPSR - Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
Archive of social science data that can be downloaded and used for original research.
Set up an account using your EMU email to access and download data.
Subjects: Political Science, Economics, Education, Geography, Health Care, Criminology, Social Issues
Info type: data sets, survey data, U.S. Census data

IPUMS USA
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series census microdata for social and economic research.
National Bureau of Economic Research's (NBER's) Public Use Data Archive
Public-use economic, demographic, and enterprise data. Includes historical Current Population Survey, Development of the American Economy, Economics of Aging, Economics of Health, Union Army data, and much more.
Public Environmental Data Project
Preserves public access to federal environmental data.

Statista
Search for statistics, demographics, opinions, data series and studies on many topics and industries. Useful for all subject areas.

Save Web Pages

Tools for preserving copies of web pages:

Perma.CC
A service for preserving links that you cite. Account required, see link for details.
Wayback Machine
Use the Wayback Machine, part of the Internet Archive, to save copies of webpages that might change or be removed from their sites. No account needed. See tips.

How to save a page using the Wayback Machine:

Go to the Wayback Machine
Copy the page URL into the Save Page Now form:
Select options and click Save Page. It may take a few minutes.
Copy and save the snapshot URL provided:

Tracking Changes

Trump Trackers
Tools that track the many changes being made by the Trump administration.
U.S. Government Information: Weekly Roundup
Current awareness of federal government reports and activities.

News

News about government web site and data deletions and changes, for context:

Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday
New York Times, February 2, 2025.
Judge orders restoration of federal health websites
NPR, February 11, 2025
War heroes are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon's DEI purge
NPR, March 7, 2025
Saving U.S. Climate and Environmental Data Before It Goes Away
Yale Environment 360, March 11, 2025
The Data Hoarders Resisting Trump’s Purge
The New Yorker, March 14, 2025
Massive, Unarchivable Datasets of Cancer, Covid, and Alzheimer's Research Could Be Lost Forever
404 Media, April 4, 2025
'Lab Leak,' a flashy page on the virus' origins, replaces government COVID sites
NPR, April 18, 2025
The Latest Trump and DOGE Casualty: Energy Data
ProPublica, May 5, 2025
Defense Department will stop providing crucial satellite weather data
NPR, June 28, 2025