Evidence Act

The FY2024 Capacity Assessment Check In is part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) multi-year approach for addressing the primary capacity building needs identified through the initial FY2023-2026 HHS Capacity Assessment.

The Foundations for Evidenced-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act) provided an important opportunity to Federal Agencies to assess and improve, where needed, their evaluation and other evidence building activities.

The Fiscal Year (FY) HHS 2024 Evaluation plan lists a total of thirty-two (32) evaluations from ten (10) Operating and Staff Divisions across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

This Annual Evaluation Plan is one of several required Evidence Act products, including the 4-year Evidence-Building Plan (also referred to as the Learning Agenda), Capacity Assessment, and agency Evaluation Policy. The FY2023 Evaluation Plan priority areas are aligned with the goals of the FY 2022-2026 HHS Strategic Plan and the FY 2023- 2026 HHS Evidence-Building Plan.

Under the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act), the Capacity Assessment requires agencies to assess the coverage, quality, methods, effectiveness, and independence of their statistics, evaluation, research, and analysis efforts.

The HHS Evidence Building Plan, required by the Evidence Act, is a systematic plan for identifying and addressing policy questions relevant to the programs, policies, and regulations of the agency.

As part of the Evidence Act, HHS is required to submit “an evaluation plan describing activities the agency plans to conduct pursuant to [its evidence-building plan].” Nine operating divisions within HHS and one staff division developed evaluation plans and included information on priority questions being examined by the agencies as well as data, methods, and challenges to addressing those ques

This is an evaluation policy for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), required by the Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act). ASPE convened a group of agency representatives from across HHS operating and staff divisions to develop the policy.