Lead: Advocates and higher‑education data experts warned that the government shutdown and Education Department staff reductions risk fracturing federal higher‑education data systems such as IPEDS and the College Scorecard. What happened: Public comments on reforms to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) were submitted but remain inaccessible during the shutdown; stakeholders say moving statistical units like NCES to other agencies could hamper cross‑agency linkages used for college finance, student aid and outcome measures. Who’s involved: Institute for Higher Education Policy, NCES, IES, and the College Scorecard’s interagency data partners (Office of Federal Student Aid). Diane Cheng of IHEP and other analysts cautioned that splitting data functions would create bureaucratic hurdles to merging aid and outcome datasets. Why it matters: Federal data integrations underpin research, policy decisions, accreditation and institutional reporting. Interruptions or reorganizations could delay benchmarking, grant administration and evidence used by campus leaders to make operational and compliance decisions.