Daniel Schuman

Daniel Schuman is the Executive Director and founder of the American Governance Institute, a non-profit organization focused on strengthening the institutions of American government.

Daniel is deeply involved in efforts to strengthen our democracy, including strengthening mechanisms for federal governmental accountability, transparency, and reform; reforming Congress; providing appropriate checks on the Executive branch, including expanded transparency and accountability; modernizing government technology for improved responsiveness, accountability, and efficiency; professionalizing federal employees; improving government ethics processes; empowering civil society; and ensuring that the people’s voices can be heard.

He is a nationally recognized expert on the federal government, known in particular for his expertise in government accountability and transparency, the appropriations process, Legislative branch operations, data and technology, and congressional rules and procedures.

Daniel is the founder and editor of the First Branch Forecast, a weekly newsletter that covers government accountability and transparency, with a focus on Congress and its interactions with the Executive branch. He is responsible for the creation or improvement of many federal government transparency and accountability websites and created EveryCRSReport.com, containing 20,000 Congressional Research Service Reports.

He is a co-founder of the Congressional Data Coalition, co-directs the Advisory Committee on Transparency, and coordinates the OpenGov Roundtable. Daniel is a senior fellow with the Data Foundation. He routinely testifies before Congress on government accountability, transparency, modernization, and operations, and his work has been covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Roll Call, Politico, FedScoop, Wired, The Hill, C-SPAN, Federal News Radio, and other news outlets.

Daniel was named by Washingtonian Magazine in 2022 as one of Washington DC’s 500 most influential people. In 2013, he was named by FedScoop as one of the top 25 most influential people under 40 in gov and tech. Daniel lectures on congressional information for Data Skills for Congress, a certificate program at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and on a variety of topics for the International Law Institute. He is a former CodeX fellow at Stanford University.

Daniel served as Chair of the inaugural Open Government Federal Advisory Committee from September 2024 to March 2025. He previously worked as governance director of the POPVOX Foundation, policy director at Demand Progress Action & Demand Progress Education Fund, and policy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Daniel was policy counsel at the Sunlight Foundation and a legislative attorney with the Congressional Research Service. He graduated cum laude from Emory University School of Law, where he was a Ruth and Paul McLarty scholar. Daniel also worked at the Constitution Project, the American Constitution Society, the House of Representatives, and the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.