> It's less political will than not having simple competence in any arena other than the political that got them there. The U.S. Census, GAO, and various other

> It's less political will than not having simple competence in any arena other than the political that got them there. The U.S. Census, GAO, and various other bureaucratic organizations (USDR, EPA, etc), all seem to be quite competent when it comes to performing studies and gathering data. So is the IRS, Department of Defense, etc. Of course there are lots of problems, but the U.S. Federal Government has plenty of agencies able to competently perform some sort of study.