Dept of Commerce API

The U.S. Department of Commerce is tasked with promoting economic growth, job creation, and improved living standards for all Americans as a government agency. During his administration, President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw its establishment on February 14, 1903. The creation of the department aimed to tackle worries about how industrialization affected American society. Creating policies that could facilitate the country’s economic growth was also a goal.

The Dept of Commerce has adapted to the changing needs of the U.S. economy over time. The department today consists of twelve bureaus and offices which prioritize a broad spectrum of economic and trade concerns. The four aspects included here are international trade, economic development, environmental stewardship and technological innovation.

Over the years, the Department of Commerce has made news multiple times. Several countries’ steel and aluminum imports were subjected to tariffs by the department in 2018, resulting in a global trade conflict. In 2020, the Entity List of the department had Chinese telecom company Huawei included in it. National security concerns caused U.S. companies to be effectively banned from doing business with the company.

The Dept of Commerce operates several data centers and networks in terms of infrastructure to aid its various bureaus and offices. Emails, collaboration tools and cyber security support are among the IT services offered by the department to its staff.

Similar to numerous government agencies, the Dept of Commerce has had several significant downtime incidents over time. For instance, in 2019, a network outage caused problems for numerous of the department’s websites and online services. The website of the Census Bureau was preparing for conducting the 2020 census.

The Department of Commerce places great emphasis on security and has implemented various protocols and technologies to safeguard its IT systems and data. The department, like several other organizations, has had security breaches over time. In 2015, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) suffered from a data breach as an illustration. The exposure of personal information affected millions of current and former federal employees in the breach.

The Dept of Commerce offers numerous APIs that enable access to diverse economic and trade data. Amongst the vital APIs are:

• Accessing data on economic indicators like U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and personal income is possible through the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) API.
• The U.S. Census Bureau’s API offers access to various types of data, including population, demographic and economic information.
• Weather and climate related data sourced from NOAA agencies, including The National Weather Service, are accessible through an API offered by The National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• Access to cybersecurity and other technology standards developed by NIST is possible through their API.

When requesting different amounts of data, along with other factors, the performance of these APIs can fluctuate. Still, the Dept of Commerce has put resources into infrastructure and technology to secure that its APIs are dependable and responsive.