Federal agencies can’t agree on what rape is. According to a July report from the Government Accountability Office, this interagency confusion misleads the American public. The report, requested by Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, revealed vast differences in how the Departments of Education, Defense, Justice, and Health and Human Services define and collect data on rape and sexual assault.

They found “at least 10 efforts to collect data on sexual violence, which differ in target population, terminology, measurements, and methodology” and “23 different terms to describe sexual violence.” The number of American rape victims in 2011 ranged from 84,175 per the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system to 1,929,000 according to the CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. And according to watchdogs at GAO, this diverse array of rape statistics came in handy: “Because there is wide variation in the results, entities that use federal data on sexual violence have a choice of which data to use, and entities reported using data that best suited their needs.” Political needs seem to trump transparency, a core value of this administration.