Data Quality Act - OMB Watch

Data Quality Act: News Background Analysis Correspondence Gov Docs Links

OMB Watch maintains a docket of data quality requests submitted to federal agencies. To view the docket, please visit this webpage.

The Data Quality Act passed through Congress in Sec. 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554; H.R. 5658). The guidelines, implemented in 2002, could be misused to delay, manipulate, and unfairly affect the outcome of federal agencies' activities.

News

OIRA Issues New Standards for Disseminating Statistical Information 08/07/2007
Citing various sources of authority, including the Information Quality Act, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget published a new draft Statistical Policy Directive on Aug. 1, focusing on disclosure standards. OIRA uses Statistical Policy Directives to establish government-wide standards for statistical activities conducted by agencies. Read More

EPA Holds off Industry Attack on Health, Safety and Environmental Data 07/10/2007
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Data Quality Act (DQA) challenge and appeal of supposed inconsistencies across several EPA databases. While agreeing to make a few changes, the agency refused the Chamber's demands that all variations between the EPA databases on chemicals be eliminated, stating that they were not errors but acceptable differences based on different scientific models. Read More

Medical Marijuana Lawsuit Uses Data Quality Act 03/06/2007
A new Data Quality Act (DQA) lawsuit was filed Feb. 22 in a federal court in California. The suit claims that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are disseminating false and misleading information regarding the health benefits of marijuana. The lawsuit is another test of the judicial reviewability of DQA, which enables groups and members of the public to challenge the data quality of federal government information. Read More

GAO Fails to Adequately Assess the Data Quality Act 09/26/2006
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report on how well major federal agencies are implementing and overseeing compliance with the Data Quality Act (DQA). The report is an excellent overview of DQA's use, but it fails to make recommendations necessary to improving the management of DQA impacts on the federal government, in particular to minimizing its potential abuse. Read More

Court Rejects Data Quality Act Case Brought by Industry 03/21/2006
A recent appeals court decision has dealt a blow to what many consider frivolous challenges to sound science made under the Data Quality Act (DQA). On March 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Salt Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce under DQA, when judges found that the act does not allow for judicial review and that the plaintiffs had not show injury and thus lacked standing. The suit requested court intervention on a 2003 challenge by the plaintiffs with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), requesting underlying data on a sodium study the institute had conducted. Read More

Industry Derails Labor Safety Rule with Data Quality Challenge 11/01/2005
A coalition of mining companies and trade associations appears to have used the Data Quality Act to derail a Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) rule that would protect miners from harmful particulate matter in diesel exhaust. The challenge did not raise actual objections to data quality; instead it couched industry's disagreements with the rule in data quality language. The tactic, however, appears to have succeeded in impelling the agency to publish a modification to the rule that weakens the mine worker protections. Read More

Right-Wing Groups Challenge Link Between Carcinogens, Cancer 09/19/2005
Two right-wing, industry-backed groups filed a data quality petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the agency's labeling of certain chemicals as "likely human carcinogens." Specifically, the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) and the American Council on Health and Science (ACHS) want EPA to eliminate statements in its Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment that indicate that a substance may properly be labeled as "likely to be carcinogenic to humans" based solely or primarily on the results of animal studies. Read More

Industry Misuses Data Quality Act to Challenge EPA Choices 08/22/2005
Two industry groups recently filed challenges, under the Data Quality Act, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) methodological choices. Both challenges focus on evaluations of human health risks from specific chemicals. The petitions specifically question documents that address emissions of Metam Sodium, a pesticide, and Dioxin/Furan, used to produce cement. The petitions challenge EPA procedures, however, which are policy decisions made within the agency -- and not data -- and as such lie outside the scope of the Data Quality Act (DQA). Read More

Stakeholders Weigh In At First-Ever Congressional Hearings on Data Quality Act 07/25/2005
The Government Reform Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs held the first congressional hearing on the Information Quality Act, also known as the Data Quality Act (DQA) on July 20. The hearing reviewed implementation of the DQA at three federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The subcommittee also heard from interested stakeholders, including industry associations that have filed data quality challenges and public interest groups seeking the policy's repeal. Read More

OMB Puts Children's Health at Risk with Data Quality Act 04/04/2005
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new guidelines for assessing cancer risk March 29 after years of deliberation. These guidelines officially recognize for the first time that children are particularly vulnerable to certain cancer-causing chemicals. However, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), while reviewing the guidelines, inserted two requirements, including that any EPA cancer evaluation meet the standards of the Data Quality Act (DQA), which will have the effect of putting more children at risk. Read More

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