Data Quality Guidelines Continue to Churn - September 3, 2002 Vol. 3 No. 18

September 3, 2002 Vol. 3 No. 18:

Published: 09/03/2002

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Data Quality Guidelines Continue to Churn

Even though the deadline of May 1st for agencies to produce drafts of their Data Quality Guidelines has long past, several agencies and departments have only recently completed and published their drafts for public comment. Among the recent drafters were several major departments such as the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Fish & Wildlife Service, Office of Surface Mining, National Parks Service, and U.S. Geological Survey. Other agencies included Bureau of Reclamation, Export-Import Bank of the U.S., National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Government Ethics, and Office of Personnel Management.

Due to the late release the public comment periods for these draft guidelines ranged from August 16th to September 14th. Currently most of the data quality guidelines drafted by other agencies, having completed their public comment periods, are in the process of being updated and submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval.

OMB Watch has raised the issue of the data quality guidelines and the ongoing debate over whether the guidelines are legally binding on agencies with OMB. The regulated community, with clear intentions of using the data quality guidelines to challenge and slow regulations they disagree with, has aggressively promoted the view that the guidelines are legally binding. Even agency representatives have been uncertain. Our hope is that OMB in clearing agency guidelines will be clear that agencies have flexibility to implement the rules based on agency need, that the process of assessing data quality is not legally binding, and that OMB will not second-guess agency decisions on data quality.