Open, Accountable Government
Data Quality Challenges
Mar 27, 2003 by Guest Blogger
OMB Watch's webpage for tracking data quality requests has moved. Please note the new URL at http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2668/1/231?TopicID=7.
read in fullModel State Bills for Data Quality and Access
Mar 24, 2003 by Sean Moulton
Apparently initial efforts have begun to develop data quality and data access legislation at the state level. OMB Watch has obtained model legislation for both bills that was reportedly drafted by the The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE), a strong supporter of both policy efforts at the federal level. Both state level model bills are clearly patterned after federal policies. The state data quality bill borrows heavily from the just recently completed Federal Data Quality Guidelines. The state data access bill has been developed from the Shelby Amendment, which required federal grant recipients to provide access to their underlying data through the Freedom of Information Act. Although no organizations seem to be openly advocating these model bills and no states have introduced them, it is disconcerting to be considering duplicating these hotly contested federal policies at the state level when they have not been implemented long enough to establish their benefits. Additionally the model bills are more detailed and restrictive then the federal policies they build upon. OMB Watch has produced an in-depth analysis of the model state bills.
read in fullAdministration Denies Documents to Senate
Mar 24, 2003 by Sean Moulton
Recently the Bush Administration asserted that numerous documents about changes in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fill policy being requested by the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee would be withheld citing "deliberative process privilege."
read in fullSenators Use Data Quality Challenge
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
On March 6, Sens. Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a request for correction of information under the Data Quality Act. This is the first data quality challenge submitted by members of Congress. The request addresses a Modification of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit deadline for storm water discharges by oil and gas construction activity that disturbs one to five acres of land. The EPA proposed extending the deadline for storm water discharge permits for oil and gas construction for two years based upon information from the Department of Energy (DOE) about the oil and gas industry. The senators argue that the DOE information does not meet EPA’s Data Quality standards and cannot be utilized in such an important decision and therefore, that EPA should maintain its original deadline.
read in fullPress, Government "Dialogue" Eases Crackdown on Leaks
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
The Bush Administration has backed away from a crackdown on government leaks of classified information in part due to occasional behind-the-scenes meetings attended by government officials and press representatives.
read in fullNM House Passes Resolution Boosting Hometown Liberties
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
New Mexico's House of Representatives this month passed a resolution critical of the federal government's strategies for fighting terrorism, strongly suggesting that the federal government's efforts to make Americans safer unnecessarily infringes on civil liberties and that federal secrecy impedes the state's ability to assess "the effect of federal antiterrorism efforts on" the public.
read in fullNRDC Comments Threatened with Industry Data Quality Challenge
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) has submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that threaten to challenge the data quality of comments submitted by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), should EPA use them. The NRDC submitted comments to EPA on its draft risk assessment for land-applied biosolids that stated the draft risk assessment underestimated risks from dioxin and related compounds. CRE claims that the NRDC comments contain substantial inaccuracies, omissions, and biases, and lack reproducibility. These comments are precedent-setting in two ways: it is the first effort to use the Data Quality Act to address third party submitted information; perhaps more troubling, this effort also challenges information before it is used or relied upon by the agency.
read in fullGovernment Lied in Landmark Secrecy Case
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
A recent declassification of documents indicates that the Government lied in a landmark secrecy case. Over 250 pages of declassified documents relating to a 1948 Air Force plane crash have revealed that the accident resulted from poor maintenance and training rather than some other cause that had to be kept secret for national security purposes as the government has claimed. Relatives of several of the men killed in the plane crash filed a lawsuit trying to get information about the crash immediately afterward. The case (United States v. Reynolds) was argued all the way to the Supreme Court and resulted in the records remaining sealed. The Reynolds decision has been used frequently to justify strict limits on the release of government information, including in recent homeland security cases.
read in fullAnalysis of State Level Data Quality and Access Legislation
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
The Bureau of National Affairs recently reported (“Drive Under Way to Enact Legislation On Data Quality, Access at State Level” February 12, 2003) that the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE), a conservative clearinghouse that focuses on data quality and data access issues, has drafted and is making efforts to promote a state version of the federal Data Quality Act along with a state Data Access Bill. Apparently CRE has submitted the two model bills to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative policy group that advocates specific legislation at the state level. Currently neither bill is listed on the ALEC website among the model legislation the organization currently champions. Both pieces of legislation could have profound implications for the future of public access to government information at the state and local level as well as how state and local agencies can process and act on information.
read in fullIllegal Confiscation Prompts Concern Over Secrecy
Mar 24, 2003 by Guest Blogger
The Associated Press recently discovered that a package sent between two reporters last September was illegally confiscated by the Customs Service and FBI, claiming it contained “sensitive” information. The document which prompted concern was an unclassified 1995 FBI lab report that has been made public in two open court cases. No warrant was obtained for the seizure and AP was never notified. This incident is alarming because the entire process of how and why the package was seized has been kept secret. Federal Express, Customs, and the FBI all ignored protocols established to alert people when packages are sequestered.
read in full
