Data Quality

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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OMB Puts Children's Health at Risk with Data Quality Act

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.

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Public Interest Data Quality Appeal Granted by Agency

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) will correct flawed information about the Florida panther after an agency whistleblower and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed requests under the federal Data Quality Act (DQA). This is one of the few cases in which a public interest group used the DQA. To date, industry has dominated the use of the DQA with challenges seeking to delay, derail and dilute information and regulations about health, safety and the environment.

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Data Quality Act Debated

Data Quality Act experts, featuring OMB Watch’s Sean Moulton, will be debating the faults and merits of the Data Quality Act (DQA) at a March 30 discussion hosted by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). Among the law’s aspects to be discussed are judicial review, and its implications for environmental protections.

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Docket of Data Quality Petitions

page updated 11/01/05 Agencies

Department of Agriculture
- Forest Service
Department of Commerce
- National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Department of Defense
- Army Corp of Engineers
Department of Education
Department of Energy
Department of Health and Human Services
- Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry
- Centers for Disease Control
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Food and Drug Administration

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Republican Policy Committee Attempts to Bolster Data Quality Act

The Senate Republican Policy Committee (RPC) appears to be preparing for a battle over the Data Quality Act (DQA), as it recently released a very slanted background document that praises the law’s benefits and attempts to bolster its legitimacy.

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Industry Challenge Prompts Removal of EPA Database

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed one database from its public website and slightly altered another due to a Data Quality Act (DQA) challenge submitted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber submitted the request May 26, 2004, asserting that physical and chemical property information in several EPA databases was erroneous because the data was inconsistent and contradictory between the different databases. The differing information leads to vastly different cleanup cost estimates for contaminated sites, according to the Chamber.

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DQA Stalls Superfund Cleanup

In another case of how the DQA delays and derails important health, safety and environmental actions, EPA announced it will delay the listing decision of a National Priority Listing (NPL) site because of a data quality request submitted by Greenberg Traurig LLP on behalf of NPC Services Inc. Greenberg Traurig is the same law firm that filed the appeal on behalf of the Salt Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the salt challenge.

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Data Quality Update: Court Decision Appealed

In a Jan. 14 news release, the Salt Institute announced that it would appeal the dismissal of its data quality case against the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The Salt Institute along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had filed suit against NHLBI claiming that statements made by the agency about health benefits from lower sodium diets did not comply with the Data Quality Act.

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Sage Grouse Recommendation Follows Data Quality Challenge

A data quality challenge recently filed by an industry group may have influenced government officials’ recommendation that the greater sage grouse not be listed as an endangered species. The Partnership for the West is a coalition of organizations, which support a largely anti-environment agenda and receive support from corporations like Dow Chemical.

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Court Dismisses First Data Quality Act Case

In the first Data Quality Act case to be handled by the courts, a U.S. District Court has ruled that challenges under the DQA and its subsequent guidelines to agencies are not judicially reviewable. A previous court decision addressed the issue of reviewability, but the legal claim in that case was not limited to data quality.

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