Agency Certification of Regulatory Compliance with the Data Quality Act

Agency Certification of Regulatory Compliance with the Data Quality Act

NHTSA demonstrated leadership in implementing the “good government” laws by certifying compliance with the Data Quality Act as one of their Rulemaking Analyses in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. NHTSA explained that compliance with OMB and DOT information quality guidelines was “confirmed by the agency in the course of its pre-dissemination review, per the guidelines.”

From the NHTSA NPRM

K. Data Quality Act

Section 515 of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act (Pub. L. 106-554, sec. 515, codified at 44 U.S.C. 3516 historical and statutory note), commonly referred to as the Data Quality Act, directed OMB to establish government-wide standards in the form of guidelines designed to maximize the “quality,” “objectivity,” “ utility,” and “integrity” of information that federal agencies disseminate to the public. The Act also required agencies to develop their own conforming data quality guidelines, based upon the OMB model. OMB issued final guidelines implementing the Data Quality Act (67 FR 8452, Feb. 22, 2002). On October 1, 2002, the Department of Transportation promulgated its own final information quality guidelines that take into account the unique programs and information products of DOT agencies (67 FR 61719). The DOT guidelines were reviewed and approved by OMB prior to promulgation.

NHTSA made information quality a primary focus well before passage of the Data Quality Act, and has made implementation of the new law a priority. NHTSA has reviewed its data collection, generation, and dissemination processes in order to ensure that agency information meets the standards articulated in the OMB and DOT guidelines, and plans to review and update these procedures on an ongoing basis.

NHTSA believes that the information and data used to support this rulemaking adhere to the intent of the Data Quality Act and comply with both the OMB and DOT guidelines. NHTSA has reviewed all relevant procedures for research and analysis in order to ensure that information disseminated by the agency is accurate, reliable, and unbiased in substance, and is presented in a clear, complete, and unbiased manner. Having followed those procedures, NHTSA believes that the information related to this rulemaking meet the requirements of the Data Quality Act guidelines of both OMB and DOT. This expectation regarding information quality has been confirmed by the agency in the course of its predissemination review, per the guidelines.