The Information Quality Act: How a Sunshine Statute Brought a Perfect Storm

The Information Quality Act was enacted as part of the fiscal 2001 omnibus spending bill. It requires the Office of Management and Budget to issue "policy and procedural guidance to Federal agencies for ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity" of information that is "disseminated" to the public. The author of this article says the Information Quality Act can be a force for greater transparency and accountability in government. He suggests that for the law to succeed, the public discourse about it will need to change. When a modest sunshine statute articulating easily accepted values gives rise to a storm of polarized perspectives, he says, it is time to take stock of where we are.