Image: Environmental Protection Agency
(sometimes called the Data Quality Act) requires that all materials relied upon or distributed by federal agencies be of the highest “quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity.”
Under Office of Management & Budget guidelines, each federal agency has adopted rules for handling complaints calling for the correction or retraction of official materials that violate information quality standards and appeals if a complaint is denied.
PEER has filed many Information Quality complaints, usually on behalf of federal scientists, because they –
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- Force an agency to directly confront, rather than continue ignoring, methodological challenges raised by their own specialists.
- Can trigger an independent review of agency claims. While there is no judicial review of Information Quality Act complaints, many agencies provide for convening independent review panels to consider appeals of complaints initially denied by an agency.
- Constitute an alleged violation of law and agency policies, thus conferring whistleblower status on the complainant and thereby elevating an internal dispute into dissent safeguarded under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
Since there are few other tools to compel federal agencies to be honest and unbiased, as detailed in the news releases below, PEER has used Information Quality Act complaints to protect endangered wildlife ranging from Florida panthers to sea turtles, and to address safety and health threats ranging from artificial turf to tsunamis.
Citation: The Information Quality Act (also known as the Information Quality Act), Section 515 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2001
NEWS FROM PEER
Park Service Slashes Sea Turtle Rescue Program
Hatchling Releases, Stranding Response, and Research Cut at Padre Island
...USGS Fumbles Its Biological Collections
Belated New Policy Leaves Troves of Scientific Specimens in Limbo
...EPA Fumbles Artificial Turf Science
Agency Had No Scientific Basis for Downplaying Toxic Exposure Risks
...Coyote Control Based on Scientific House of Cards
Complaint Seeks to End Federal Reliance on Flawed 42-Year-Old Study
...Grand Canyon Cattalo Status Obscured by Science Shell Game
NPS Paper Claiming Hybrids as Native Wildlife Dropped but Successor Still in Wings
...Political Science Herding Grand Canyon Cattalo
Park Service Should Not Classify Hybridized Beefalo as Native Wildlife
...BLM Dumbing Down Reports on Livestock Range Conditions
Complaint Demands Restoration of Data Quantifying and Qualifying Grazing Effects
...EPA Retracts Synthetic Turf Safety Assurances
New Agency Posting Stresses Uncertainty amid Wide Range of Chemical Exposures
...Feds Should Drop Synthetic Turf Safety Assurances
Newer Studies on Risks, Especially for Children, Absent from Official Assessments
...Hawaii Tsunami Response Gets Mixed Federal Signals
NOAA Wants Tsunami Warning Center Relocated Where Navy Says to Evacuate
...“DISINFORMATION SYNDROME” AFFLICTS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Officials Routinely Rewarded for Lying and Punished for Telling the Truth
...AGENCY ADMITS PANTHER WHISTLEBLOWER WAS RIGHT
Fish & Wildlife Service Persists in Trying to Fire Vindicated Scientist
...U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST CHARGES SCIENTIFIC FRAUD
Florida Panther Habitat and Population Data Skewed to Allow Development
...FISH AND WILDLIFE DIRECTOR OVERRULES HIS OWN SCIENTIFIC PANEL
Allows Continued Hunting of Rare Trumpeter Swans
...ARMY CORPS SUED ON MISSISSIPPI BARGE PLAN
Economic Plan on Controversial $2.5 Billion Project Flawed
...CORPS ECONOMIC MODELS FOR MISSISSIPPI NOT PEER REVIEWED
Troubled Study Violates Data Quality Act
...FOREST SERVICE ADMITS WHISTLEBLOWER RESEARCH
Concedes That Half of Forests Will Never Be Restored
...Forest Service Stifled Ecological History
Ignores Own Ecological Records
...TRUMPETER SWAN DATA UNDER FIRE FWS
Finding Relied on Invented and Distorted Studies
...CORPS VIOLATES DATA QUALITY ACT
Government-wide Rules for Review of Studies Not Implemented
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