The Information Quality Act: Is There a There,
There?

James T. O’Reilly

ABSTRACT

The famous novelist Gertrude Stein once insulted Oakland, California, with the aphorism that “There is no there, there!”

In the same vein, as a longtime teacher and student of administrative processes in the federal government, I was asked to assess the Information Quality Act of 2000 (IQA), which is an impressive title for just a few lines tucked into a late addition to an appropriations bill.2 I conclude that there is no “there”, no effective check upon the federal agencies, in the IQA. Its correction system is systemically flawed. And at a deeper level, I doubt that correcting the policy nuances within the content of agency documents by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidance is worth the exercise.