In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) dated November 6, 2002, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) raised data quality concerns with NHTSA's recent Proposed Collection of Information. It does not appear to be an official request for correction under the data quality guidelines. The letter focuses on requirements that the CRE claims information collection requests (ICR) must meet under the Paperwork Reduction Act and the Data Quality Act. The proposed information collection is part of NHTSA’s efforts to implement the early warning reporting provisions of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act. Under this rule, motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment manufacturers will be required to report information and to submit documents about customer satisfaction campaigns and other activities and events that may assist NHTSA to promptly identify defects related to motor vehicle safety. The CRE argues that NHTSA must have a plan for the use of the information and that the plan must meet data quality standards. Among the several recommendations the CRE concludes the letter with is:

“No Control Number for Early Warning data should be granted until NHTSA provides and seeks public comment on the NHTSA plan for analyzing the Early Warning data that is required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, Federal Data Quality Act and DOT Data Quality guidelines.”

If granted, this additional process being sought will delay NHTSA’s enforcement of the early warning system. Possibly more importantly, however, would be the significant precedent under the new data quality guidelines that ICRs must engage in additional procedures. This would result in a huge loss of government efficiency and provide the regulated community an additional opportunity to influence the regulatory outcome. The CRE also claims that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has publicly committed to not approve any ICR that is not in compliance with OMB and Data Quality Guidelines. This is an overstatement. In a June 10, 2002, memo to the President’s Management Council, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) administrator John Graham noted that concern for information quality should be integrated into all steps of developing information, including collection. The memo went on to acknowledge that, “OMB will approve only those information collections that are likely to obtain data that will comply with the OMB and agency information quality guidelines.” The memo focused the expectation for complying with data quality guidelines on the information to be collected and not on the ICR. The memo also only requires the likelihood that the obtained data will comply with data quality guidelines and not an additional formal process to guarantee compliance before the data is collected. For a more indepth look at the requirements of the Data Quality Guidelines, see this OMB Watch background piece.