Data Quality meetings abound in Washington DC this week. The National Academy of Sciences is hosting a public workshop focused on OMB's "Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies" on March 21 and 22. This workshop is being organized by the Ad Hoc Committee on Data Quality under the auspices of the Science, Technology, and Law Program of The National Academies. The registration deadline is Tuesday, March 19 and there is no registration fee. Information on the workshops can be found on this National Academies website. Under the final OMB data quality guidelines agencies must issue their own implementing guidelines by October 1, 2002. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will conduct an online conference March 19-22 to discuss what its data quality guidelines should be. The EPA also plans to publish its proposed guidelines on May 1, followed by a public hearing on the issue on May 15. The Data Quality guidelines have become extremely controversial. Some business groups have identified the OMB guidelines as the best thing since passage of the Administrative Procedure Act in the 1940’s. They believe the new guidelines present opportunities to challenge regulatory protections. The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, an organization representing business interests, has, for example, already sent a letter challenging the National Assessment on Global Climate Change on the basis of the OMB guidelines.