Information Quality Assurance Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be the sponsor of H.R. 7219, the Information Quality Assurance Act. I also thank Representative Katie Porter for partnering with me on this important piece of legislation.

From my time in business, I can tell you that American employers and workers cannot afford for the Federal Government to impose new regulations and guidance on them that are misinformed, misconceived, and, quite frankly, backed by bad data.

Regulations like that only harm the American people. They needlessly drain employers' resources, kill jobs, and cede economic victory to America's other competitors, like China.

The same can be said of ill-informed and ill-conceived agency guidance. When an agency's guidance rests on flawed information, it risks sending regulated parties and their resources down rabbit holes just to avoid the threat of misguided agency enforcement actions.

One of the most important ways we can make sure the Federal Government does not issue ill-informed regulations and guidance is also, quite frankly, one of the simplest. It is to require that Federal regulators base new regulations and guidance on the best reasonably available information.

My Information Quality Assurance Act does just that. It requires three simple things.

First and foremost, it requires agencies to use the best data possible in drafting regulations. This includes data on the impacts the regulation will have on the American people.

Second, it requires the agency to make public, in a timely fashion, any model, methodology, or source of scientific, technical, demographic, economic, or statistical information which it intends to utilize in its rulemaking.

Third, it makes sure the public has a chance to question whether that information is the best that is reasonably available.

With these three simple commonsense reforms, we can make sure the Federal regulatory system avoids a mountain of mistakes that would unfairly burden the American people. That is what our job in Congress truly is: making the government more efficient so that we can help the most people.

By making these three simple changes to how agencies utilize data, we can achieve that simple goal and make life better for people in this country.

It is clear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle agree. This bill passed through the Oversight Committee--be careful to listen for it--with unanimous bipartisan support. That is the kind of thing this country needs right now.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to lead this bipartisan bill to improve the way our government works for generations to come, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

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