Information Quality Assurance Act of 2025
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Would require the Office of Management and Budget to update federal information quality guidelines and direct all covered agencies to publish the factual data they relied on when drafting rules and guidance, while giving the public a formal opportunity to comment on that material.
The bill aims to strengthen transparency in federal rulemaking by ensuring agencies use the best available evidence and expose their factual underpinnings to public scrutiny before a rule is finalized.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would direct the OMB Director to update, within one year of enactment, the guidelines issued under the Information Quality Act. The updated guidelines would require federal agencies to rely on the best reasonably available "influential information or evidence" — defined as data whose use would have a clear and substantial impact on important public actions, policies, or private-sector decisions — when developing, issuing, or explaining rules and guidance. OMB would also be required to post the updated guidelines on its website.
Within one year of OMB's action, each covered agency head would update the agency's own information quality guidelines and publish them online. Agencies would also be required to place critical factual material and source citations in the public rulemaking docket or guidance record, and to allow public comment on that material during notice-and-comment rulemaking. Exceptions apply for legally protected, classified, or impractical disclosures, but agencies must explain any withheld material and describe steps to expand access. The bill explicitly authorizes no new appropriations to carry out these requirements.
Key provisions
- 1Would require the OMB Director to update Information Quality Act guidelines within one year of enactment and post them on OMB's website.
- 2Would require each covered federal agency head to update the agency's own information quality guidelines within one year of OMB's action and publish them online.
- 3Would require agencies to publish the critical factual material they relied on in rulemaking or guidance development in the public docket or administrative record.
- 4Would require agencies conducting notice-and-comment rulemaking to provide the public an opportunity to comment on the critical factual material underpinning the rule.
- 5Would require agencies that withhold critical factual material to explain why and describe any steps being taken to increase access to that information.
- 6Explicitly states that no additional funds are authorized to carry out the Act or its amendments.
Who would be affected
All federal agencies subject to OMB information quality guidelines, the OMB Director who must revise those guidelines, and members of the public — including regulated industries, researchers, and advocacy groups — who participate in or are affected by federal rulemaking and guidance. Entities holding proprietary rights over data agencies cite would also face new disclosure obligations or negotiation with agencies.
Why it matters
If enacted, regulated parties and the public would gain the right to review and formally comment on the specific factual data underlying agency rules before those rules are finalized — an opening that does not currently exist in a standardized way. Agencies that rely on undisclosed or contested data could face correction requests or legal challenges, and would bear the administrative burden of posting or explaining their evidentiary basis for every significant rule.
What would change
Changes to existing law
Creates Title 44, U.S. Code, Subchapter I of Chapter 35 (Sec. 2)
Adds new section 3522, establishing information quality assurance requirements for OMB and federal agencies regarding influential information used in rulemaking.
Amends Information Quality Act (section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2001, Public Law 106-554) (Sec. 2)
Directs OMB to update guidelines issued under the Act to require best-available evidence standards and public disclosure of critical factual material.
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- OMB Director must update Information Quality Act guidelines and post them online
- Federal agency heads must update their own information quality guidelines
- OMB Director must issue public disclosure guidance directing agencies to publish critical factual material
Funding and costs
- No additional funds authorized
Carrying out the Act and its amendments
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates H.R. 6329 would cost $18 million over the 2026–2030 period in discretionary spending (subject to appropriation), with negligible effects on direct spending and no effect on revenues or the deficit.
CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 6329 would require $18 million in discretionary spending (funds that Congress must separately appropriate) over the 2026–2030 period. The main costs are updating OMB and agency information-quality guidelines ($10 million over 2026–2028, estimated at about $500,000 per agency) and ongoing publication of supporting material for rules and guidance ($2 million annually, or roughly $40,000 per agency per year). Direct spending (mandatory spending that flows without annual appropriations) would be negligible, revenues would be unchanged, and the bill would not increase on-budget deficits in any of the four 10-year periods beginning in 2036. CBO identified no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates in the bill.
How implementation would work
OMB's Director has one year to update Information Quality Act guidelines and post them online. Each federal agency head then has one year to update agency-level guidelines, post them publicly, and ensure correction-request mechanisms cover influential information. For rulemakings, agencies must place critical factual material in the public docket — or explain in writing why they cannot — and must allow public comment on that material during notice-and-comment proceedings. If factual material is revised after public comment but before a rule is published, agencies must post the revision promptly. No new funds are authorized, so agencies must absorb implementation costs within existing budgets.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Official CRS summary
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This bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to revise the guidelines for federal agencies with respect to the dissemination or use of influential information or evidence, which means information or evidence about which an agency can reasonably determine that reliance on or dissemination of has, or will have, a clear and substantial impact on important public actions, policies or statements, or on important private sector decisions.
The guidelines must ensure that federal agencies rely on the best reasonably available influential information and evidence that is appropriate for the purpose when developing, issuing, or informing the public about the rules and guidance of the agency.
An agency also must publish (1) the critical factual material relied on as part of the rulemaking or guidance development process, and (2) a citation to any other source used to inform the rulemaking or guidance development process.
The guidelines must also require an agency to provide certain opportunities for the public to comment on the critical factual material upon which the agency relied.
Legislative subjects
Administrative law and regulatory procedures; Government Operations and Politics; Government information and archives; Office of Management and Budget (OMB)