NEWS
RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2005
Alexandria, VA (Jan. 14)…. “Frothy, feel-good statements about improving nutrition and health like the new Dietary Guidelines must meet the standard of the federal Data Quality Act,” declared one of the parties asking the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to address the substance of their complaint that federal researchers are hiding critical data from the DASH-Sodium Study.
A November decision by a trial court in Alexandria ruled, in Salt Institute v. Tommy G. Thompson, that Congress did not intend the new law to be judicially enforceable – that federal agencies themselves would judge whether their use of scientific data met the rigorous standard imposed by Congress. The Salt Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce disagree and filed an appeal in Richmond.
“We believe that Congress wanted scientific judgments rendered by federal agencies to be data-driven, not the product of the bureaucracy’s special interests,” said Salt Institute president Richard L. Hanneman. “Our appeal is for more transparency in the use of science,” he concluded, “and we are asking the court to banish the games-playing and data manipulation that has compromised implementation of the Data Quality Act by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.”
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For further information on the Data Quality Act, see the OMB/OIRA website.
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