Announced Action for April 30, 2002

The Commission has approved the publication of a Federal Register notice concerning Draft Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the FTC. As detailed in the notice, which is scheduled for publication on May 1, 2002 and is now available on the FTC's Web site, the draft guidelines are part of the draft report that the Commission's Chief Information Officer will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in accordance with section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Pub. L. No. 106-554.

The FTC's draft guidelines contain detailed information on: 1) the purpose of the guidelines; 2) the FTC's role in public information dissemination; 3) the FTC's commitment to quality information dissemination; 4) information quality principles; 5) guidelines-related definitions; 6) pre-dissemination information quality review; 7) the development of quality information and data; 8) the transparency of underlying data and methods; 9) the integrity of FTC information and data; 10) documentation; 11) the administrative mechanism for seeking and obtaining the correction of information; and 12) compliance, reporting, and effective date of the guidelines. The draft report to OMB also includes a draft of how the agency intends to implement the administrative mechanism for affected persons to seek correction of information that they believe does not comply with the guidelines.

The Commission is accepting public comments on the draft guidelines and draft administrative mechanism until June 1, 2002. Comments in paper form should be sent to: Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Information about how to title the comments, as well as how to submit comments electronically, is provided in the Federal Register notice. Interested persons seeking additional information can contact: Alex Tang, 202-326-2447, or Gary Greenfield, 202-326-2753, Attorneys, Office of the General Counsel, FTC; or Daniel Danckaert, 202-326-2322, Office of the Chief Information Officer, FTC. The vote to approve publication of the Federal Register notice was 5-0. (FTC File No. P859907, staff contact is Alex Tang, FTC Office of the General Counsel; 202-326-2447.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.