In this perspective paper, we investigate the parallels between public policy and IT projects from the perspective of traditional RE practice. Using the mainstream media as an information source (as would an average citizen), over a period of approximately one year we captured documents that presented analyses of public policy issues. The documents were categorized into eight topic areas, then analyzed to identify patterns that RE practitioners would recognize. We found evidence of policy failures that parallel project failures traceable to requirements engineering problems. Our analysis revealed evidence of bias across all stakeholder groups, similar to the rise of the “beliefs over facts” phenomenon often associated with “fake news”. We also found substantial evidence of unintended consequences due to inadequate problem scoping, terminology definition, domain knowledge, and stakeholder identification and engagement. Further, ideological motivations were found to affect constraint definitions resulting in solution spaces that may approach locally optimal but may not be globally optimal. Public policy addresses societal issues; our analysis supports our conclusion that RE techniques could be utilized to support policy creation and implementation. © 2018 SPIE. All rights reserved.