White House Releases New Guidance Expanding Federal AI Oversight

The Office of Management and Budget provided new guidance for federal agencies Thursday on how to procure “unbiased” artificial intelligence, a followup to President Donald Trump’s July executive order.

The memorandum requires agencies to apply two core principles to AI systems they procure: truth-seeking and ideological neutrality. AI must provide accurate, evidence-based responses and clearly acknowledge uncertainty where information is incomplete or contradictory. It must also operate as a nonpartisan tool, avoiding the intentional encoding of political or ideological judgments, unless explicitly prompted or readily accessible to the end user, according to the memo.

Federal agencies will be required to integrate these principles into new procurement contracts and modify existing contracts where possible. The memo also directs federal agencies to require documentation from AI vendors that includes model and system cards detailing the training process, risk mitigation strategies and evaluation scores on benchmarks assessing accuracy and bias. Vendors must also supply acceptable use policies, user guides and mechanisms for end-user feedback to ensure AI outputs meet the federal guidelines.

Agencies are expected to update policies by March 11, 2026, to ensure compliance across all federal AI contracts. The memo also establishes a sunset provision, meaning the guidance will expire in two years unless extended by the OMB director.

White House Pushes for National AI Framework

OMB’s memo coincided with President Trump’s executive order, which seeks to limit the authority of states to regulate AI and establish a unified national AI policy.

“We remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution and are in a race with adversaries for supremacy within it,” Trump said in the order. “To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation. But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative. … State-by-State regulation by definition creates a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes that makes compliance more challenging, particularly for start-ups.”

The order directs the attorney general to establish an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state AI laws inconsistent with the order, specifically laws that have “cumbersome regulation” or “imbed ideological bias.” The administration argues that diverging state standards threaten U.S. competitiveness and could slow progress against global rivals, particularly China.

The order also directs the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks to craft legislative recommendations for Congress that would establish a national standard and formally preempt state laws. Sacks said more than 1,000 AI-related bills are advancing through state legislatures. Allowing them to stand would leave the industry navigating “50 states running in 50 different directions,” he said Thursday during the Oval Office order signing.