Insights

AI remains a critical focus of both the federal government and industry, with multiple efforts in recent weeks to address governance of the development and use of AI in the United States.  On February 26, 2024, a U.S. Department of State-commissioned report, titled “Defense in Depth: An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI” (Action Plan), proposed multiple U.S. Government and partner nation lines of effort to address growing national security risks posed by rapidly expanding AI capabilities, including the expectation of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).  Just days later, on March 5, 2024, House Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Raskin introduced the Federal AI Governance and Transparency Act.  This bipartisan bill would focus government resources on increasing transparency, oversight, and responsible use of federal AI systems and centrally codifying federal governance of agency AI systems.  Additionally, on March 28, 2024 the Office of Management and Budget released the final guidance on Memorandum M-24-10, Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of AI as we address here.

On January 11, 2024, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced its first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) focused on building a modernized industrial ecosystem that provides a sustained competitive advantage to the US over its adversaries.  Specifically, the NDIS provides a strategic framework to guide the DoD’s engagement, policy development, and investment in the industrial base over the next three to five years.  As part of this investment strategy, the NDIS highlights several investment tools and opportunities that DoD is already using to spur growth and innovation in key industries.

On January 9, 2024, the FAR Council issued a proposed rule, seeking to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in order to enhance consistency and alignment between the suspension and debarment procedures in the FAR and in the Nonprocurement Common Rule (NCR) system (contained in 2 CFR Part 180).  The FAR and NCR are two separate suspension and debarment regulatory regimes, with the former governing procurement matters and the latter governing grants, cooperative agreements, contracts of assistance, and loan guarantees.  While these suspension and debarment regimes are similar, the proposed rule would remove some differences—definitional and procedural—between the FAR and NCR.  

Please join Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. ET for a webinar on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. 

This week's episode covers a False Claims Act update from DOJ, DOD COVID-19 vaccination plan of interest to contractors, final rule on LPTA, a Commerce final rule on information and communications technology or services, and range of executive orders issued by President Biden, and is hosted by partner Peter Eyre and associate Rina Gashaw. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.