AI-Ready Federal Data Guidelines Act
Sponsored By: Representative Babin, Brian [R-TX-36]
Introduced
Summary
This bill would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop voluntary AI-ready data guidelines for federal agencies to help prepare open government and other federal datasets for training artificial intelligence models.
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- Federal agencies and dataset users would get guidance on data formatting, labeling, quality checks, metadata, maintenance, and improving automated access so datasets are easier and safer to use for AI.
- The bill authorizes short pilot programs, each no longer than one year and with no more than two running at once, to create and test conformity assessment procedures. Pilots must prioritize areas with national security and industrial competitiveness importance, such as biotechnology and biomanufacturing, and plan how to move guidelines to non-federal groups.
- The Director must coordinate with other agency leaders but may not transfer or reprogram funds from other NIST programs to do this work, and must brief Congress within one year and then annually for five years on implementation.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Federal AI-ready data rules and pilots
If enacted, the bill would direct the NIST Director to publish voluntary guidelines to help Federal agencies prepare datasets for training AI models. The guidelines would cover formatting, labels and annotation, data quality checks, metadata and documentation, maintenance, and automated access, and aim to be flexible across sectors and consistent with OMB Circular A-119. The bill would also authorize short pilots (each up to one year and no more than two running at once) to develop and test sector- or domain-specific conformity checks, with priority for areas like biotechnology and biomanufacturing. The bill would define key terms such as "artificial intelligence," "AI model," and "open government data asset," require NIST to brief Congress one year after the guidelines and annually for five years, and prohibit NIST from transferring or reprogramming money from other NIST programs to carry out this work.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Babin, Brian [R-TX-36]
TX • R
Cosponsors
Rep. Lofgren, Zoe [D-CA-18]
CA • D
Sponsored 6/18/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov