Trump admin issues internal federal guidance on AI reporting; GSA’s newly expanded acquisition data reporting program is riddled with ‘shortcomings’

The Office of Management and Budget has issued its version of guidance on annual artificial intelligence use case reporting within agencies, outlining a similar process to the previous administration, albeit slimmer. That guidance obtained by FedScoop is dated June 27 and has been shared internally in the federal government but hasn’t been made public. It’s accompanied by a document breaking down the questions in the various fields. The move suggests that despite the Trump White House’s markedly different tone on AI, some details may not look so different. Despite President Donald Trump’s criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of AI, including the immediate rescission of his AI executive order, the updated process will ask agencies to provide much of the same information, including the stage of development, whether it was developed in-house or purchased, and whether the use case involves personally identifiable information maintained by the agency, among other categories. Ultimately, it sets a compilation deadline of Nov. 4 and a publication deadline of Dec. 2, maintaining a similar schedule to the previous year. The General Services Administration mandated in June that all multiple award schedule contract holders will be required to report transactional data beginning in fiscal 2026, expanding a pilot that the agency launched nearly a decade ago. However, GSA’s Office of the Inspector General takes objection to that decision to institutionalize the transactional data reporting (TDR) pilot because it says the agency “has never effectively implemented TDR and has never made it functional,” according to a new report. GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service launched the TDR pilot in 2016, asking contractors in select product lines to share data on government purchases with the intent of driving better buying decisions. In fiscal 2024, the agency expanded the TDR pilot program to encompass 67 categories of products — what GSA refers to as special item numbers (SINs). But along the way, the program has struggled with data quality issues, limited usage in pricing decisions and a lack of competitive pricing actions, the IG points out in the new report. “Ultimately, the TDR pilot has been in effect within the MAS program for 9 years and has yet to accomplish its intended purpose,” it states. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.