Congress is considering a package of funding bills that could receive a vote at any moment. Buried in the 1,000 page continuing resolution or CR is an “anomaly”1 that would provide $347 million in reprogrammed money to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). That money could be repurposed to AI regulatory efforts, all without specific Congressional approval.
I’m not an expert in congressional funding processes, which is its own special, mysterious realm. Therefore, I rely on people who know this space well and keep close tabs on how the federal government spends taxpayers’ dollars.
One such expert is Paul Winfree at the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). In some recent tweets and a blog post he notes that NTIA wants to use this $347 million for “salaries and expenses, administration, and oversight of programs.” This is a rather vague description. Paul further comments that “[this new funding is] nearly two times the amount that the agency normally requires for salaries and expenses [emphasis added] – on top of the NTIA salaries and expenses funding already built into the underlying bill.“ He also notes: “To put this into context, the entire FY 2024 budget request for NTIA salaries and expenses was only $172 million.”
Where’s this dump truck of money coming from, you might ask? “NTIA is requesting the reprogramming from BEAD program funding to pay for an increase in NTIA’s salaries and expenses.” (“BEAD” is the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, a $42 billion broadband expansion program approved by Congress).
Where might NTIA deploy these hundreds of millions of new dollars?
We know that Biden’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence tasked NTIA, an agency within the Department of Commerce, with a central role in crafting AI policies for the federal government. While it can’t directly regulate AI, NTIA’s efforts will inform the federal government’s policy and regulatory activity on AI, as Neil Chilson and Will Rinehart noted in their filing with NTIA: “NTIA itself does not have authority to directly pursue government intervention. But it does have the ability to gather information to inform action throughout the government.”
For example, in June 2023 with the Artificial Intelligence Accountability Policy Request for Comment (RFC), the NTIA garnered immense attention as what was perceived as the Administration’s first big foray into regulating AI. There is currently an open RFC on open source AI models at the NTIA. NTIA is typically a somewhat sleepy and bureaucratic manager of the government’s own spectrum and certain technology policy positions. But these recent RFCs and public appearances by agency officials, which have been emphasizing responsible development and deployment of AI systems, have caught the attention of industry and AI policy trackers.
NTIA’s role under the EO came without any additional dollars. That’s why, despite the vague request from NTIA, the logical conclusion is that these funds will be redirected from supporting broadband deployment to increasing regulatory scrutiny of AI.
To be clear, asking for additional funding to tackle an increased workload would be reasonable. But large requests like this should be done out in the open and consistent with congressional authority, not vaguely described in a CR.
Members of Congress must ask more questions before this funding is approved. And all audiences interested in AI policy should take note.
Thanks to Paul and EPIC for doing the hard work of tracking down this provision in the latest CR!
The Congressional Research Service helpfully explains, “[M]ost CRs require that agencies not initiate new programs or activities and use the CR’s funding authority in the most limited way possible. CRs may also include “anomaly” provisions that specify exceptions to the CR’s funding rate for designated programs or activities.”