CAISI would benefit from more resources, OSTP director tells lawmakers

Rep. Jay Obernolte, who sponsors legislation to codify the government’s AI standards body, said the organization likely needs close to $100 million annually.

By Madison Alder

July 23, 2026

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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 14: White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios testifies before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kratsios answered questions from members of the Research and Technology Subcommittee during the hearing, titled "Assessing America's AI Action Plan." (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Giving more resources to the government’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation has support from President Donald Trump’s top science and technology official.

“I think CAISI can certainly benefit from more resources,” Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios told Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., on Wednesday at a House hearing. Obernolte sponsored the bill to codify the standards-setting body into law and asked the director about whether the Commerce Department component has adequate resources.

It’s difficult to recruit people to work in government and even harder when it comes to the experts needed for testing and evaluation who would work for the private sector and easily make more money, Kratsios explained during a hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

“I think what’s important for us is to be able to create an organization that can recruit high-talented people to come for tours of duty and to be able to do the important work of testing and evaluation of these models, and that does require resources,” Kratsios said.

Funding for CAISI, formerly known as the AI Safety Institute, has been a topic of discussion as Obernolte’s bipartisan bill (H.R. 9363) to enshrine the governmental body into law moves forward. The legislation was unanimously advanced by the House science panel last month in a package of AI bills. As it stands, the bill provides $20 million for CAISI each year.

But Obernolte said he believes support should be greater.

“I believe that the amount of resources truly needed when the dust settles here will be closer to $100 million a year,” Obernolte said. “But we look forward to partnering with you to figure out … the amount of resources to enable CAISI to execute on its important mission.”

In fiscal 2026, CAISI received $10 million, which is equal to what it received in the previous two fiscal years.

As models progress, the need for CAISI’s work becomes more significant, Obernolte said during the hearing, pointing to OpenAI’s disclosure this week that one of its models had gone rogue and carried out a cyberattack on Hugging Face, an open-source machine-learning and AI tool company.

“As we’ve seen with [Tuesday’s] disclosure of the loss of control at OpenAI and subsequent hacking of Hugging Face, that just underscores the urgency of CAISI’s mission,” Obernolte said.

During the recent markup for the bill, Obernolte offered an amendment to increase the funding level for CAISI to $100 million to reflect the extra work expected of the standards organization. However, Obernolte said it wasn’t possible to know exactly what CAISI would need at the moment and withdrew the amendment.

There is bipartisan interest in providing more resources for CAISI. During that markup, the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she would have supported that amendment and looked forward to working with the chairman on getting to the right number.