Inside GSA’s new AI acquisition policy

The General Services Administration has issued its artificial intelligence acquisition clause as a class deviation from its regulations, according to a regulation overhaul memo updated Monday, making it a policy that can be used immediately. GSA previously proposed a rule to amend federal regulations for AI acquisitions and took two rounds of public comment on drafts. Since then, the agency decided on a class deviation from the GSA’s Acquisition Regulation first. While the memo says the deviation will be effective Oct. 19, contracting officers could use it now and existing contracts may be changed at the discretion of the officer, it said. As a deviation, it is essentially policy until GSA rescinds it or codifies it through formal rulemaking, which the memo says will include a public comment period.

A bill to eliminate educational requirements in federal contracting jobs unanimously passed the Senate late Wednesday night, putting the legislation a presidential signature away from becoming law. The Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act (H.R. 5235), led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and co-sponsored by Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, cleared the House in February and advanced out of committee in the upper chamber in August. The bill would ban federal agencies from putting minimum education standards into contract solicitations — unless the agency includes a written explanation showing why those requirements are critical to the mission. Mace said in a press briefing Thursday this “is a middle-class American workers bill. If you have the skills, you should get the job.” Mace, who’s retiring from Congress at the end of this term, said the bill will be transmitted to the White House within “the next couple of days” or “up to a week.”

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