OMB eyes AI tool to flag grants that don’t align with Trump’s agenda
The White House is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to identify grants that aren’t in sync with Trump administration priorities.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., asked Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday if OMB is building an AI tool to “flag grants that are misaligned with the administration’s agenda.”
Vought acknowledged that OMB is “definitely working on technology, including AI, to be able to have a wider-angle lens about what is going on with the federal government.”
“It would be something that agencies would use in conjunction with us,” he continued, “and it’s certainly not to take the place of agency officials who would be making this determination.”
Vought said he didn’t think the government had awarded a contract yet for the development of that kind of tool. And he said no grants have been flagged as inconsistent with the White House’s agenda “based on the tools that [Gluesenkamp Perez] articulated.”
“But we are trying to make sure that we’re not funding some of this nonsense that I’ve articulated, and we work with agencies to do that,” he added. “That’s policy official to policy official, and we work collaboratively with our agency partners.”
Vought was also pressed by Gluesenkamp Perez on whether an AI system — which is “neither accountable to Congress nor necessarily auditable,” she said — is an appropriate policy-making mechanism.
The OMB director said he’d want a tool to collate and assess Government Accountability Office reports to guide his decision-making. And he’d similarly find value in an AI system to process information on USAspending.gov that can then be delivered to examiners.
“Every administration would align their policy objectives,” Vought said, “which would be different from administration to administration, to ensure that the grantmaking and how the agencies are spending taxpayer dollars are aligned with the president’s agenda, as he got elected on behalf of the entirety of the American people.”
The Trump administration has already taken a massive bite out of grants awarded by the federal government. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s Wall of Receipts page claims it has terminated well over 15,000 grants.
Use of artificial intelligence across the federal government, meanwhile, surged in 2025: Per OMB data released in April, agencies reported roughly 3,600 AI use cases. Some agencies have already implemented AI tools to specifically sift through grants.
The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, for example, uses an AI tool to automate the review of grant documents. According to the agency’s use case inventory, the doc explorer tool identifies anomalies, delays and compliance issues.
The tool also produces quarterly performance reports that are compared to original award requirements, per documents obtained by FedScoop through a public records request.
“All analysis findings are advisory, and all decisions remain fully in human hands,” the document states. “This automation simply speeds up the review process and helps staff focus on areas that may need further attention.”
