Bipartisan, bicameral bill looks to help the government hire more AI talent

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday meant to modernize how the government hires technical talent, especially those specializing in artificial intelligence.

The AI Talent Act would establish agency tech and AI talent teams meant to improve recruiting, assessments and job announcements, as well as a central team at the Office of Personnel Management to lead pooled hiring efforts and provide support to agencies. Agencies would be allowed to share lists of qualified candidates and technical assessments.

Lawmakers are also looking to boost skills-based hiring in government, where hiring managers vet candidates for specific skills instead of looking to their educational degrees and previous experience to decide if they’re qualified for the job. 

Both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration worked to move the federal government to this posture, although doing so requires rewriting foundational job requirements and policies in the government. 

Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Pat Fallon, R-Texas, as well as Sens. Andy Kim, D-N.J., and Jon Husted, R-Ohio, are behind the proposal.

“The United States can’t fully deliver on its national security mission, lead in responsible AI and compete in the AI race if our federal agencies don’t have the talent to meet this moment,” Jacobs said in a statement.

Still, the bill follows the exodus of many government workers from their rolls — including some of the very talent lawmakers say the government needs. 

This year, hundreds of thousands of government employees have left federal service under the Trump administration’s various efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce. The losses include AI experts hired under a Biden administration push to recruit AI talent, according to TIME.

The bill would also authorize agencies and OPM to establish additional talent teams for other high-need roles, like cybersecurity and data science.

“An outdated, bureaucratic hiring system is pushing that talent elsewhere,” Fallon said in a statement. “The AI Talent Act fixes this.”