President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2022 (FY22) into law on December 27, 2021. It authorizes $770 billion in defense spending which is a 5% increase over last year. This marks 61 consecutive years that a bill received bipartisan support from congress (a display of agreement that has become increasingly rare for DC politics).

On January 1, 2021, the House and Senate overrode President Trump’s veto of H.R.6395, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, rendering the bill law. The FY2021 NDAA includes the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act (NAIIA), one of the most ambitious attempts by Congress to date, seeking to establish the United States leadership in artificial intelligence (AI).

Since the release of the final Federal Data Strategy Action Plan (henceforth FDSAP) the end of last year, much has been written about the Federal Data Strategy. However, little has been written to connect the important role it can play in enabling the adoption of AI within the federal public sector.