Washington, D.C. – Democracy Forward sued four government agencies today, asking that a court compel the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the General Services Administration (GSA), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to comply with public records laws and reveal documents regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in executing the Trump-Vance administration’s dangerous deregulation agenda, aimed at weakening existing regulations that protect people and communities.
“The public has a right to know the extent to which the administration has used unreliable and unproven AI tools to expand its agenda of undermining regulations that protect people,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “AI is a tool, but it must be ethically and skillfully utilized. AI is also not a replacement for the skilled professionals in our civil service who work to protect the health, safety, wages, and rights of millions of Americans. Democracy Forward will continue to hold this administration accountable to the people.”
According to records obtained by Democracy Forward in response to another FOIA request and public reports, the GSA has taken a central role in the Trump-Vance administration’s aggressive regulatory agenda, including by providing agencies with a document, “Policy Playbook Review: A guide for agency policy reviews to ensure alignment to Trump Administration priorities,” rolling out an artificial intelligence evaluation suite that enables federal agencies to experiment with and adopt artificial intelligence on a massive scale, and, alongside OMB, making recommendations on removing federal regulations and rules.
OMB has additionally rolled out a SweetREX Regulation AI Plan Builder, a program developed by affiliates of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is meant to expedite the process for reviewing and updating regulations. OPM Director Scott Kupor has also suggested using AI to summarize comments on proposed rules and regulations.
While the administration’s interest in expanding the use of AI has been widely reported, official documents regarding AI policies have not been released. Democracy Forward filed requests seeking additional information under the Freedom of Information Act in June and July of this year, and though the government acknowledged receipt of the requests, it did not provide the information requested in the timeline required by public record laws.
The case is Democracy Forward Foundation v. GSA, et. al and was filed in District Court for the District of Columbia. The legal team at Democracy Forward working on the matter includes Daniel A. McGrath, Robin F. Thurston, and Anisha N. Hindocha.
Read the complaint here.
– # # # –
Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.