Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust (OMB Memorandum M-25-21)

Record US-12 · OMB Memorandum M-25-21

Issued by: Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President
Jurisdiction: United States
Level · region: National · North America
Published / adopted: 2025-04-03
In force: 2025-04-03
Language: English
Official identifier: OMB Memorandum M-25-21

Summary

Replaces M-24-10 as the government-wide policy on agency AI use. It defines 'high-impact AI', meaning AI whose output is a principal basis for decisions with legal, material or significant effects on rights or safety. For such AI it requires minimum practices: pre-deployment testing, AI impact assessments with independent review, ongoing monitoring, operator training, human oversight and fail-safes, and human review and appeal. Non-compliant uses must be discontinued, waivers require CAIO certification, and Chief AI Officers and governance boards remain.

Safety topics

public-sector userisk-based classificationevaluation & testinghuman oversightaccountability & liability

Status notes

Issued 3 Apr 2025 under EO 14179. Deadlines from issuance: CAIO within 60 days; CFO Act agency AI strategies and agency compliance plans within 180 days (repeating every two years until 2036); high-impact minimum practices documented within 365 days (about 3 Apr 2026). In force as of Oct 2026. Binding on federal agencies only.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/M-25-21-Accelerating-Federal-Use-of-AI-through-Innovation-Governance-and-Public-Trust.pdf

Local copy

Archived. Last attempt 2026-10-17 22:12:01 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/US-12/2026-10-11/official.pdf

Retrieved 2026-10-11 14:03:48 UTC

SHA-256 0aab0aa4eaeac969ed93894d3940c5dc9d0b7377048171b164a439e8b9e49813

Verification

The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · official-url-fetched

Recheck of 17 Oct 2026: re-read the whitehouse.gov PDF of M-25-21 stored on 11 Oct 2026 (the archiver found it unchanged on 17 Oct 2026; Last-Modified 4 Apr 2025). It confirms the memo number, title, 3 Apr 2025 date, the Office of Management and Budget as issuer, the rescission and replacement of M-24-10, the high-impact AI definition, the minimum risk management practices, the waiver rules and the deadlines in notes. The stored text shows no later amendment or replacement; that the memo is still in force rests on the absence of any rescission in the stored file.

Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 7 field(s) supported.

History

2026-10-18related: [{"slug": "us-omb-m-24-10", "id": "US-06"}, {"slug": "us-omb-m-25-22", "id": "US → [{"slug": "us-omb-m-24-10", "id": "US-06"}, {"slug": "us-omb-m-25-22", "id": "US — two-way link added: US-02 link(s) to US-122026-10-18-fix-related-links · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18Re-verified against its sources, no change — pipeline run 2026-10-17-recheck-north-america-1 (recheck), candidate US-122026-10-17-recheck-north-america-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-16related: [{"slug": "us-omb-m-24-10", "id": "US-06"}, {"slug": "us-omb-m-25-22", "id": "US → [{"slug": "us-omb-m-24-10", "id": "US-06"}, {"slug": "us-omb-m-25-22", "id": "US — two-way link to US-29 added in run 2026-10-16-discover-leads2026-10-16-discover-leads · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

OMB M-24-10 United States · Superseded

OMB M-25-22 United States · In force

EO 14179 United States · In force

OMB M-26-04 United States · In force

EO 13960 United States · In force

NIST AI RMF United States · Published (non-binding, current)

Citation

Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President. Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust (OMB Memorandum M-25-21) [OMB Memorandum M-25-21]. 2025-04-03. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/M-25-21-Accelerating-Federal-Use-of-AI-through-Innovation-Governance-and-Public-Trust.pdf. Status: In force; verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/US-12/2026-10-11/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-11 14:03:48 UTC, SHA-256 0aab0aa4eaeac969ed93894d3940c5dc9d0b7377048171b164a439e8b9e49813. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record US-12.

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