Protection Against Foreign Adversarial Artificial Intelligence Act of 2025

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2025-05-07

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Compromise of privacy
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Competitive dynamics

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• False or misleading information

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses national security risks from foreign adversarial AI systems, with good coverage of privacy compromise (2.1), security vulnerabilities (2.2), disinformation and surveillance (4.1), state-sponsored propaganda (3.1), and competitive dynamics between nations (6.4). Coverage is concentrated in security, data privacy, and geopolitical competition domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information
• Professional & Technical Services
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)
• National Security

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Finance & Insurance
• Real Estate, Rental & Leasing
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Management, Administrative & Support Services
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
• Accommodation, Food & Other Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This legislation applies broadly to all federal contractors across multiple sectors, with primary governance impact on Public Administration, National Security, Professional and Technical Services, and the Information sector. The prohibition affects any sector that holds federal contracts and would use AI applications.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a Congressional bill with binding legal obligations using mandatory language ('shall', 'may not'), establishing legal prohibitions on federal contractors, waiver provisions, and mandatory reporting requirements with specific enforcement mechanisms through federal agencies.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America
• Summary: The document is a Congressional bill as indicated by the opening language 'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled'.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer, AI_User, AI_Developer
• Entities: Federal contractors; High Flyer; DeepSeek
• Summary: The prohibition explicitly targets federal contractors who use DeepSeek (AI Users/Deployers), and High Flyer as the developer of DeepSeek. The report requirements also address AI platforms based in or affiliated with countries of concern.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Defense
• Summary: The Secretary of Commerce has authority to waive the prohibition and is responsible for enforcement decisions. The Secretary of Defense is consulted on waivers and national security determinations.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Defense; Committee on Armed Services; Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Committee on Energy and Commerce
• Summary: The Secretary of Commerce is required to monitor and report on AI threats from countries of concern, consulting with the Secretary of Defense. Congressional committees receive oversight reports.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate and Monitor lifecycle stages, focusing on prohibiting deployment of specific foreign AI applications in federal contracts and requiring ongoing monitoring and reporting of threats. It does not substantially cover earlier stages like planning, data collection, or model building.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Compute Threshold
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI applications, AI platforms, large language models, and generative AI. It references export controls on graphics processing units (GPUs) related to AI model development, indicating attention to compute resources. There is no explicit mention of frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, predictive AI, or open-weight models.