National AI Initiative Act 2020 + CREATE AI Act pending — legal foundation under which NAIRR operates

The National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (Division E of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for FY2021, P.L. 116-283, January 1, 2021) incorporated NAIRR Task Force authorization into the broader National AI Initiative; it was signed into law by congressional override of presidential veto. This act provides the legal foundation under which the NAIRR Pilot (E-0096) currently operates.

The CREATE AI Act (H.R. 2385, 119th Congress; previously S.2714 in the 118th Congress) would codify a full-scale National AI Research Resource at NSF as a permanent program. As of April 2026 the bill remains pending.

For C-0038: the statutory record demonstrates that federal AI prioritization is not a posture of one administration but a multi-administration, congressionally backed commitment that has already cleared the highest legislative bar (veto override). The pending CREATE AI Act is the next step in the production-scale codification of the pilot infrastructure.