National Fair Housing Alliance President and CEO Lisa Rice Issues Statement on the Trump Administration’s AI Plan and Executive Orders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) President and CEO Lisa Rice Issues Statement
on the Trump Administration’s AI Plan and Executive Orders
Washington, D.C. — The National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™) is committed to ensuring that emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) uplift all communities, ensuring access to economic mobility and prosperity. Just as the internet once redefined the human experience, AI is changing the trajectory of human capabilities, business operations, national governance, and access to opportunities. AI truly is the civil and human rights frontier of our time.
We commend elements of the administration’s AI Action Plan that prioritize strengthened consumer protections, community development, investments in local workforce training, American competitiveness, and expanded energy sources for AI infrastructure to mitigate straining local infrastructure. These priorities offer meaningful potential to foster innovations that advance responsible governance and public trust.
However, we also have concerns and urge caution.
NFHA opposes the President’s Executive Order entitled, “Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government.” According to the administration, the purpose of this executive order is to prevent principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion from being incorporated in the training of Large Language Models (LLMs). Diversity, equity, and inclusion tenets help debias models and ensure they do not project false, warped, discriminatory, or inaccurate outcomes—something the Administration states is its goal. In fact, we know that training data often reflects the discrimination that exists in our society. Thus, it is imperative that LLMs be tested for bias and trained to not perpetuate discrimination. Our anti-discrimination laws require this standard.
America’s diversity is its strength and the reason the U.S. remains a world leader in shaping AI. Fairness, justice, and diversity are embedded in our Constitution and laws. “Out of Many, One” is our national motto. It is disingenuous to suggest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are harmful to or impede technological innovation.
Moreover, in lockstep with 99 U.S. Senators, NFHA will continue to implore the Administration not to supersede states’ rights in implementing AI statues that may be necessary for achieving the very objectives of the National AI Plan. We believe that state and local authorities have a critical role to play, especially since many tailored AI policies have already emerged from the states. Federal actions must not weaken these efforts. State-level systems serve as essential laboratories for advancing solutions that ensure all people in America flourish from technological advancements.
Finally, NFHA urges caution in the buildout of AI data centers, which often require vast amounts of power as well as water for cooling. We urge the administration to ensure that AI data centers do not contribute to air, land, or water pollution or deprive already underserved communities of access to energy and other essentials people need to thrive.
As NFHA looks forward to a constructive engagement with the Administration, we remain committed to supporting a national AI ecosystem that is fair, competitive, secure, trustworthy, accountable, and transparent.
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The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is the country’s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. As the trade association for 200 fair housing and justice-centered organizations throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.