USDA · USDA-136 · record R1434

American Recovery Act Classification Tool

Department of Agriculture · Natural Resources and Environment

Overview

Development stage: PilotSource: b) Pilot – The use case has been deployed in a limited test or pilot capacity.
High-impact designation: Not high-impactSource: c) Not high-impact
Impact justification: Not reported
Start date: 2025-07-01 (day precision)Source: 7/1/2025
Withheld from public reporting: Not reported

Mission

Topic area: Emergency Management
Operational functions: No function tag matched Derived by keyword rules; see methodology

Problem the AI is intended to solve

This project will use AI/ML to better understand how contracts and agreements funded through the American Relief Act support disaster response themes across the country, such as road repair, timber salvage, and recreation site rehabilitation.

Expected benefits

This project will promote accountability and enable public reporting of expenditures.

System outputs

The outputs are probabilities for each need category identified in the American Recovery Act. A highly confident prediction will categorize a document into one or more categories while a less-confident result will flag the document for human review.

Technology

AI classification: Natural language processingSource: Natural Language Processing: AI that processes, interprets, and shares information in human language.
System name(s): Not reported
Custom-developed code: Yes
Public source code: Not reported

Sourcing

How it was built: Developed in-houseSource: b) Developed in-house
Vendor (as reported): Not reported
Vendors (standardized): None on the standard list

A vendor is the supplier named by the agency. It does not identify the underlying model or AI technology.

Data and privacy

Involves PII: No
Privacy Impact Assessment: Not reported
Authorization to Operate: No
Demographic features: k) None of the above
Training and evaluation data: This uses word2vec word embeddings pre-trained on Google News (this is not a LLM) and TF-IDF (term frequency/inverse document frequency), a statistical measure of word counts in contracts and statements of work (SOWs) for disaster-recovery projects.
Federal Data Catalog: Not reported

Governance

0 of 8 minimum-practice questions answered. A blank answer means the agency reported nothing; it does not mean the practice is absent.

Pre-deployment testingNo answer reported

AI impact assessmentNo answer reported

Independent reviewNo answer reported

Ongoing monitoringNo answer reported

Operator trainingNo answer reported

Fail-safeNo answer reported

Appeal processNo answer reported

User and public consultationNo answer reported

Potential impacts and how they were identified

Not reported