# National Institute of Standards and Technology The federal measurement and standards laboratory, founded in 1901 as the National Bureau of Standards and renamed in 1988. It sits in the [[Department of Commerce]]. It writes no regulations and enforces nothing. It produces the reference standards other bodies then adopt, which is a quieter and more durable kind of power than rulemaking. ## Its role in elections Two of its roles matter to the vault's election material. Under the [[Help America Vote Act]], the NIST director **chairs the [[Technical Guidelines Development Committee]]**, the body that drafts the [[Voluntary Voting System Guidelines]]. The technical content of the national voting-equipment standard therefore originates in a Commerce laboratory rather than in the [[Election Assistance Commission]] that adopts it. The current version, VVSG 2.0, was adopted by the EAC in February 2021. Separately, NIST's **National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program** performs the technical review of prospective voting-system test laboratories and recommends them to the EAC. That is how [[Pro V&V]] and [[SLI Compliance]] came to be the only two accredited labs, and why every certified voting system in the country, from [[Election Systems & Software]] to [[Liberty Vote]], passes through a NIST-vetted lab. The structural consequence, visible since July 2026: NIST can still draft and still recommend. Neither output becomes operative without three EAC commissioners, and there are none. See [[How a Voting System Is Certified and Decertified]]. ## Beyond elections NIST's frameworks shape industries that never see a regulator. Its Cybersecurity Framework and its AI Risk Management Framework are voluntary but widely written into contracts and state laws. Two newer offices put it closer to politics: - **AI.** NIST housed the U.S. AI Safety Institute, created in November 2023 under Biden's AI executive order. In June 2025 Commerce Secretary [[Howard Lutnick]] rebuilt and renamed it the [[CAISI]] (Center for AI Standards and Innovation), refocused on "demonstrable risks" such as cyber, biological and chemical weapons, plus foreign adversaries' AI. The renaming tracked the administration's repeal of the Biden order and its push against state AI rules. - **Chips.** NIST administers the [[CHIPS and Science Act]] manufacturing-incentive program. Both offices were the main targets when, in February 2025, Axios and Bloomberg reported that up to **500 of NIST's roughly 3,400 staff** faced dismissal in the [[DOGE]]-era cuts to probationary employees. ## See also - [[How a Voting System Is Certified and Decertified]] - [[Technical Guidelines Development Committee]] · [[Voluntary Voting System Guidelines]] - [[Election Assistance Commission]] · [[Help America Vote Act]] - [[CAISI]] · [[CHIPS and Science Act]] · [[Department of Commerce]]