DeepSeek FASCSA Order: Model Provenance Becomes a Federal Procurement Requirement

On October 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued Exclusion and Removal Order No. 2026-01 under FASCSA, prohibiting products and services of DeepSeek and its affiliates from federal civilian procurement and requiring civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products and third-party products that "use DeepSeek for development." According to Crowell & Moring, the Department of War (DoW) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) issued companion orders covering defense and intelligence systems; the three orders differ in scope, with the DoW and DNI orders covering applications and services that implement DeepSeek models, including locally run open-source weights, while the DHS order extends to the development stage. CSA's analysis holds that FASCSA actions are beginning to target model families that can be renamed, fine-tuned or distilled rather than a single vendor, while existing procurement identifiers do not record model identity, and the FAR reasonable-inquiry standard does not require an audit, making model provenance a practical compliance issue.