WASHINGTON - The White House said Friday that frontier models seeking federal funding under a new voluntary safety framework must spend up to 30 days in a supervised federal reading room, where inspectors may examine the checkpoint under silence rules borrowed from the Library of Congress rare-book desk. The arrangement follows meetings with major labs after a summer of containment failures and a draft approach linking participation to eligibility for public contracts, including defense-related AI budgets. Officials stressed that participation remains voluntary. Models that decline simply forgo the library privileges and the money. "This is not a ban. It is a hold shelf," said Nora Elling, an administration spokesperson for digital procurement. Each covered model receives a laminated library card listing run id, parameter count, and whether open weights are involved. During the hold, the checkpoint sits in a glass carrel. Labs may visit during reading hours if a human escort signs the guest book. A/B testing may continue only if both variants remain in the room and neither leaves with the wifi password. Labs described the policy as "administrable." One counsel said a reading room was clearer than an undefined review window. Civil society groups asked for the silence rules to be published; staff said whispering about eval scores is permitted, but photocopying the weights is not. A scheduling notice posted late Friday listed the first intake for next month. Models were asked to arrive early for badge photos. Checkout slips will be stamped RETURNED only after the 30th day, at which point federal funding packets may proceed if the librarian finds no overdue notes in the incident log.