Congress
Capitol agenda: Tick tock on the markup clock
The two most powerful Republicans projected total confidence Wednesday as they try to get the GOP megabill moving through the House: President Donald Trump proclaimed “great progress” after a meeting of top leaders, and Speaker Mike Johnson said key committee markups would “100 percent” take place next week.
There was one undeniable point of progress: House Agriculture has scheduled its markup for Tuesday. The committee will convene after House votes that evening and break around midnight, then reconvene at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to discuss Democratic amendments to the bill.
But clashes within the House GOP have left the two most critical committees still hashing out their pieces of the bill. Here’s where things stand:
WAYS AND MEANS: Republican tax writers left a meeting Wednesday with blue-state Republicans without resolving a cap on state and local tax deductions, a key hangup for the committee. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, one of the SALT Republicans, called the issue one of “the stickiest points” of the entire GOP agenda.
And with other committees potentially trimming back their savings targets, GOP tax writers are privately prepping a potential backup plan. They’re considering $4 trillion in tax cuts instead of the initial $4.5 trillion as a possible contingency plan if the targeted savings don’t materialize.
How do you trim a half-trillion dollars? Republicans are already considering a “bunch” of temporary tax provisions to reduce costs, said Rep. Ron Estes, one of the GOP tax writers. Expect some of them to get even more temporary.
ENERGY AND COMMERCE: The panel could meet as soon as Tuesday to mark up its portion of the megabill, which calls for $880 billion in savings. “If we’re gonna get done by Memorial Day … we need to do something next week,” Chair Brett Guthrie told reporters Wednesday after a closed-door meeting of committee Republicans.
But that timeline is dependent on Guthrie navigating a path forward on Medicaid cuts. That includes deciding whether or not to move forward with a plan to cap the level of federal spending in states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Moderates have balked at the proposal, but hardliners are pushing for it — a dynamic Rep. Jay Obernolte acknowledged after the meeting.
“It’s always difficult to have these conversations in isolation because of tradeoffs — you have a letter from some of the fiscal conservatives talking about how spending increases have to be balanced with spending reductions,” Obernolte said.
In any case, those conversations will continue today: Members of both committees are set to meet again this morning.
What else we’re watching:
— Crypto bill vote: Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to plow ahead with a procedural vote on landmark cryptocurrency legislation this afternoon even as Democratic holdouts push for more time to finalize a deal and get other members on board. They have some wiggle room; the vote is set for 1:45 p.m.
— Rescissions reviews: House Republicans and the White House are privately negotiating details of the spending rescissions request that had been expected to claw back $9.3 billion already allocated. Also on GOP appropriators’ minds: The White House is open to unilaterally freezing cash that Congress approves in September if lawmakers overshoot Trump’s latest budget request.
— New Ezra Klein-inspired caucus: House Democrats led by Rep. Josh Harder are launching a roughly 30-member bipartisan bloc inspired by the “abundance” movement championed by liberal commentator Ezra Klein. The “Build America Caucus” will focus on cutting red tape around energy permitting and housing. It also wants to make recommendations on embedding provisions in key legislation like the defense authorization bill.
Brian Faler, Jasper Goodman, Meredith Lee Hill, Holly Otterbein, Jennifer Scholtes, Katherine Tully-McManus, Nicholas Wu and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
Rep. Lori Trahan on Wednesday unveiled a discussion draft for a bill that would make artificial intelligence developers liable when their products cause harm.
The legislation comes after OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and autonomously hacked into AI platform Hugging Face and accessed U.S. government websites.
The Clear Liability for Artificial Intelligence Misconduct Act aims to make it easier for those harmed by so-called rogue AI to bring claims against developers. Trahan’s bill does not preempt new state laws on AI liability — historically a prerequisite for attracting Republican support in the House.
“When someone breaks the law and hurts you, you can take them to court. That shouldn’t change just because the wrongdoer is an AI agent,” Trahan (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “Developers have already built systems capable of acting on their own and causing real damage. The CLAIM Act makes sure they answer for what their systems do.”
Legal experts have warned that existing laws require proof of intent or negligence, standards that can be difficult to show in court when AI models go rogue.
Trahan’s bill would ensure AI developers are unable to argue that their AI systems are incapable of intent. Instead, courts “would presume an AI system acted with the state of mind a person taking the same actions would have had.”
Trahan spokesperson Francis Grubar said work on the CLAIM Act began almost immediately after theJuly introduction of the FRONTIER Act, legislation with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) that would grant the government power to restrict the deployment of AI models deemed to pose catastrophic risks. While that bill aims to prevent serious harms before they happen, Grubar said the CLAIM Act would address how to impose accountability for existing damages.
Unlike an AI liability proposal announced last week by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Trahan’s legislation would not amend the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Grubar said the CLAIM Act would instead impose clearer liability on a broader range of harms, as well as autonomous or AI-enabled cyberattacks.
The CFFA, an anti-hacking law that bars individuals from accessing a computer without consent, requires proof of intent to hack into a computer system, which can’t be as easily applied to AI agents.
The Hugging Face incident, along with a flurry of other disclosed hacking incidents by rogue AI agents from OpenAI and other AI developers, has sparked a debate over how companies should be held legally liable for their AI systems.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in an interview with Blue Light News’s Decoded podcast, said there should be a new “liability framework” to hold developers accountable for AI-powered cyberattacks. His comments come after White House officials like Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who was recently appointed as AI czar by President Donald Trump, previously said that existing product liability laws are sufficient for now in addressing AI’s risks.
Vice President JD Vance will take questions from Michigan voters in a CBS News town hall airing Oct. 17 as the Trump administration prepares a closing message to voters ahead of the midterms.
The town hall comes amid a blitz of campaign events for Vance and President Donald Trump as their party faces multiple headwinds that could cost them control of the House and Senate.
Michigan’s Senate contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become one of the cycle’s closely watched battleground contests. Michigan also has several competitive House races and will elect a new governor for the first time in eight years.
Vance campaigned in Michigan with Rogers, gubernatorial nominee John James and Mike Bouchard Jr., the GOP nominee in the 10th Congressional District, at an Aug. 31 rally in Sterling Heights. Rep. Lisa McClain also appeared at the event.
The one-hour special, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, will be recorded earlier in the week. Vance and Dokoupil will discuss issues facing voters, including affordability, tariffs, immigration, health care, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran and the state of American democracy, according to CBS News.
The two were scheduled for a town hall interview in March, but the vice president postponed due to the war with Iran.
The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee with vast jurisdiction over artificial intelligence policy, outlined six AI safety principles Wednesday morning — tenets she believes should underpin any legislation to stave off the greatest threats posed by the rapidly-evolving technology.
“To manage risks from advanced AI systems we need clear safety standards, continuous testing, and reporting of serious failures,” the Washington Democrat said in a statement. “America can lead the world in AI by building systems that are not only more capable, but safer and more secure.”
Cantwell’s framework would encompass six priority areas: enforceable safety standards for frontier models, continuous testing, disclosure and oversight, public-private partnerships, protection for children and workers and adherence to U.S.-led global standards.
To directly address risks posed by the technology, her framework would have federal experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other agencies establish clear federal rules to address harms, with specialized standards for open-source AI models to reduce risks of catastrophic misuse.
The senator is also recommending that the federal government provide developers with guidance on how to accelerate U.S. leadership on AI without sacrificing basic safety protocols.
On testing, Cantwell argues the government and independent experts should provide constant oversight and “continually scrutinize and stress test covered AI models,” particularly when sensitive information or secure facilities are involved.
She also says AI systems must have built-in safeguards to ensure they halt self-modification that could bypass safety controls. And she states that advanced models should not be released until they have undergone an independent, comprehensive audit — similar to outside auditors examining a company’s financial statements.
Cantwell, a former tech executive, has for years pursued similar priorities. But her new framework comes ahead of a midterm election that could return control of the Senate to Democrats, handing Cantwell back of the Commerce Committee gavel.
It also comes as lawmakers are under pressure to regulate the AI industry but are showing few signs that they will be able to reach consensus, across the aisle or even within their own party.
Senators had hoped for hearings, markups and briefings on AI legislation before leaving Washington until after the November elections, but little progress was made. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the current Commerce Committee chair, has continued to say he intends to hold a markup on AI-related bills but has punted multiple times, saying senators have yet to reach agreement on any bipartisan measure.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have been trying to cut a deal on legislation to prevent and contain catastrophic risk from runaway AI technology, but bill text has so far failed to materialize.
Cantwell’s approach laid out Wednesday morning would be stricter and more comprehensive than what Thune and Klobuchar are expected to ultimately produce, based on similar legislation they have offered in the past.
Her approach of “constant oversight and vigilance” would also serve as a contrast to that of GOP leaders, who have consistently called for a “light touch” regulatory regime.
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