Congress
AI bill’s lead House Republican pushes for vote after breaches
Rep. Jay Obernolte, a California Republican leading the charge on wide-ranging artificial intelligence legislation in the House, said Thursday he’s ramping up pressure for a committee vote after a series of cyber breaches involving rogue AI models.
“We have been aware of the need for this type of bill for the last couple of years,” the California Republican told reporters in Washington. “However, the recent events have certainly elevated the discussion amongst my colleagues and elevated awareness of just how necessary this bill is. So, in that sense, it’s been timely.”
Obernolte’s comments follow a series of recent disclosures by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta that their models autonomously engaged in cyberattacks.
The lawmaker is leading legislation with Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts that would preempt some state AI regulations and give the federal government the ability to restrict deployment of AI models that pose catastrophic risks.
Obernolte said Thursday that discussions with fellow lawmakers about his bill have continued since the House left Washington last week, including during a recent trip focused on critical minerals. He said leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee seems open to holding a vote on the bill in September but have made no commitments.
“We feel like that’s a reasonable compromise that everyone can be happy with,” Obernolte said. “So we’re going to push to have some hearings and markups on that in Energy and Commerce when we return in September.”
A spokesperson for House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obernolte said he has been briefed on a yet-to-be publicly released White House framework for vetting AI cybersecurity risks and that he has had “constant discussions” with the administration.
Vice President JD Vance is attending Thursday’s Senate Republican lunch.
The visit comes as senators try to make progress on several key priorities and leave Washington for a five-week recess. Among the unsettled issues is whether the GOP will advance a budget framework for a new party-line spending bill and take votes on the SAVE America elections bill.
Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) becomes the latest lawmaker to announce a forthcoming book — but this one will take aim at his own party and President Donald Trump.
“How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents” will explore how a group of “grifting sycophants and useful idiots” have impacted the second Trump administration, according to a new summary from his publisher released Thursday.
Tillis has clashed publicly with the president and members of his administration, particularly after Trump effectively forced him into retirement. In an interview with MS NOW on Thursday, Tillis said those individuals — whom he dubs as “MAGATS” in his book — “are not giving the president honest advice and putting us in positions that we could avoid.”
“I’m talking about people who have never worked a day in business, who now have business strategy, decision-making roles, and they’re simply not looking around corners and taking care of this president,” Tillis said. “Those are the people I want to expose in this book.”
Tillis has publicly criticized members of Trump’s administration including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought; onetime acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte; and Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. His most recent break with the president was his refusal to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche until he agreed to eliminate Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.
But Tillis, who announced last year he would not seek reelection after serving two terms in the upper chamber, emphasized on Thursday that he hopes to help Republicans maintain their slim majority.
“I want Republicans to win in November. That’s why I’m speaking out,” said Tillis. “ I’m here for the American people, not to score points with Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth or these other folks who I think are giving the president bad advice.”
His book — a play on the famous “How to Win Friends and Influence People” — will be released Oct. 6, ahead of the midterms.
Don’t expect the typically strong smell of Thursday jet fumes in the halls of the Senate just yet.
Ideally, senators would be leaving town for a five-week recess after business Thursday, but a legislative pile-up and pressure from President Donald Trump has made that impossible.
All 100 senators still need to agree to a deal to speed up consideration of a measure to extend government funding through Dec. 11, a Russia sanctions bill, dozens of nominees including Todd Blanche and a bipartisan college athletics bill — an agenda that would otherwise take weeks to accomplish.
Republicans also need to make a decision about whether they’re going to attempt to take an initial step on a third party-line spending bill, which includes election security measures Trump is demanding.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday evening the vibes were “starting to pick up” in terms of a deal taking shape. But he cautioned on jet fumes:
“You’re not going to be smelling those anytime real soon. …We’ve obviously got, like I said, a stack of stuff to do,” he said.
While Thune hasn’t ruled out taking up a budget blueprint for the GOP bill, he said it was “hard to say at this point” if the votes were there.
However senators are eyeing an exit strategy to allow Republicans to leave town while giving Trump a small win by taking up his elections measure. With that option, Republicans would bring up legislation related to the SAVE America Act instead of advancing a budget resolution, three people granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions said.
Thune said it “remains to be seen” whether that’s enough for hard-liners who have threatened to oppose leaving town without a vote on it.
Also still in limbo is Trump’s attorney general pick Blanche, who met Wednesday with GOP holdouts Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski. Neither said afterward how they would vote on the nomination — and Blanche needs to secure at least one of their votes.
Government funding legislation is also stuck in the pile-up, with Republicans grappling with intraparty wrangling over hemp language. And an agreement to speed up consideration of the Russia sanctions measure is also in limbo as Democrats work through concerns in their ranks about it.
And Democrats are waiting for smoke signals from Republicans on whether they’ll force them to vote on cryptocurrency legislation that many of them currently oppose (more on that below). Dems are eager to avoid taking that vote ahead of the recess, potentially fueling tens of millions of dollars of campaign spending by industry allies.
What else we’re watching:
— JOHNSON BULLISH ON SPEAKERSHIP: Mike Johnson said he is planning to remain speaker if House Republicans hold onto the House — but didn’t weigh in on his future plans if Democrats flip the majority. “I don’t have to answer that question because we’re gonna win,” Johnson told Dasha Burns on Tuesday in an interview for Blue Light News’s The Conversation. “I’m gonna remain speaker of the House,” he added. Johnson would face difficult political headwinds to stay on as minority leader if Democrats take back the chamber, but he dodged on the topic, reiterating his optimism.
— FARM BILL OUTLOOK DIMS: Agriculture ranking member Amy Klobuchar is signaling she’ll oppose the GOP-led farm bill up for a markup Thursday, likely scuttling chances it’ll advance. At issue is a provision to delay requirements that states pay for part of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Agriculture Chair John Boozman has offered a one-year delay while Democrats are asking for two years. The nutrition aid requirements were passed as part of the GOP’s megabill last summer. Boozman needs to win support from at least one Democrat to advance the bill out of committee given Sen. Mitch McConnell’s prolonged absence.
Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
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- AI bill’s lead House Republican pushes for vote after breaches
- New book from Tillis dubs Miller, Hegseth as ‘MAGATS’
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