Congress

Andy Kim says Congress shouldn’t trust AI companies to slow their own development

Published

1 day ago

September 14, 2026

The AI industry’s promise to slow itself down is “not nearly enough,” Sen. Andy Kim said Monday, calling for a binding federal framework and dismissing President Donald Trump’s argument that new rules would hand the race to China.

Kim (D-N.J.), who sits on the chamber’s commerce committee negotiating AI legislation, told Blue Light News that relying on the “voluntary goodwill” of AI companies to rein in their own technologies is unacceptable, given the potential societal risks involved. And he is not fully sold on a proposal to grant outside evaluators access to the labs developing groundbreaking AI technologies, which the AI company Anthropic recently said it would allow.

“We really need a very specific regulatory framework when it comes to AI,” Kim said in a phone interview. “Yes, embedding evaluators is certainly a part of that, but that is not going to be enough to address my concerns about where this technology is headed. We need much more clarity in terms of what level of standards we would want those evaluators to be upholding.”

Kim’s comments came after an artificial intelligence researcher dramatically resigned last week with warnings of global destruction if unfettered development continues. He also spoke of the need to “Mythos-proof our society,” referring to the powerful model developed by Anthropic, saying that he’s “engaged with a lot of different elements of government” to accomplish that goal but declining to elaborate what that might look like.

As concerns over both AI development and data center construction grow throughout the country, there’s been bipartisan momentum in Congress to rein in the industry, though the most prominent bill to do so remains in limbo with just a few weeks to go before an election-season recess. Kim said he’s lately had “good, bipartisan conversations” with senators about AI policies, and he’s hopeful that the Senate’s commerce committee will hold an AI markup in the coming weeks.

Trump, however, has emerged as a major impediment to any potential progress in Congress. In a Truth Social post on Monday morning, Trump wrote that the “only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” referencing the need for the U.S. to remain ahead of China in the AI development race.

Kim, though, argued that’s a false choice: Putting AI regulations in place, he said, does not have to conflict with maintaining competitiveness with China.

“Those are not mutually exclusive,” he said. “And I think that comment by Trump was wrong. We can find bipartisan support to show that there is a real and better way that we can do this.”

Congress

House panel recommends Leon Black be held in contempt for stonewalling Epstein investigation

Published

12 minutes ago

September 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Oversight Committee voted unanimously 41-0 Tuesday to recommend billionaire investor Leon Black be held in contempt of Congress for not fully cooperating with the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

It marks an escalation in an already contentious standoff, where Black defied two congressional subpoenas, refused to appear for a transcribed interview and then sued the committee for allegedly “overstep[ing] its authority.”

“Subpoenas are not suggestions. They carry the force of law and require full compliance,” said Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), later noting that Black gave the committee “no choice but to hold him in contempt” after ignoring the subpoenas.

Black has been a target of the committee’s Epstein probe for the personal and financial relationship he maintained with the late convicted sex trafficker, which included a $158 million payment not long after Epstein first became a registered sex offender.

He met with the committee in May for a transcribed interview but declined to speak at length about non-disclosure agreements he entered into with women tied to Epstein. As a result, the panel subpoenaed him to turn over those documents, to which Black responded by refusing to submit all those in his possession and then skipping a scheduled appearance before the panel slated for Sept. 3 — suing the committee instead.

Black’s lawyers, Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler, in a statement before the votecalled for the House Oversight contempt vote to be postponed.

“This entire charade is about politics and ambition. Given our litigation against Chairman Comer and the Committee, the possible ethics violations by Chairman Comer, the false and potentially libelous and defamatory statements by Ranking Member Garcia, there are more than enough reasons to postpone this mark-up and contempt resolution,” the attorneys said.

The contempt resolution now heads to the full House, which also must vote on whether to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia for possible indictment.

Comer said it was now up to GOP leadership whether it would schedule the resolution for consideration before the House leaves at the end of the week for recess until after the midterms. A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Congress

Most House Democrats vote to advance Trump impeachment

Published

53 minutes ago

September 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A large majority of House Democrats declined to follow their leaders in voting to reject an impeachment resolution targeting President Donald Trump over his immigration enforcement policies.

The 232-147 vote to kill the measure introduced by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was much narrower than a June 2025 vote on a different impeachment measure brought by Green, where 128 Democrats joined with 216 Republicans to set it aside.

This time, only 18 Democrats joined the 213 Republicans voting to table, with another 46 Democrats voting present — among them Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the No. 2 and No. 3 party leaders, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California.

The vote signals a limited appetite among Democrats to look past the president’s controversies even after the leaders suggested impeachment represented a distraction ahead of the November midterms.

Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar said in a Monday statement that impeachment is a “sacred constitutional vehicle” that “traditionally requires a comprehensive investigative process” that had not taken place.

“This is something, oftentimes, I think the right-wing media wants us to talk about, but it’s not anything that is top of the agenda for House Democrats,” Aguilar told reporters about impeachment before the vote.

Joining the three Democratic leaders in voting “present” was Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who introduced a separate impeachment resolution Tuesday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The House twice voted to impeach Trump when it was under Democratic control in his first term. He was acquitted by the GOP-controlled Senate both times.

Congress

Cruz and Hawley shut down antitrust exemptions for AI companies

Published

2 hours ago

September 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Two Senate Republicans said Tuesday that providing antitrust exemptions to artificial intelligence companies to facilitate discussions on how to make AI safer should be taken off the table — as lawmakers discuss ways to respond to industry warnings about the need for guardrails on the rapidly evolving technology.

“To watch AI CEOs saying, ‘We’re about to destroy the world so give us control of the government so we can lock in our monopoly status and prevent any innovators from challenging us,’ is just lunacy,” Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel. “And, by the way, if you’re about to destroy the world, how about, don’t. How about, stop.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also piled on.

“Absolutely not,” Hawley said. “There is no world in which I will consent to giving the most powerful companies in the history of the world — a small group of three or four of them — antitrust exemptions from our laws so that they can, what, collude together?”

Their comments come amid rising fears that AI models could soon become advanced enough to evade human control if left unchecked. The chief executives of leading AI labs are sounding the alarm over the need to slow down progress, and one possibility could be for Congress to provide an antitrust carveout to allow competing companies to enter into agreements to stem the tide.

Patel didn’t directly address the antitrust comments at the hearing Tuesday but did provide insight into how the FBI is thinking about the emerging technology.

The department, Patel said, uses AI models under test case scenarios to make sure they are cooperating with federal law, adding that it’s important to pursue those who create AI models with criminal intent.

“We need to go after the people who created these models that are going rogue with the specific purpose and intention to commit a criminal act,” Patel said, noting that the FBI “can’t be punishing people if they created something lawfully” and then a criminal used it for nefarious acts.

Patel also said the FBI doesn’t need to create a new division to take on the issue — the existing cyber division is sufficient — but could use additional resources.

“We need federal funding to go out there and buy the creations of these companies and use them for law enforcement purposes,” Patel said.

At a separate news conference Tuesday afternoon, Attorney General Todd Blanche was noncommittal on whether AI companies need an antitrust waiver to self-regulate in the first place.

“Whether entities need an antitrust waiver is not something I can answer from the podium of the White House,” he said. “There’s dozens of factors that go into that, and there’s an application process, and there’s a kind of a process that DOJ and others use to determine what side.

He added, “I can say that, to the extent that those companies are looking to regulate themselves or fix problems that they have, that should do that.”

Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.