Congress
Bipartisan House duo welcome industry support for their AI safety proposal
The Republican cosponsor of bipartisan artificial intelligence safety legislation said he sat down with OpenAI’s top lobbyist a day before the company backed a key provision in the bill that’s struggled to gain traction on Capitol Hill.
“We talked about the urgent need for action,” Rep. Jay Obernolte of California told reporters of his Monday meeting with OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane. “He was actually asking how he could be helpful. So, we’re trying to craft a path forward.”
Obernolte continued, “I told him that we all needed to get on the same page and push in the same direction, all pushing together. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get something done this year.”
Obernolte has worked for months with Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) on a comprehensive package that would, among other things, enable third-party evaluators to examine AI models to ensure they comply with safety standards. Lehane told reporters Tuesday that OpenAI would support that specific provision.
It comes at a pivotal moment in the debate over what role Congress should play in regulating the AI industry after the CEOs of leading AI labs, including Sam Altman of OpenAI, issued warnings that without new guardrails the rapidly-evolving technology could do irreparable harm to humanity in the very near future.
Obernolte and Trahan’s work on an AI safety bill long preceded the current conversations happening in Washington, but both lawmakers are now making the case that their measure should be the starting point for legislative action.
Trahan told reporters Tuesday it was “good to hear” that a component of their bill now had OpenAI’s support, and said it was a sign the legislation was building the necessary coalitions of support after she and Obernolte consulted with a broad cross section of industry players to draft their package.
She also underscored the need for Congress to set parameters for AI use and development even as some Republicans, and President Donald Trump, insist the federal government should not interfere with private sector innovation.
While some AI companies, including Anthropic, have supported letting evaluators into their company to prod their models, Trahan said such agreements should be mandatory — not voluntary.
“It’s not just up to industry to decide, despite what the president might say,” she said from the sidelines of the Pro-Human Assembly, a gathering of high-profile speakers expounding on both the risks and opportunities of AI. “There are a whole lot of stakeholders who deserve a voice at the table.”
“Congress needs to take the next step,” Trahan added.
Sen. Ron Johnson is sending a letter Monday requesting a conference meeting to discuss the midterm results and a delay in the leadership election.
Johnson has gathered enough signatures to force the meeting under the Senate GOP’s rules and is proposing the gathering for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat,” Johnson and his backers write in the letter to Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice”
Republicans still expect their leadership election to be held Tuesday, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed to lead the party next year in the minority.
Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.
“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”
He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.
Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”
“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.
Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.
The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.
“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”
The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.
Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”
“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.
Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.
“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.
Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”
“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.
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