Congress
Capitol agenda: Congress isn’t rushing after AI alarms
The top executives running America’s most powerful artificial intelligence companies over the weekend agreed their industry needs to slow down — or risk humanity’s safety.
But the chance of Congress rushing to action in the coming weeks is next to zero.
One obstacle is the tight calendar before the midterms: Lawmakers return Monday, but the House is scheduled to leave by Friday and the Senate is already eyeing cutting their three-week session to two.
Another hurdle is the lack of momentum behind any plan. Senate Commerce could hold a markup of AI legislation this month, but it’s unclear a broad bipartisan AI safety bill being pushed by Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be finalized. Senators can’t yet agree on provisions that would hold AI labs legally accountable.
And some don’t think there’s a need to do anything right now: Senior House Republicans have largely stood in line with President Donald Trump, who has brushed aside concerns of an existential threat in light of the AI arms race against China.
— WHAT’S NEXT: Speaker Mike Johnson suggested lawmakers, Trump and tech execs as soon as Monday “go in a big room, close the door and sort this out.”
Yet Johnson in a Sunday interview on BLN threw cold water on the idea of Congress fast-tracking a legislative solution, arguing that setting industry-wide safety protocols should be the responsibility of the tech companies themselves.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, said AI would be “a high priority” during House Democrats’ weekly caucus meeting Tuesday.
But while he said Congress needed to “take decisive action to slow down the pace of development,” he didn’t articulate any plan for doing so.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is out with a statement Monday morning that’s also short on details — saying simply that while he understands concerns about giving China the advantage on AI, Congress needs to act to put “safe, responsible and accountable guardrails on it.” He called for legislation to cut off the flow of advanced AI chips and semiconductor technology to China to slow their development.
He’s also calling for an all-senators classified briefing from administration officials on how they plan to deal with the rapidly-evolving technology.
— ALARM BELLS: Meanwhile concern is brewing within the rank-and-file of both parties that could add political pressure:
Rep. Lori Trahan told Blue Light News in an interview Sunday it was a mistake for the House to leave town so early and that she’d push for members to stay longer to deal with the AI risk. Short of the whole House remaining in session, she’s suggesting at least a smaller group of negotiators stick around to hash out a plan.
“I just want to make sure that Congress is in a position to act quickly,” Trahan said.
She’s worried, though, that leaders won’t get behind her bipartisan legislation that would, among other things, create a possible emergency brake for AI models. It’s the only comprehensive bill of its kind that’s ready to work its way through committee.
Retiring Rep. Chip Roy is also sounding the alarm in an interview with Blue Light News about the need to “have some degree of guardrails” on technology that could fundamentally change what it means to be a “free human.”
And on the campaign trail, frontline Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Sunday pointed to the tech executives’ warnings and said he believed AI development needed to slow down to allow the government to put a national security framework in place.
“The first role of our government is to keep us safe,” he said.
What else we’re watching:
— DATA CENTER VOTE ON TAP — House GOP leaders Tuesday plan to bring legislation to the floor to curb data center costs, marking lawmakers’ biggest step yet to regulate AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Husted is “having conversations on how the Senate can follow suit,” according to an aide. The decision to proceed this coming week signals that pressure has been building on leaders to act, underscored by the fact at least five House GOP frontliners have signed on as co-sponsors since Sept. 1: Reps. Bill Huizenga, Tom Barrett, David Valadao, Jen Kiggans and Mónica de la Cruz.
— GOP REVAMPS CRYPTO BILL — Senate Republicans late Sunday released revised text of a landmark cryptocurrency bill with key changes aimed at winning over Democratic holdouts, including new, White House-blessed government ethics language covering federal officials’ engagements with digital assets. It is unclear if the changes will be enough to win enough bipartisan support to advance the measure on the Senate floor this week. It is set for a key procedural vote Tuesday afternoon. Schumer convened Democrats to discuss the measure Sunday night, before Republicans unveiled their new text.
Ali Bianco, Kelsey Brugger, Nico Portuondo and Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.
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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