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{"id":27100,"date":"2026-09-14T12:04:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-congress-isnt-rushing-after-ai-alarms\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:04:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:04:40","slug":"capitol-agenda-congress-isnt-rushing-after-ai-alarms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-congress-isnt-rushing-after-ai-alarms\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Congress isn\u2019t rushing after AI alarms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The top executives running America\u2019s most powerful artificial intelligence companies over the weekend agreed their industry <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-seeks-immediate-slowdown-artificial-intelligence-pro-01073519\" target=\"_blank\">needs to slow down<\/a> \u2014 or risk humanity\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n<p>But the chance of Congress rushing to action in the coming weeks is next to zero.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Another hurdle is the lack of momentum behind any plan. Senate Commerce could hold a markup of AI legislation this month, but it\u2019s unclear a broad bipartisan AI safety bill being pushed by Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be finalized. Senators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/11\/klobuchar-thune-ai-safety-bill-faces-impasse-01073026\" target=\"_blank\">can\u2019t yet agree<\/a> on provisions that would hold AI labs legally accountable.<\/p>\n<p>And some don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a need to do anything right now: Senior House Republicans have largely stood in line with President Donald Trump, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/11\/donald-trump-ai-concerns-01072301\" target=\"_blank\">has brushed aside concerns of<\/a> an existential threat in light of the AI arms race against China.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WHAT\u2019S NEXT: Speaker Mike Johnson suggested lawmakers, Trump and tech execs as soon as Monday \u201cgo in a big room, close the door and sort this out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet Johnson in a Sunday interview on BLN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/13\/tech-ai-safety-johnson-01073735\" target=\"_blank\">threw cold water<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, said AI would be \u201ca high priority\u201d during House Democrats\u2019 weekly caucus meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>But while he said Congress needed to \u201ctake decisive action to slow down the pace of development,\u201d he didn\u2019t articulate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/13\/obama-ai-democrats-fundraiser-01073778\" target=\"_blank\">any plan<\/a> for doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is out with a statement Monday morning that\u2019s also short on details \u2014 saying simply that while he understands concerns about giving China the advantage on AI, Congress needs to act to put \u201csafe, responsible and accountable guardrails on it.\u201d He called for legislation to cut off the flow of advanced AI chips and semiconductor technology to China to slow their development.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also calling for an all-senators classified briefing from administration officials on how they plan to deal with the rapidly-evolving technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ALARM BELLS: Meanwhile concern is brewing within the rank-and-file of both parties that could add political pressure:<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Lori Trahan told Blue Light News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2026\/09\/13\/will-washington-check-ai-01073779\" target=\"_blank\">in an interview<\/a> Sunday it was a mistake for the House to leave town so early and that she\u2019d push for members to stay longer to deal with the AI risk. Short of the whole House remaining in session, she\u2019s suggesting at least a smaller group of negotiators stick around to hash out a plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want to make sure that Congress is in a position to act quickly,\u201d Trahan said.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s worried, though, that leaders won\u2019t get behind her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/08\/lori-trahan-ai-regulation-01065989\" target=\"_blank\">bipartisan legislation<\/a> that would, among other things, create a possible emergency brake for AI models. It\u2019s the only comprehensive bill of its kind that\u2019s ready to work its way through committee.<\/p>\n<p>Retiring Rep. Chip Roy is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/13\/chip-roy-ai-threat-regulation-01073553\" target=\"_blank\">sounding the alarm<\/a> in an interview with Blue Light News about the need to \u201chave some degree of guardrails\u201d on technology that could fundamentally change what it means to be a \u201cfree human.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And on the campaign trail, frontline Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeRogersForMI\/status\/2099110635900453360\" target=\"_blank\">on Sunday<\/a> pointed to the tech executives\u2019 warnings and said he believed AI development needed to slow down to allow the government to put a national security framework in place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first role of our government is to keep us safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 DATA CENTER VOTE ON TAP \u2014\u00a0<\/b>House GOP leaders Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/11\/congress\/data-center-vote-tuesday-01072136\" target=\"_blank\">plan to bring legislation<\/a> to the floor to curb data center costs, marking lawmakers\u2019 biggest step yet to regulate AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Husted is \u201chaving conversations on how the Senate can follow suit,\u201d 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 M\u00f3nica de la Cruz.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 GOP REVAMPS CRYPTO BILL<\/b> <b>\u2014<\/b> Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/republicans-release-new-crypto-bill-text-as-final-offer-to-dems-with-new-trump-blessed-ethics-language-01073973\" target=\"_blank\">Republicans late Sunday<\/a> released <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/f\/?id=000001a0-9d94-d4fe-a9ae-bdde75560000\" target=\"_blank\">revised text<\/a> 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\u2019 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/senate-dems-to-meet-on-crypto-bill-01073798\" target=\"_blank\">Democrats to discuss the measure<\/a> Sunday night, before Republicans unveiled their new text.<\/p>\n<p><i>Ali Bianco, Kelsey Brugger, Nico Portuondo and Jasper Goodman<\/i> <i>contributed to this report.<\/i><br \/>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top executives running America\u2019s most powerful artificial intelligence companies over the weekend agreed their industry needs to slow down \u2014 or risk humanity\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}