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{"id":27534,"date":"2026-10-19T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-ai-experts-to-school-congress-wanted\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T12:05:00","slug":"capitol-agenda-ai-experts-to-school-congress-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-ai-experts-to-school-congress-wanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: AI experts to school Congress wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Artificial intelligence is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/19\/congress-ai-regulation-expertise-01123525\" target=\"_blank\">challenging some lawmakers\u2019 confidence<\/a> that they have the capacity to regulate it.<\/p>\n<p>The slow pace of Congress and a challenging political environment are already working against lawmakers under pressure to address AI threats. There\u2019s also a significant gap in tech policy expertise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to dramatically increase the base knowledge of Congress if we\u2019re going to legislate meaningfully,\u201d Rep. Sam Liccardo said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n<p>One big concern is at the staffing level: getting people with a deep understanding of the technology around rank-and-file members. Aides who specialize in tech policy often get lured to private companies with huge salaries that can be hard to resist.<\/p>\n<p>Some lawmakers, like Rep. Mark Takano, are advocating for an in-house hub \u2014 something like the long-defunct Office of Technology Assessment, which helped Congress understand emerging technology and its social and policy implications from 1972 until it was scrapped in 1995. A Takano aide said he\u2019ll introduce a bipartisan bill to restore such an office in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Members have also been leaning on fellows from TechCongress \u2014 a nonprofit founded by former congressional aide Travis Moore that places technology experts in member and committee offices.<\/p>\n<p>Moore said in an interview that there are plenty of people who want to work on Capitol Hill, but it\u2019s a matter of \u201cCongress\u2019s will and capacity to absorb that talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not everybody buys into the theory that staffing will solve the problem. Some conservatives, in particular, have seized on the lack of member expertise to argue for a hands-off regulatory approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t understand it well enough,\u201d Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who has repeatedly brought in technology experts through the TechCongress fellowship, told reporters this month. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the expertise to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you really trust the members of Congress, who barely understand AI, to write the regulations around something?\u201d added Rep. Eric Burlison in an interview last month.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few members who consider themselves fluent in AI policy, including several who have joined working groups on it. They\u2019ve taken educating their colleagues into their own hands but have not always seen great enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>Liccardo, for example, recounted how he has brought in experts to brief lawmakers \u2014 including huge AI industry figures like Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic\u2014 only to struggle to convince members to attend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have had challenges in the past trying to get folks\u2019 attention to the issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 WRIGHT: LAWMAKERS ARE \u2018WRONG\u2019 ON RUSSIA:<\/b> Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/18\/wright-defends-trump-russia-diesel-deal-01125781\" target=\"_blank\">dismissed bipartisan criticism<\/a> when asked about lawmakers warning that President Donald Trump\u2019s diesel deal would help finance Russia. \u201cIn fact, they are all wrong. They don\u2019t understand what President Trump\u2019s doing,\u201d Wright said on ABC News. Wright also defended Trump\u2019s decision <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/16\/trump-issues-order-to-bypass-russian-sanctions-in-bill-named-for-late-lindsey-graham-01125220\" target=\"_blank\">Friday exempting Russia from key sanctions<\/a> outlined in the late Sen. Lindsey Graham sanctions law, which was enacted just last month and set to take effect Sunday. The moves have drawn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/17\/tillis-cornyn-trump-ukraine-diesel-sanctions-01125243\" target=\"_blank\">bipartisan outcry.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 PILOT BILLS GET COMEDIAN\u2019S HELP \u2014<\/b> Lawmakers are targeting year-end enactment of a pair of bipartisan bills aimed at helping pilots deal with <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/10\/pilot-mental-health-fielder-01116553\" target=\"_blank\">mental health issues and hazy medication<\/a> regulations, thanks in part to a comedian with an HBO show. Lawmakers and others credit Nathan Fielder, star of the docu-comedy \u201cThe Rehearsal\u201d for raising awareness on the stresses pilots face in the hit show last year. They say Fielder wasn\u2019t actively involved in lobbying despite pleas from some for help. \u201cFrankly, I\u2019m glad he elevated the story,\u201d Rep. Sean Casten, one of the lawmakers leading the mental health legislation, told Safa. After passing the Senate late last month, the two bills are awaiting House action.<\/p>\n<p><i>Katherine Tully-McManus, Jalen Beckford and Safa Wahidi contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artificial intelligence is challenging some lawmakers\u2019 confidence that they have the capacity to regulate it. The slow pace of Congress and a challenging political environment are already working against lawmakers under pressure to address AI threats. There\u2019s also a significant gap in tech policy expertise. \u201cWe need to dramatically increase the base knowledge of Congress [&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-27534","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\/27534","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=27534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}