Rep. Jay Obernolte, a California Republican leading the charge on wide-ranging artificial intelligence legislation in the House, said Thursday he’s ramping up pressure for a committee vote after a series of cyber breaches involving rogue AI models.
“We have been aware of the need for this type of bill for the last couple of years,” the California Republican told reporters in Washington. “However, the recent events have certainly elevated the discussion amongst my colleagues and elevated awareness of just how necessary this bill is. So, in that sense, it’s been timely.”
Obernolte’s comments follow a series of recent disclosures by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta that their models autonomously engaged in cyberattacks.
The lawmaker is leading legislation with Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts that would preempt some state AI regulations and give the federal government the ability to restrict deployment of AI models that pose catastrophic risks.
Obernolte said Thursday that discussions with fellow lawmakers about his bill have continued since the House left Washington last week, including during a recent trip focused on critical minerals. He said leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee seems open to holding a vote on the bill in September but have made no commitments.
“We feel like that’s a reasonable compromise that everyone can be happy with,” Obernolte said. “So we’re going to push to have some hearings and markups on that in Energy and Commerce when we return in September.”
A spokesperson for House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obernolte said he has been briefed on a yet-to-be publicly released White House framework for vetting AI cybersecurity risks and that he has had “constant discussions” with the administration.
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