AI’s impact on US workforce receives renewed legislative scrutiny

Congress is increasingly looking to address the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce, with lawmakers introducing multiple bills this week seeking to better understand and assess how growing use of the emerging capabilities will affect the U.S. economy.

Researchers, academics and others have all offered varying perspectives as to how the U.S. workforce will change as a result of these technologies. An August report from Goldman Sachs estimated that AI “could displace 6-7% of the U.S. workforce,” while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned earlier this year that the technology could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar positions. Some of the Trump administration’s AI guidance has already included a focus on upskilling workers and preparing the U.S. labor force for AI’s economic impact.

To better understand these challenges, a bipartisan group of senators rolled out legislation on Wednesday to forecast how AI is poised to alter the nation’s labor force and “to provide data to improve training programs for in-demand industry sectors and occupations.” The measure was introduced by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and is co-sponsored by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Jon Husted, R-Ohio.

The bill seeks to enhance federal agencies’ understanding of AI’s economic impact, including through the creation of an AI Workforce Research Hub within the Labor Department to assess and understand how emerging capabilities will affect workers. The legislation also prioritizes, in part, ways of improving longer-term forecasting of AI’s labor impacts through the collection and sharing of relevant data. It directs Labor to hire more AI experts and would require employers to report when AI “was a substantial factor” in a mass layoff.

“American workers cannot be left behind as American corporations continue to push forward with the development and adoption of artificial intelligence,” Hassan said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation helps the federal government better assess the ways in which artificial intelligence is changing our economy and helps ensure that increased automation does not result in fewer jobs for hard-working American families.”

Banks also framed the measure in the context of the global AI race, saying “we have to understand how AI is changing the workforce so we can equip American workers with the skills necessary to stay ahead of China and lead the world.”

A separate measure that was also introduced Wednesday by Sens. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., focuses more immediately on preparing the U.S. workforce for these changes through grants and federal reports analyzing their impact. 

This includes directing the departments of Labor, Education and Commerce to conduct reports on AI’s workforce-related impacts. These analyses would document which industries and occupations are most likely to be affected by the emerging capabilities, which demographic groups are most likely to benefit or be harmed by AI-driven changes and what methods can be used to prepare the U.S. workforce for the broad adoption of these technologies.

“As advanced and emerging technologies — including AI — become rapidly integrated within society, it is imperative that we prepare our workforce for these changes,” Hirono said. “Specifically, we must ensure advances enabled by AI are used to strengthen, not weaken, the workforce.”

Both proposals demonstrate lawmakers’ desire to enhance the federal collection of labor and employment data related to AI, although they notably differ in focus when it comes to monetary support for these efforts. 

The Democratic proposal places more of an emphasis on immediate grant funding. The legislation would allow the Education Department to award up to $160 million in grants for fiscal year 2026 “for emerging and advanced technology teacher development and recruitment.” The Labor Department would also be authorized to award up to $90 million in grants in FY26 to support workers most affected by the adoption and deployment of AI tools. 

Banks’ measure also highlights ways of improving “the efficacy of programs of grants for training programs in light of the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce,” although a greater emphasis is placed on awarding funding through prize competitions. 

One competitive-based approach under that measure, overseen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, would be allocated $7 million from FY26 to FY30 to help “develop benchmarks or similar reproducible methods to quantitatively measure the ability of artificial intelligence to automate or augment tasks or occupations, with the primary purpose of improving forecasts of the impacts that artificial intelligence may have on workers and the retraining needs of workers."

Another recurring prize competition would be established by the National Science Foundation “to incentivize accurate forecasts and informative rationales for short-horizon questions that are informative for understanding or addressing labor-market implications of artificial intelligence.” NSF would be allocated $6 million to carry out this competition over the course of FY26 to FY30.

These two proposals are just the latest workforce-focused AI bills that lawmakers have introduced within the past year. A proposal rolled out last month by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., would also push companies to collect and report on the impact that using AI has had on their workforces.