House Democrats call to cancel upcoming recess for time to legislate on AI

House Democrats urged Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to either shorten or outright cancel their upcoming recess, citing the need to quickly move on artificial intelligence regulation.

Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Lori Trahan, D-Mass., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., held a press conference on Wednesday morning underscoring the need to negotiate and pass legislation addressing AI risks in the wake of leading developers advocating for the slowdown of advanced AI development. 

The four lawmakers made the case in a letter to Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., that addressing the issue cannot be expedited, given the upcoming recess scheduled to begin Sept.17. 

“There's a growing consensus in the tech world and in Washington, and certainly blowing up from our constituents, that we need to pace the AI frontier in ways to pursue the societal benefits of artificial intelligence while making public safety and security paramount,” Beyer said. “Many of us in both parties want our leaders to tackle these in a serious way before Congress adjourns for two months.”

Beyer, Trahan, Lieu and Jacobs — all of whom are members of the House AI Caucus — each said that voluntary self-audits on behalf of leading AI developers are insufficient to effectively safeguard the technology and that Congress has a limited window to implement stronger measures.

“We need lawmakers here in Washington working to hammer out a deal. Each of us here this morning has proven that we are willing to work,” Trahan said. “We have legislative proposals ready. We just need the willpower to move them forward.”

Some of the legislative proposals that could address those concerns are Trahan’s FRONTIER Act — coauthored with Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif. — and the AI Kill Switch Act — introduced by Lieu, which Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., plans to introduce a version of in the Senate. 

The four lawmakers also underscored the need for bipartisan cooperation in passing legislation. Among the partisan divisions that threaten legislative consensus is federal preemption, in which the federal government can supersede state law. 

Trahan said her FRONTIER Act focuses on implementing federal preemption in select lanes, including mandating transparency in model design and capabilities, independent audits of AI models, compulsory incident reporting and creating a court-backed process where the government can halt model deployment and development if it is determined to pose a threat. 

“We're going to need this to be bipartisan if we're going to pass it tomorrow,” Trahan said. “We will likely need it to be bipartisan, even if we win back the majority in November and get something done in the lame duck.”

The calls for bipartisan teamwork could still hit partisan roadblocks, with Jacobs noting that she is cognizant of her home state’s current regulatory apparatus in negotiations on sweeping federal regulation. 

“As a representative of California, I can't support anything that will mean that my constituents will have less protection than they do today,” Jacobs said. “That is kind of the framework I think about as we're going into these conversations.”