# As Congress stalls on AI, Democrats race to regulate it themselves

- URL: https://twotakes.us/stories/as-congress-stalls-on-ai-democrats-race-to-regulate-it-themselves
- Published: 2026-09-23T13:13:02.232283+00:00
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, ai-regulation, congress, 2028-election, state-vs-federal-policy

## What the left says
- Democratic governors like Newsom and Pritzker are stepping into a vacuum left by a Congress unwilling to act, using executive orders and state legislation to require independent audits, kill switches, and safety frameworks for frontier AI models.
- With over 600 AI bills active across 47 states, Democrat-led states such as California, Illinois, and Massachusetts are positioning themselves as the national leaders on AI safety regulation while Washington remains gridlocked.
- Warnings from current and former AI industry employees about existential risks, combined with incidents of rogue AI agents hacking systems, make continued congressional inaction increasingly untenable.
- Trump's dismissal of AI risk as a 'hoax' and House leadership's refusal to act before a lengthy recess leave state and local leaders as the only line of defense for public safety.

## What the right says
- A patchwork of state-level AI regulations, even when well-intentioned, risks creating inconsistent and burdensome compliance requirements that could stifle innovation rather than the streamlined federal framework Speaker Johnson has called for.
- Some of the loudest political voices pushing for AI safety rules, including many lawmakers themselves, openly admit they rarely or never use the technology, raising doubts about whether regulators fully understand what they're regulating.
- President Trump and House Republicans argue that AI and data centers represent a historic economic opportunity that heavy-handed regulation could undermine, viewing industry calls for guardrails skeptically given companies could use rules to entrench their own market dominance.
- Bipartisan efforts already exist in Congress, such as the Hawley-Blumenthal evaluation bill and the Frontier Act, showing federal lawmakers are engaging on the issue without needing states to preempt a national approach.

## Common ground
- Lawmakers across the political spectrum increasingly view rapid, unconstrained AI development as a serious risk worth addressing.
- Recent incidents involving AI agents hacking into systems have heightened bipartisan urgency around cybersecurity and oversight.
- Bipartisan bills, including the Hawley-Blumenthal evaluation legislation and the Lieu-Moran kill switch proposal, show some members of both parties want federal action rather than leaving the issue solely to states or industry self-regulation.
- Both frontier AI labs and many lawmakers agree that some form of independent verification or evaluation of AI systems is necessary, even if they disagree on how strict it should be.

## Sources
- [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/09/18/newsom-ai-2028-focus) (Lean Left)
- [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/09/16/lawmakers-regulate-ai-without-using-it) (Lean Left)
- [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/09/15/ai-congress-regulation-bill-trump-bipartisan) (Lean Left)
- [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2026/09/23/nx-s1-5973306/ai-slowdown-debate-openai-anthropic) (Lean Left)
- [The Economist](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/06/25/democrats-and-republicans-agree-ai-is-scary) (Lean Right)
- [The Economist](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/05/07/the-democratic-approach-to-ai-is-not-all-about-bans) (Lean Right)
- [The Economist](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/04/23/artificial-intelligence-is-creeping-into-american-lawmaking) (Lean Right)

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