U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan said Thursday she’s gathering bipartisan support “at a good clip” for her proposed federal artificial intelligence regulations known as the FRONTIER Act.
Despite a lack of public confidence in either political party to handle AI regulation, Trahan said her proposal “is well-positioned to move right now.”
“We do need the political will of the speaker to bring it to the floor, and I know [U.S. Rep.] Jay Obernolte is working on that,” Trahan told the News Service, speaking of the bill’s Republican co-sponsor from California. “I do think that Republicans are probably hearing as much back home as we are, just since this past September with all the incidents, the safety researchers leaving, the tech CEOs who have kind of banded together.”
A poll from the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reported that 64% of 2,140 respondents think AI in the U.S. is developing too fast. Of those surveyed, 39% trust neither political party to do a good job handling AI, while 21% trust Republicans and 23% trust Democrats. The poll surveyed adults nationwide from Sept. 24 to Sept. 28, and also reported that 67% disapproved of how President Donald Trump is handling AI, compared to 31% approval.
The leaders of three major AI platforms agreed in September that frontier AI model advancement should be slowed down; President Donald Trump and a larger group of AI leaders signed a “voluntary accord” for AI safety shortly after, per the Associated Press. Gov. Maura Healey has called for federal guardrails on AI development.
“I think we can get it done, and I think it can be signed by the president because it’s not much different than what they’ve already agreed to,” Trahan said of her proposal.
After filing the FRONTIER Act in July, the Westford Democrat on Oct. 7 announced draft legislation to make it easier for people to sue AI developers in situations where an AI agent causes harm, known as the CLAIM Act. The two proposals are designed to work together, she said.
“When the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, we want to hit the ground running on the rest: cyber investments, tracking how AI is changing the workforce, so that we’re empowering workers, education, energy, international cooperation, and so much more. Because AI touches everything, and our response has to be iterative and urgent,” Trahan said.
Trahan said that AI and data centers have “penetrated the conversation” when she hears from her constituents, adding that the two topics “have kind of dictated how I am going to legislate in the 120th Congress.”
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