AI Hearings: September 22-26, 2025

Congressional committees held four AI-focused hearings during the week of September 22:

• House Judiciary Hearing on Preemption: The House Judiciary Committee’s AI Subcommittee held a hearing to debate federal preemption of state AI regulation. Subcommittee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) framed the hearing as “perhaps the last” before an upcoming legislative markup. GOP witnesses (Adam Thierer, R Street; Kevin Frazier, University of Texas and David Bray, Stimson Center) argued for federal preemption to prevent states from stifling innovation. Thierer outlined options such as a general moratorium on state AI rules or targeted preemption of frontier AI model regulation, algorithmic bias rules and creating a federal working group under the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) to coordinate federal-state AI policy. Democratic Members and witnesses outlined the need to preserve common law and state safeguards.
• Senate Judiciary Hearing on Chatbot Harms: The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Crime Subcommittee held a hearing to explore the harms of AI chatbots. During the hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) urged new legislation to protect children from AI chatbots, emphasizing that existing proposals, including his and Subcommittee Chair Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act (S. 1993), may not be sufficient. He specifically called for pre-deployment testing and safeguards for minors, while Chair Hawley criticized AI companies for prioritizing profit over safety and advocated allowing victims to sue. Sen. Blumenthal suggested AI should be treated as a product under the law and proposed incorporating protections into the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA; S. 1748) or pursuing separate measures to ensure companies have a duty of care toward children.
• House Oversight Hearing on the State of AI: The House Oversight Committee’s Cyber Subcommittee held a hearing to examine the current state of AI and its impact on the U.S. economy. During the hearing, Brookings fellow Nicol Turner Lee urged federal AI standards for privacy and consumer protection but defended state-level AI regulation as essential for public safety and innovation. She highlighted bipartisan state efforts, including protecting children, and warned against proposals like a 10-year moratorium.
• House Financial Services Hearing on AI Proposals: The House Financial Services Committee’s AI Subcommittee held a hearing on “Unlocking the Next Generation of AI in the U.S. Financial System for Consumers, Businesses, and Competitiveness.” During the hearing, Brookings fellow Nicol Turner Lee and lawmakers discussed the use of regulatory sandboxes to allow AI companies to experiment, while ensuring accountability. Subcommittee Chair Bryan Steil (R-WI) emphasized balancing innovation with investor protection, while Ranking Member Stephen Lynch (D-MA) highlighted Singapore’s sandbox model, which he noted includes ethical frameworks, bias mitigation, transparency, explainability, stakeholder engagement, and regular audits. Turner Lee praised Singapore’s approach, noting it ensures consumer protections and continuous oversight, contrasting it with current U.S. proposals that give companies more leeway to experiment with AI.

• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
• Technology