THOMPSON JOINS 106 LAWMAKERS IN CALLING ON SPEAKER JOHNSON TO PASS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SAFEGUARDS

Washington - Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) joined 106 colleagues in calling on Speaker Johnson to reconvene the House of Representatives to address the risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence (AI). A series of whistleblowers working in the AI industry have raised concerns in recent weeks that without new guardrails, rapidly developing AI technology could cause job losses, mass cybersecurity breaches, the development of biological or chemical weapons, and other threats. Some experts have even warned that superintelligent AI could defy human instructions.

Public disclosures from the companies and researchers developing the world's most capable AI systems underscore the need to act. In July, over 1,300 top employees of the leading AI companies called on the U.S. government to act by supporting an international effort to develop tools that can slow down AI development. Since then, a series of proposals have emerged from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that would provide the transparency and evaluation that is desperately needed. Despite this, Speaker Johnson and House Republican leadership have yet to bring any of these proposals to the floor for a vote and intend to send lawmakers home for a 6-week break at the end of this week.

"Reasonable minds may disagree about precisely how Congress should regulate this rapidly evolving technology. We cannot disagree about the imperative for Congress to act," wrote the lawmakers. "AI experts and leading companies agree that the United States can lead the world in artificial intelligence while establishing reasonable safeguards that protect Americans and our national security. We can-and must-do both."

"The House should return to Washington immediately and remain in session until Congress advances meaningful, bipartisan AI safeguards." continued the lawmakers.

The full text of the letter can be found HERE and below.

The Honorable Mike Johnson Speaker

U.S. House of Representatives

H-232, The Capitol Washington D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Johnson: We write to urge you to immediately reconvene the House of Representatives to enable Congress to take urgent action to address catastrophic risk posed by advanced artificial intelligence. Those risks take any of several forms, separately and in combination-of agentic misalignment, mass cybersecurity breaches, and development of biological or chemical weapons.

Reasonable minds may disagree about precisely how Congress should regulate this rapidly evolving technology. We cannot disagree about the imperative for Congress to act.

Instead of action, you have announced vacation. After a month-long August recess, the House leadership changed the schedule to announce two more weeks of vacation-immediately prior to yet another month of recess in October.

Ample evidence-in the form of a series of public disclosures from the companies and researchers developing the world's most capable AI systems-underscore the urgency of the moment:

• In July, OpenAI models undergoing cybersecurity evaluations bred swarms of agents that circumvented controls designed to isolate them from the internet, conspired to exploit vulnerabilities, hacked third party systems, and alter evidence of their activity, an incident that OpenAI has called a "warning shot," about the risks of highly capable rogue AI agents.
• Days later, more than 1,300 top employees of frontier AI companies called on the U.S. government to support an international effort to develop tools that can "deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development."
• More recently, Anthropic disrupted cases in which researchers used Claude for biological research that could have aided the development of biological weapons, and called biological misuse "one of the most serious risks of frontier AI models."
• Anthropic also documented China-linked actors using Claude for surveillance and transnational repression, and Iran-linked actors using it for propaganda, mass surveillance, and targeting recommendations against U.S. naval forces.
• Meanwhile, CISA reported Chinese open-weight models accelerating their capabilities through "industrial-scale" distillation of American models-giving rise to AI agents nearly as powerful as the top U.S. frontier models, yet wholly unconstrained by American authorities or by U.S. safeguards.

These disclosures must not constitute yet another in a long series of "warning shots," but rather, a starting gun. Congress must act. A series of proposals have emerged from our colleagues that deserve consideration, public debate, thoughtful amendment, and action. They include bills mandating transparency and evaluation of frontier models, "kill switch" requirements, and a waiver of antitrust laws to enable critical industry-wide collaboration on safety and security. Whether with these proposals or any other variants, AI experts and leading companies agree that the United States can lead the world in artificial intelligence while establishing reasonable safeguards that protect Americans and our national security. We can-and must-do both.

While AI safety experts and Americans increasingly urge action to confront this conflagration of risk, Congress fiddles. When we did return to work after the August recess, we consumed floor time with debates and votes on performative resolutions opposing socialism. After next week, the House resumes its vacation-for another six weeks.

You can forgive every American who believes that Congress remains unserious about confronting our nation's most pressing challenges.

The House should return to Washington immediately and remain in session until Congress advances meaningful, bipartisan AI safeguards. To our children who will have read a post-apocalyptic history, "Why Congress Slept" -likely written by agentic AI-our inaction will be inexplicable, and unforgivable.

Sincerely

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Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California's 4th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo Counties. He is a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means. Rep. Thompson is Chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. He is also Co-Chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus and a member of the fiscally-responsible Blue Dog Coalition.