Senate Republicans Suggest Trump Should Rescind Biden's AI EO

Senate Republicans on Wednesday signaled they want Donald Trump to rescind President Joe Biden’s AI executive order if the former president wins the November election.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, failed to win passage of an amendment that would have rescinded Biden’s EO. The committee voted 14-12 along party lines to block the amendment during Wednesday’s markup.

Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chided Cruz about filing the amendment, saying the EO isn’t “in any of the legislation before us today.” Cruz filed his proposal as an amendment to the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act (S-4178), a bipartisan bill Cantwell filed with Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.

Cruz claimed S-4178 and several bills passed Wednesday are intended to expand Biden’s AI EO and the regulatory proposals contained in it. He accused the administration of colluding with major tech companies and hiring their former employees to help push the president’s agenda. He said S-4178 will help federal agencies secretly enter into international agreements that influence U.S. policy in favor of European-style regulation.

Cantwell said she understands the interest in debating the issue but said the committee is trying to further the administration’s goal of better understanding AI technology. AI is creating real threats, she said, including the enabling of tech companies leveraging mass amounts of data to push discriminatory prices on consumers, an issue she has focused on previously (see 2407110044).

Cruz also failed to attach an amendment that would require federal agencies to obtain approval from the Senate and the House before signing international agreements on AI policies and commitments. Young was the lone Republican voting against the amendment; the legislation passed by voice vote.

The Future of AI Innovation Act authorizes the U.S. AI Safety Institute at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop voluntary AI standards for the public and private sectors and create national lab test beds for the technology. Cruz raised issues about Vice President Kamala Harris traveling to the Great Britain and promoting a U.S. agreement with the U.K. and foreign partners on AI policies. The administration provided “zero” specifics about what’s in the agreement, Cruz said. The Future of AI Innovation Act will allow “Washington bureaucrats” to “backdoor” EU regulations into U.S. tech policies, he said: At the “very least,” U.S. consumers and policymakers should “know about” the agreements and “know what the hell they’re doing.”

Cantwell said agreements like those with the U.K. and international partners are nonbinding, and the intent is to advocate for U.S. interests on the international stage. Any effort to promote U.S. tech policy abroad should be supported, she said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., welcomed committee passage in a statement Wednesday. The Commerce-passed bills and others approved by the Senate Homeland Security Committee will "ensure the U.S. can out-compete the Chinese Communist Party, allow the federal government to put in place guardrails against potential harms and risks posed by AI, support small businesses and startups, and invest in safe and sustainable AI innovation," he said.

The committee passed by voice vote a bipartisan bill from Cruz that would make it illegal for people to share nonconsensual intimate imagery online, including deepfake porn, without consent. Cruz introduced the Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (Take It Down) Act with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. (see 2406210047). Cantwell told us after the markup it was a “good bill,” and she was “glad” to advance it. The Senate on July 24 unanimously passed a separate deepfake porn bill from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (Defiance) Act (see 2407240021).